(#KLEO – Klangkörper der Emanzipation: Frauenorchester als Kunst- und Freiräume)
In 2025, the Archive of Women in Music is realising its fifth project as part of the Digital German Women’s Archive (Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv – DDF). The project focuses on both the Clara Schumann Orchestra (Clara-Schumann-Orchester – CSO), founded by Elke Mascha Blankenburg in 1986, as well as the Women’s Orchestra Project Berlin (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin – FOP), which began its work in 2007.
The intention of conductor Elke Mascha Blankenburg was to create a space for women by women, with music by female composers. The inauguration of this orchestra – one of the first women’s orchestras in Germany – was marked by premiering Fanny Hensel’s orchestral overture at the ‘Festival of a Thousand Women’ in Frankfurt am Main on 7th June 1986.
From the very beginning Blankenburg and the all-female orchestra positioned themselves within the emancipatory women’s movement. They combined their fight for good professional opportunities, and against discrimination within the patriarchally organised orchestral landscape with pushing for the expansion of the traditional musical canon to include works by women. About 20 years later, the Women’s Orchestra Project Berlin (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin – FOP) pursued a similar goal: to showcase more music by women, and to create a place for female musicians to network. Not unlike the Clara Schumann Orchestra (Clara-Schumann-Orchester – CSO), the younger orchestra combines research into forgotten music by female composers, and the study of these works, with the creation of a shared space of experience and activity.
As part of the project, the Archive of Women in Music will catalogue, preserve, and publish previously unpublished documents and materials relating to the Clara Schumann Orchestra (Clara-Schumann-Orchester – CSO), and the Women’s Orchestra Project Berlin (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin – FOP). They will thus be made accessible to the general public and encourage further research within the field of women’s history.
In addition to securing and publishing these unique materials, former members of the Clara Schumann Orchestra (Clara-Schumann-Orchester – CSO) and musicians from the Women’s Orchestra Project Berlin (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin – FOP) will also convene in attending a networking event, providing further information about the activities of these women’s orchestras.
Project Team: Mary Ellen Kitchens M. A. (project supervision) | Marie Schürmann (project coordination) | Bettina Weber (project assistance)
