It is fitting that Newton native Amelia LeClair brings her celebrated tenure as founder and Artistic Director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Clausura to a close by conducting the New England premiere of her orchestral edition of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D on March 3 at 4pm at the Emmanuel Church in Boston.
Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was a musical prodigy who defied Victorian/Edwardian conventions by composing works as outsized as her personality and by taking up the cause of women’s suffrage in the U.K. Her activism landed her in prison, where she wrote March of the Women and conducted the inmates singing it in the yard from her prison window, using her toothbrush as a baton. “I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs, not just to go on hugging the shore afraid to put out to sea,” she said.
Conductor, researcher, and educator Amelia LeClair set out to sea twenty-four years ago when she founded Cappella Clausura to unearth musical treasures by female composers such as Smyth and give their music a rightful place in the male-dominated canon. Cappella Clausura’s name was inspired by the many female composers, daughters of patrician families, who were confined in the cloisters (“in clausura”) of 17th century Italy. The name continues to serve as a metaphor for the cultural obstacles faced by women composers throughout history to the present day.
Over the years, Cappella Clausura’s professional singers, with Ms. LeClair conducting, have performed and premiered works by women of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic eras, including work by the 9th century Greek nun Kassia, the 11th century Benedictine Abbess and Saint Hildegard von Bingen, 20th century greats such as Rebeca Clarke, and 21st century composers Elena Ruehr, Hilary Tann, and Patricia Van Ness.
Ms. LeClair set out to sea again in 2012 when she came across a battered manuscript of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D. Inspired by the composer’s personality and musicality, as well as by the sheer size of the work — such a large form composition is a rarity for a woman — Ms. LeClair took on the formidable task of creating a performance edition with orchestral parts. To accomplish this, she extended her residency at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center and taught herself orchestral writing and Sibelius, the music notation software. Cappella Clausura’s March 3 presentation of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D with the SHIFT Orchestra is the culmination of six years of Ms. LeClair’s hard work. Additional credit for this new edition goes to proofreader Ming-hang Tam and to SHIFT Orchestra’s Artistic Director David Flowers, who served as parts editor.
In keeping with Cappella Clausura’s mission to give the next generation of artists and audiences contemporary and historical role models, Ms. LeClair has served as a role model and mentor to many female musicians.
In April, Ms. LeClair’s tenure with Cappella Clausura will come full circle. Following her performance conducting the Vespers of Cozzolani – Cappella Clausura’s very first production in 2004 – she will pass the baton to Cappella Clausura’s new Artistic Director, Maestra Holly Druckman. Ms. LeClair will remain on the board as Director Emerita to provide institutional memory and advice. In addition, she will continue researching composers and hopefully set out to sea once again to make and publish more editions and arrangements of the music unearthed by scholars.
Individual tickets to Dame Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D are on sale online or by phone at 617-993-0013. For further information, contact manager@clausura.org.
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