Music Archives - Page 25 of 43

Bessie Smith

Acknowledged as one of the greatest blues singers of the twentieth century, Bessie Smith reigned as the “Empress of the Blues” throughout most of the 1920s.

Nancy Agag

Sudanese singer-songwriter and recording artist Nancy Agag combines songs from older Sudanese musicians with her own compositions.

Zitkála-Šá (“Red Bird”), also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women’s suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century. Her writings and activism led to citizenship and voting rights for not only women, but all Indigenous people.

Alice Easton Law

At New Zealand’s Jubilee Institute for the Blind, she taught the piano and encouraged her students to believe that visual impairment was no impediment to music. Using Braille, she guided them through their examinations and produced several high-quality musicians.

Marietta Alboni

Italian contralto singer

Bathia Stuart

She was one of the first New Zealand women to enter the male-dominated field of film-making.

Sorcha Ní Ghuairim

Columnist, newspaper editor and promoter of the Irish language

Brigid Tunney

Coming from a family of renowned singers, she acquired a great number of traditional ballads, learnt from both sides of her family. Possessing a beautifully articulated voice with a considerable range, she was extensively recorded with other members of her family in 1952 by Sean O’Boyle and Peter Kennedy for the BBC. She was important for passing on a wide range of material to the younger generation, a great deal of which could have been forgotten at a time when folk music had apparently fallen out of fashion.