I am joined by Dr. Hannah Roberts for a conversation about Scottish-born American composer, Helen Hopekirk. Hopekirk was known as one of the greatest pianists in her day and also became a well-regarded piano teacher. Hannah has recently released a beautiful recording of Hopekirk's piano music under the Parma label.

Known for her work championing female voices in the keyboard repertoire, American pianist
Hannah Roberts has performed throughout the United States and abroad in Austria, Serbia, and the
United Kingdom. Her scholarship focuses on reviving the works of overlooked female composers
with a special emphasis on Scottish-American pianist Helen Hopekirk, and her album Celtic Legends:
The Piano Music of Helen Hopekirk was released by Navona Records in Fall 2026.

Along with her active performing career, Roberts maintains a vibrant profile as a clinician,
pedagogue, and researcher. Her articles on female composers have appeared in American Music
Teacher, Piano Magazine, and the MTNA e-Journal, and she was awarded the 2023 Edward T. Cone
Fellowship from the Society for American Music for her research on Hopekirk’s piano music. She
has also presented lectures at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), College
Music Society National Conference (CMS), National Association of Teachers of Singing National
Conference (NATS), and state and national conferences of Music Teachers National Association
(MTNA).

Roberts currently serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Alabama, where she
teaches piano and piano pedagogy. She holds a D.M.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from
the University of Oklahoma.

Website: hannahrobertspiano.com
Hopekirk Album (PARMA/Navona Records): https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6892/

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UK-based music researcher and writer Dr. Leah Broad joins me for an entertaining and informative conversation about the larger-than-life British composer, Ethel Smyth (1858-1944).

Dr Leah Broad is an award-winning writer, historian and broadcaster. She wrote the critically acclaimed book Quartet: How Four Women Challenged the Musical World, and her next book Unsung: Trailblazing Women Musicians of the Second World War publishes in February 2027. Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah has written for outlets including the Financial Times, New Statesman, Guardian and BBC Music Magazine. Selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2016, she is often on air discussing music and history, and has appeared as a public speaker at events and venues such as the BBC Proms and Hay Festival. She is also the founder of Unheard Heritage, a recording initiative to revive great, forgotten works for new audiences. She holds a DPhil in musicology from the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Website: www.leahbroad.com
Substack: Songs of Sunrise
Unsung: Trailblazing Women Musicians of the Second World War available to pre-order here.
Unheard Heritage: www.unheardheritage.com

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UK-based Greek pianist and researcher, Dr. Maria Stratigou joins me to share some of her vast knowledge on a giantess in 19th French music, Louise Farrenc. Farrenc was a very accomplished performing pianist, a prolific composer, and an important pedagogue. She taught at the Paris Conservatoire for thirty years, and was the earliest and only woman to have a significant teaching career there in the 1800s.

Dr Maria Stratigou is an award-winning Greek pianist, researcher, and educator known for her pioneering work on 19th-century female composers. Holding a PhD in Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music as an Onassis Foundation and NWCDTP Scholar, she serves as a Teaching Associate in Music Performance at the University of Sheffield.

A recipient of the Gina Bachauer-N. Dumba Discography Award 2024, Dr Stratigou is making history as the first-ever pianist to record Louise Farrenc’s complete solo piano works, released as a multi-volume series for Grand Piano Records (with Vol. V featured as BBC Radio 3 Album of the Week). Her performance-led research explores Farrenc’s piano études, pedagogy, manuscripts, historical editions, and performance practices—offering vital new insights into 19th-century pianism and French musical aesthetics. Her scholarly work encompasses book chapters, peer reviews, and international lecture-recitals, including at the University of Oxford and the Royal Musical Association.

As an active soloist and chamber musician, Maria has won top prizes at international competitions, championed world premieres across Europe, and holds Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

www.mariastratigou.com

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