DSO Chamber Concert: “Heroines – Ethel Smyth”
5:00 p.m.
Chamber Music Series by the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin during the 2026/2027 concert season.
At Villa Elisabeth, their stories, their work, and their legacy will come to life over the course of three evenings—through narratives by female authors and experts, and through musical compositions that reflect the protagonists’ lives and the times in which they lived.
The first concert on October 18, 2026, is dedicated to composer Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), who, despite family and societal opposition, fought to pursue a musical education and build a successful career, campaigned as a suffragist for women’s suffrage, and wrote “The March of the Women,” a hymn of the English women’s rights movement. DSO audiences will remember her best for her sonically powerful opera “The Wreckers,” which Robin Ticciati conducted in 2022. Heddi Feilhauer, translator and editor of Smyth’s memoirs, will introduce the composer.
Program:
Helen Grime
Oboe Quartet
Ethel Smyth
String Trio in D Major
Benjamin Britten
“Phantasy Quartet” for oboe and string trio
Performers:
Thomas Hecker, oboe
; Eva-Christina Schönweiß, violin
; Verena Wehling, viola
; Claudia Benker-Schreiber, cello
; Heddi Feilhauer, reading
Tickets:
25 €, reduced 17 € for high school and college students, available online through the DSO ticket shop and at the box office.
Organizer:
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in cooperation with Kultur Büro Elisabeth
Photo © George Grantham Bain Coll. Public domain via Wikimedia