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Global women in music for human rights

5 November 2018

Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica hosted a gala concert in Rome to celebrate the 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This concert followed a “Global Call for New Music” for women composers and creators of music of all ages, nationalities and musical backgrounds. Participants were asked to compose/create a song, choral or instrumental work inspired by the struggle for human rights. Ten works, chosen by an international Reading Commission and publicly announced at the end of July, were performed and recorded during the gala concert that took place in the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The winners included women from all over the world, from El Salvador to Norway, and from South Africa to Jordan.

The award ceremony was presented by Veronica Birga, Chief of the Women's Human Rights and Gender Section in OHCHR, who stated that ‘Gender inequality in the field of music is a worldwide challenge. Sustaining the women creating music will influence public opinion and stimulate their full participation in cultural life.’. The gala concert closed with music inspired by human rights created by the winning composers and performed by the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and the Choir and the Children’s Voices Choir of Rome Opera Theatre.

Women in Music was born in 1978 as a grass roots movement created by opera singer and musicologist, Patricia Adkins Chiti and became an international non-profit Foundation in 1996. It promotes and supports women composers, songwriters and music creators of all nationalities through its network of over 27,000 affiliated organisations, composers, performers, pedagogues, musicologists and researchers in 113 countries.

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