Concert pianist and Edinburgh resident, Susan Tomes, has written a new book called Women and the Piano which is available now.
This is a history told with the tales of 50 women’s lives.
Susan asserts that even the modern piano is designed with men’s hands in mind without considering women’s typically smaller hands.
She traces fifty women through the history of the piano with famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn as well as some less well-known in this timely testament to women and music.
Susan writes of now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, and also highlights overlooked women: from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, influential Viennese salonnière, and Hazel Scott, the first Black performer in the United States to have a nationally syndicated TV show.
From Maria Szymanowska to Nina Simone, and including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano – and a timely testament to women’s musical lives.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
