Interview: Women Warriors and Amy Andersson
Amy Andersson has conducted countless orchestras in over 22 countries. Her most recent project, Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, uncovers stories of women history has forgotten. In just 80 minutes, audience members witness a silent documentary of 800 years of women’s history, accompanied by an orchestra.
The performance is broken up into thirteen chapters, each representing a different part of women’s history. Chapters include “Hell Hath no Fury like a Women Scorned,” which highlights the #MeToo movement, and “The Long Road,” which shows female activists from the 13th century to the 21st century. The performance touches on topics that are often overlooked in the United States. For example, Andersson included a chapter about child brides:
“[The girls] are part of what’s happening around the world of women and most of humanity turns away from it. It would be irresponsible to not include that,” said Andersson.
In this chapter, Sonita Alizadeh, an Afghan songwriter and rapper performed her original song “Daughters for Sale.” Alizadeh was sold at age 10 and was married off at age 15. She was able to flee and now attends college in the United States.
“Her ‘Daughters for Sale’ performance was a life-changing moment for me,” said Andersson.
Andersson says her inspiration for this project came when she learned about Fannie Lou Hamer, an activist who attempted to register to vote in Mississippi and was arrested and beaten. Andersson even credits Fannie Lou Hamer for helping her- in spirit- with creating Women Warriors.
“I was moved to tears about that story,” said Andersson. “I saw her testimony on YouTube; she was the daughter of a sharecropper and had such strength and dignity with her pride. I said this is a Me-Too moment, a Black Lives Matter moment and a civil/human rights moment. I took her photograph off the internet, put it on my desktop and I said to her, ‘Fannie Lou, I promise to you that I will not forget your story, I won't forget your voice, and I won't forget who you are.’”
One challenge Andersson faced was trying to attract an audience of younger people. The attendance of young people to symphony orchestras is low, so orchestras are trying to stay relevant. Orchestras, though, typically perform songs written hundreds of years ago, like Beethoven and Bach. Andersson believes that is not how to attract young people.
“Young people aren’t interested in hearing that music because they cannot relate to it,” Andersson said. “I tried to make the music in Women Warriors relevant to young people. It was part of my dream to make a concert like this appealing to young people because they are the future audience.”
It is important to Andersson that the audience feels inspired after the performance.
“I want people to say that every voice matters and we all matter. We can be the change we want to see in the world; all of us have a voice and we can all do something to change the world.”