Name: Flowers of the Seasons - Politics, Power & Poverty
Start: 2024-05-05T16:00:00+01:00
End: 2024-05-05T18:00:00+01:00
Location: Newcastle University

A unique opportunity to hear the music of radical feminist composer Eliza Flower (1803—1846) after almost 200 years
About this Event

Flowers of the Seasons - Politics, Power & Poverty

with BBC New Generation Thinker and NUAcT Fellow: Arts and Humanities, , present an historic afternoon of BSL interpreted singing, poetry and storytelling celebrating the life and music of .

Featuring performances of new works by - Frances M Lynch, Lilly Vadaneaux, Amanda Johnson and Newcastle's own Flower Composer, , with guest appearances by Newcastle Flower Singers (a student group specially formed for the occasion) and the voices of Young Singers from Newcastle schools.

(Image above is of an oil painting commissioned from )

Date: Sunday 5th May 2024

Time: 4pm (Touch tour for visually impaired at 3.30pm)

Location: Recital Room, Armstrong Building, Newcastle University, Queen Victoria Road, NE1 7RU

More Information:

This dynamic performance will introduce you to Flower’s fascinating life and music, with some delightful songs for the seasons, dramatic choral hymns and powerful protest songs.

Discover her interpretations of the works of contemporary writers like Sir Walter Scott; her music within the context of her contemporaries Franz Schubert and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel; and her frequent collaborations with radical feminist Harriet Martineau, and her sister, the poet Sarah Flower Adams (1805 – 1848), best known for her hymn 'Nearer My God To Thee'. Eliza’s glorious choral setting of Sarah’s hymn disappeared along with her reputation because of a shocking personal scandal and this will be only the second performance of it since her death in 1846.

Jensen says: ‘In her music, as in her life, Eliza Flower was an inspiration and an innovator. Self-taught, her secular and political songs, and her sacred music, sound fresh and exciting to this day, full of memorable and deeply affecting melody!

A note from:

‘When I first encountered Eliza Flower in an online search for women composers from Essex during 2020 lockdowns I never dreamt I would end up creating a whole project around her. From an initial find of only one piece of choral music I have gone on to discover a huge repertoire of Art Songs, Hymns and Protest Songs, and a great deal about the extraordinary woman behind them – a once highly regarded, prolific composer and radical feminist.

She has so much to say to us today, as you’ll hear not just in her music but in the wonderful new acapella pieces she has inspired from contemporary composers. If you like the romantic music of Schubert or Fanny Hensel, this will both delight and surprise you, as it does me every day, as I practice and prepare it with our company and many local people for you to hear!’

Supported by Newcastle University, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, SCOPS Arts, Hinrichsen Foundation & Conway Hall Ethical Society

A pioneering feminist songwriter

A radical political activist

A ‘genius’ according to Felix Mendelssohn

Writer of ‘the music we all waited for’
according to Robert Browning

Eliza Flower was all these things and more….