Transit 2018 [Bekijk deze pagina in het Nederlands]
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For the second year in a row, Transit’s program displays a remarkable female presence: Jessie Marino, Georgia Nicolaou,
Lisa Streich, Patricia Alessandrini, Egidija Medekšait?, Molly Joyce, Brechtje, Nicoline Soeter, Liesa Van der Aa. This count is comparable to that of last year, when no less than nine female composers were represented as well. One might assume that after centuries of near-exclusive male dominance, the 21st century has finally heralded gender balance. But we have not reached that point yet.

This is why, this year, Festival 20/21 – as the first Belgian festival to do so – has joined Keychange. This initiative unites festivals that commit themselves to meet clear goals regarding the presence of women artists by 2022. For us, this means that by 2022, we pledge that 50% of commissioned compositions will be written by women. No wellmeant intentions, but a hard guarantee that female artists will get proper opportunities in a structural way. This year’s line-up shows already that there is an active and outspoken young generation of female composers who not only can compete with their male counterparts in terms of quality, but who most likely will join in setting the course for future musical developments. What the ‘sound of tomorrow’ will actually sound like may be hard to predict, but it is definitely going to be far more feminine.

Maarten Beirens, artistic director Transit