Leah Broad

Oct 2, 2024 | telegraph.co.uk | Leah Broad

Pianist Alexandra Dariescu promotes the works of female composers Nabil Mounzer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Classical music has a gender problem. Pick almost any metric, and classical music’s gender statistics are dire. Only 7.5 per cent of orchestral music played worldwide is written by women. A 2022 study by the Independent Society of Musicians found that 66 per cent of respondents experienced discrimination working in music – 78 per cent of which was levelled at women, and 58 per cent of which...

Jul 30, 2024 | gramophone.co.uk | Leah Broad

Stuart Skelton as Tristan and Miina-Liisa Värelä as Isolde |© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photography by ASHTristan und Isolde is a reliably popular production for Glyndebourne. It’s a safe bet for the opera house – but safety is not a quality that sits well with Wagner’s oft-staged story of passion and betrayal. As soon as Tristan becomes routine, it loses its magic. Twenty-year-old stagings risk feeling predictable, gestures tired.

May 15, 2024 | newstatesman.com | Samantha Ege |Leah Broad

On a warm May day in 1952, the composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor stepped onto the runway at Palmietfontein Airport. She was one of only two women on the inaugural Comet jet flight between Britain and South Africa, the fastest ever passenger service between the countries. South Africa seemed a world of promise to Coleridge-Taylor, aged 49 and eager for new adventures.

Apr 8, 2024 | gramophone.co.uk | Leah Broad

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Ruth Alfie Adams as Don José's mother with Olga Kulchynska as Micaëla | Photo: Camilla Greenwell Bizet’s Carmen is one of the most challenging roles in the repertoire. The lead must be simultaneously bold and fragile, determined and seductive, all while dealing with such a brisk libretto that she is given mere minutes to convince the audience that she is capable of making a police officer turn to a life of crime for her.

Feb 5, 2024 | gramophone.co.uk | Leah Broad

It is difficult to categorise Errollyn Wallen’s music in any one genre or style. As she puts it, she prefers to ‘resist being part of any movement or ‘‘ism’’,’ freeing herself to engage with ‘the vast history behind us and the various cultures and ideas swirling around us’. Jazz, blues, spirituals, musicals, pop, and classical music all infuse her work – to say nothing of the inspiration she draws from art and literature.