Katarina Pustinek Rakar awarded in Italy

In November The Adkins Chiti Women in Music Foundation, which focuses on the musical creations of women, awarded ten female composers for their works. Slovene composer and assistant professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana Katarina Pustinek Rakar was among the finalists. Her composition, a “modern madrigal”, was performed at the Gala Concert, which was held at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 5 November.

Women in Music was established in 1978 as a movement promoting women's music of all genres and in all times. “Equal Opportunities for Women in the Arts and Music” is at the heart of the mission and advocacy undertaken by the Adkins Chiti Women in Music Foundation, an Italian cultural organisation, partner within cultural agreements undersigned by the Italian Foreign Ministry, member of UNESCO’s International Music Council and the European Music Council, internationally recognised for its activities to obtain recognition and visibility for women in the cultural sector.  The Foundation collaborates with the EUC for research projects and its work has the patronage of UNESCO and the Arab Academy (network of cultural organisations within the Arab League). The Foundation has a network in 111 countries made up of individual composers, researchers, musicologists, performers and teachers. This network also includes 77 affiliated organisations in 44 countries working on behalf of Women in Music. In December 2003, a Decree from the State Archives and Heritage Ministry, officially declared the Library and Archives of the Foundation containing over 35 thousand scores of music by women to be “historically relevant for the State” and “essential for the study of women’s history”.

In 2018 the foundation put out a global call for scores and awarded ten finalists, which include women from South Africa, Costa Rica, Italy, Uruguay, El Salvador, Norway, Jordan, the USA and Slovenia. Katarina Pustinek Rakar submitted the choral composition Libertas animi cibus, which she wrote in 2016 and dedicated to Jacobus Handl Gallus, a composer who left an indelible mark on the Slovenian musical landscape. More on Gallus, as well as important female Slovene composers and musicinans, such as Josipina Turnograjska and Gabrijela Mrak, can be found at the new interactive website Momus - Monumenta musica Slovenica, which includes all musically significant monuments in Slovenia.