Danish music for trombone by female composers
- a historic and a contemporary perspective
v. professor i trombone Niels-Ole Bo Johansen
The balance between male and female composers who have written music for trombone is very uneven. During my research through the last 15 years searching for the earliest Danish music written for trombone I have found very few works from female composers.
To my knowledge only 3 composers have so far written music for trombone namely Hilda Sehested, Gudrun Lund and Li-Ying Wu.
Hilda Sehested wrote two pieces, this mainly due to her friendship with the renown Danish trombone Godfather Anton Hansen between 1920-25 and Gudrun Lund wrote some pieces between 1978 and 2000 for either solo trombone or trombone in chamber music. The latest piece is written by Li-Ying Wu written for me and pianist Erik Kaltoft in 2011.
This has led me to commission a number of works for trombone by Danish female composers and so far, 3 commissions have been realized through grants from Statens Kunstfond and KODA.
The pieces are now in the process of being written and will be premiered within 2023.
- Mette Nielsen – new piece for trombone, bassoon, and double bass
- Lil Lacy – ‘Solo but not alone’ for solo trombone(s) and ensemble or tape
- Li-Ying Wu – new piece for trombone and organ