Amy Beach Romance op. 23 arranged for clarinet and piano by Helen Paskins; performed by Helen Paskins clarinet and Janine Forrester piano. This recording has been made remotely in 2020 at a respectable social distance of at least 80 miles between the two players! Amy Beach was born in New Hampshire in 1867. By age 7 she was already giving public recitals. In 1875 her family moved to Boston where she studied piano with Carl Baermann; grandson of the famous clarinet virtuoso Heinrich Baermann. Amy Beach was the first American woman to publish a symphony. She was largely self-taught as a composer. Her musical freedom was greatly restricted by the gender and class politics of that time. Her husband only allowed her to perform twice a year for charity. The Romance op.23 was written for the Women's Musical Congress held in Chicago July 5 -7 1893. It was dedicated to her friend and virtuoso violinist Maud Powell. Amy and Maud gave the first performance at the Congress where apparently the crowd "cheered to the echo". They repeated it therefore despite the violin part falling on the floor during the encore! This arrangement has been made for clarinet in A. Sadly, Amy Beach didn't write any music for clarinet and piano. This version attempts to stay as close to the original as possible although there are a few octave transpositions. Throughout her long career, Amy Beach composed songs, choral works, chamber music and piano pieces. She was invited by George Chadwick to be "one of the boys"; a group of composers known as the Boston Six. In 1924 she was elected president of the Society of Women Composers. Gifted in Mathematics and Languages, she was also an ace pool player! Amy Beach died of cardiovascular disease on 27th December 1944.

Filmed during lockdown 3! Also using Logic X.