Society of Women Musicians

The Society of Women Musicians was founded in London in 1911 by the singer Gertrude Eaton, the composer Katharine Eggar and the musicologist Marion M. Scott. It aimed to provide a focal point for women composers and performers to meet and enjoy the benefits of mutual cooperation. The 37 women at the inaugural meeting included musicians such as Ethel Barns, Rebecca Clarke, Agnes Larkcom, Anne Mukle and her sister, May Mukle, and Liza Lehmann, who became the society's first president. Later presidents included Cécile Chaminade, Fanny Davies, Rosa Newmarch, Myra Hess, Astra Desmond and Elizabeth Poston. Early members included Florence Marshall, Maude Valérie White and Ethel Smyth, who was honorary vice-president from 1925 to 1944. Among subsequent honorary vice-presidents were Nadia Boulanger, Imogen Holst, Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and Fanny Waterman. By the end of its first year the society had formed a choir and a library, given several private concerts and a public concert of members' works (which included the première of the first two movements of Smyth's String Quartet in E minor), hosted a variety of lectures, held a composers' conference and attracted 152 female members and 20 male associates, including Thomas Dunhill and W W Cobbett, who donated the Cobbett Free Library of Chamber Music to the Society in 1918. By 1913 the Society had also formed an orchestra.In the 61 years of its existence, the society campaigned vigorously for the rights of women musicians, especially as members of professional symphony orchestras, and awarded prizes to composers and performers, as well as continuing to organize concerts and meetings. In 1972, the year after its Diamond Jubilee had been celebrated at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the organization disbanded.