Palimpsests of Isabella: Tracing Women in Music from Medieval to Modern
October 5 at 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Performer: Brooke Green
Treble viol player Brooke Green presents a programme about
the symbolism of a 14th century Estampie Isabella and the
mute princess in Elena Kats-Chernin’s Eliza Aria. This recital is inspired by the notion of palimpsest in music about women.
(A palimpsest is a manuscript where the original text has
been partially scraped off and/or covered by new writing.) In
medieval Europe there were several famous Isabellas, two of
whom were possible contenders for the title: one died young
in childbirth; the other had a tumultuous life as Queen, then
regent of England after overthrowing her husband Edward II
and possibly commanding his murder. Can we glimpse traces
of their personalities and the trials they endured in this long
estampie? Is there an analogy here to lost women’s history, a
tribute to the many Isabellas of these times?
Brooke Green is an Australian composer, a performer specialising in the treble viol, and artistic director of the chamber
ensemble Josie and the Emeralds. She has been studying and
performing Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music for
many years, and this is the springboard for much of her work as
a composer. Brooke is a recipient of the 2023 APRA/AMCOS
Art Music Fund, the 2019 Jonathan Blakeman National
Composition Prize, and a winner of the Viola da Gamba
Society of America’s Traynor Competition for New Viol Music
(2013). Brooke is an associate composer with the Australian
Music Centre and is a graduate of the University of Sydney
Music Department where she was awarded the Donald Peart
Prize. With a Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Scholarship, she
studied baroque violin at Royal Conservatory in The Hague
and in London with Michaela Comberti. In 2010, after studying
viol and vielle with Wendy Gillespie, Brooke graduated with
a master’s degree in Early Music Performance from the
Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University where
she also was a performer of contemporary music on historical
instruments.