{"id":13056,"date":"2025-02-10T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.archiv-frau-musik.de\/?page_id=13056"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T08:21:10","slug":"kleo-klangkoerper-der-emanzipation-frauenorchester-als-kunst-und-freiraeume","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.archiv-frau-musik.de\/en\/kleo-klangkoerper-der-emanzipation-frauenorchester-als-kunst-und-freiraeume","title":{"rendered":"NEW: #KLEO \u2013 Emancipatory Orchestras: Women’s Ensemble as Artistic and Liberating Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

(#KLEO \u2013 Klangk\u00f6rper der Emanzipation: Frauenorchester als Kunst- und Freir\u00e4ume)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2025, the Archive of Women in Music is realising its fifth project as part of the Digital German Women’s Archive<\/em> (Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv \u2013 DDF)<\/a>. The project focuses on both the Clara Schumann Orchestra<\/em> (Clara-Schumann-Orchester \u2013 CSO), founded by Elke Mascha Blankenburg in 1986, as well as the Women’s Orchestra Project Berlin<\/em> (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin \u2013 FOP)<\/a>, which began its work in 2007.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 one of the first women\u2019s orchestras in Germany \u2013 was marked by premiering Fanny Hensel’s orchestral overture at the \u2018Festival of a Thousand Women\u2019 in Frankfurt am Main on 7th June 1986.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> (Frauenorchesterprojekt Berlin \u2013 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<\/em> (Clara-Schumann-Orchester \u2013 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.<\/p>\n