Evterpe Kvinnor i Musik, Sweden

Report 2000

The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the Department of Musicology at the University of Göteborg on 30 March 2000. A new Board of Directors for 2000 was elected. Producer Ann Blomqvist (from Dance in West Sweden) agreed to continue her presidency for a further year. The affiliated group Evterpe-Stockholm also held their AGM in March. Inga Lewenhaupt aggreed to continue as president.

Ann Blomqvist also agreed to continue her work as Chief Editor for the Society’s music magazine Evterpe, which was founded in 1992 and has had 4 numbers a year since 1994. The magazine has been modernised during the year 2000 by an up-and-coming young Swedish artist and graphic consultant engaged by Evterpe, Christel Copp.

The Treasurer’s report showed the Society’s economy to be sound. The Municipality of Göteborg supported the celebration of Evterpe’s 10th birthday with a more substantial sum than ever before, and the State Department of Culture doubled the funding of the music magazine. Membership is stable, but one of the new Board’s main aims was to increase this. A number of music and college libraries subscribe to Evterpe.

The programme during the year 2000 was varied and successful, both in Stockholm and Göteborg. New venues and partners for the Society’s musical activities were the Stockholm Main Public Library, the Göteborg Cathedral, the Göteborg Museum of Art, and Nya Elfsborgs Fästning, a C17th fort in the mouth of the Göta Estuary, Göteborg.

A mixed programme of concerts and lectures at the Main Public Library in Stockholm, backed up by a display of brochures and music magazines, was well-received. A Women’s Choral Festival Concert in the Göteborg Cathedral and two concerts out at the Fort with music mainly by and with women aroused a good deal of interest amongst audiences who until then had no idea of Evterpe’s existence or agenda. Many of them were tourists. A series of lectures on women in art and music history reached new audiences at the Art Museum. Further concerts at several of these venues are already planned for 2001, and new partners are being negociated — the City Museum in Göteborg and the Sound Archives in Stockholm for example.

All in all, 2000 was an expansive year full of positive experiences and new possibilities. Seen against a backdrop of continued heavy male domination in all arenas of Swedish music life, the survival and health of Evterpe are as imperative as they are miraculous!

Margaret Myers Ph. D.

Board of Directors, Evterpe

Göteborg, 20 June 2001