Senior Music Performance major to present research at ‘Women in Music’ conference

Katherine Wynn, a senior Music Performance major, will present a research paper that explores Princess Zinaida Aleksandrovna Volkonskaya, a 19th century female opera composer, at the “Women in Music” conference at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, on Saturday, March 9.

In her presentation, “God and the Holy Maiden be With You!” – about Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya and her 1821 opera,” Giovanna D’Arco,” – Ms. Wynn will analyze the structure and composition of a single aria from the opera, “Per Queste Amare Lagrime,” and explore the composer’s unique musical style.

Volkonskaya wrote and premiered “Giovanna D’Arco,” a work Wynn says reveals much about her views on Western European art, religion and the role of powerful women. But it was performed only once, and Volkonskaya had the title role.

Wynn transcribed the aria from the manuscript of a work that’s not believed to have been performed since the composer’s death. A cellist who also sings, from Whitesboro, NY, Wynn will play a small excerpt of the aria on MIDI Keyboard Software in her presentation.

After years of internal conflict, Volkonskaya, an influential 19th century salon hostess as well as a composer and performer, would convert to Roman Catholicism and move to Rome, Wynn learned. She ultimately chose the West – Rome over Moscow, Pope over Patriarch, and blue skies over the snows of her home, she noted.

Wynn was motivated to learn about Volkonskaya, an unconventional member of the post-Napoleonic Russian aristocracy, while enrolled in MUS 455: The Romantic Period in Music. That course inspired Wynn to learn more about female composers during the Romantic period, roughly the 19th century. She also received valuable guidance from two musicology faculty, SUNY Distinguished Professor James Davis and Professor Michael Markham, who encouraged her to continue research into Volkonskaya as an independent project.

“What intrigued me was seeing a woman in the 19th century writing operas and there was no open discussion of them and nothing about them had been written,” Wynn said. “From all accounts that we know, she sang the title role herself; that sort of threw me into it.”

Wynn learned through Dr. Davis that organizers of the conference were particularly seeking undergraduate speakers who have done research outside of the classroom. “At the time I was doing applications for graduate programs, so I had everything ready, so I decided to submit,” she said. Wynn plans to continue Volkonskaya research after graduating from SUNY Fredonia in May.

Surprisingly, Wynn had no difficulty obtaining images of the composer to include in her PowerPoint. “She was a very wealthy aristocrat, so there were a lot of paintings of her,” she noted.

Wynn plans to attend the conference keynote address, “Japanese Women at Work & Play: Sonic (Re)creations,” by Roger Moseley, and a concert, “Femmages: Five Centuries of Keyboard Music by Women Composers.”

Wynn is a graduate of Whitesboro (NY) High School.