“Le Musiciste” Study Days for an Education in and the Spread of a Stolen Story

Abstract

The initiative of the study days dedicated to the history of female musicians, now in its ninth edition, came to light in 2015 due to the need to raise awareness of and re-evaluate the female identity of a social, cultural and artistic nature often forgotten by European musical historiography. The ban on performing in public after marriage, the preclusion from musical positions and careers, the lack of public institutions that permitted the creation of educational pathways for women equal to those of the other sex, have all conditioned the development of female musical art and sometimes even leading to its obsolescence even though many women were protagonists, authoritative professionals and attentive witnesses of the musical society of their time. This legacy, which determined the cancellation of an important artistic legacy from the collective memory, and come down to the present day, can be reversed only thanks to a thorough knowledge of the female contribution to the music of the past and present.