NZTrio at the Arts Festival

At St. Paul's today I listened to the NZTrio play pieces by 5 female composers in celebration of 125 years of women's suffrage. It was a fabulous lunchtime performance as part of the Arts Festival Dunedin. A biennial event, this year is the 10th festival and has an incredible program with events running until Sunday. My favourite piece - Allegro molto vivace from Piano Trio by Fanny Mendelssohn, a German composer born in 1805, a time when women were discouraged from having a profession. Even her father told her that music for her 'can and must be only an ornament'. But with a very supportive husband, she went on to compose over 460 pieces of music, with many published only after her death.