Leah Broad
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leahbroad.bsky.social
Leah Broad
@leahbroad.bsky.social
3.4K followers 850 following 350 posts
Writer | Presenter | Historian

I write about music, women's history & cultural history.

QUARTET out now at https://linktr.ee/leahbroadwriter

Substack: http://leahbroad.substack.com
Website: http://leahbroad.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/leahbroad
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leahbroad.bsky.social
Leah Broad @leahbroad.bsky.social · Dec 10
Having a can't-quite-believe-it's-real moment, but my next book has got a Whiting Grant @whitingfoundation.bsky.social 🥹 It's about how women exert agency in the most difficult circumstances, feminism & fascism, & why/how music is political. There's an extract here: www.whiting.org/content/leah...
Image of writer Leah Broad, and text from the Whiting Foundation reading: 'This Woman's War presents a revelatory, kaleidoscopic account of women living in the public realm as musicians during WWII. Deeply serious about why sound and music matter, Broad transforms what we think we know about a colossal historical event.'
Reposted by Leah Broad
whenisbirths.bsky.social
Regular readers of FLA: Leah was a guest last summer. Quartet a fabulous book about four neglected British women composers (Smyth, Clarke, Howell, Carwithen) so this next book is excellent news.

Read my conversation with @leahbroad.bsky.social here:

firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/08/24/f...
September 5, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
deanbarker.bsky.social
New release; composers new to me.

Many thanks, @jkaconductor.bsky.social!

app.idagio.com/albums/resou...
Resound: Music by British Composers
Listen to Resound: Music by British Composers by Alexandra Dariescu, John Andrews, Alex Mitchell, Rachael Clegg, Manchester Camerata, Doreen Mary Carwithen, Ruth Gipps, William Alwyn, Elizabeth Maconc...
app.idagio.com
September 4, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
jkaconductor.bsky.social
Out today! Available to stream wherever you get your music, or to buy with glorious programme notes by @leahbroad.bsky.social at www.prestomusic.com/classical/pr...
September 4, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
audioworld.bsky.social
Atmos This Week, new Spatial Audio releases due on Friday, with my take on what makes each of them worth a listen.

audiodaily.com/go/atw7

#ClassicalMusic #MusicReviews
@leahbroad.bsky.social @jkaconductor.bsky.social
Atmos This Week August 31 2026 - AudioDaily
New Dolby Atmos spatial audio releases this week include Monteverdi's Vespers, rediscovered British music, Pictures at an Exhibition, and piano works by Chopin and Prokofiev.
audiodaily.com
September 2, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
jkaconductor.bsky.social
Nice to see this on the airwaves again ahead of the full release on Friday…. @leahbroad.bsky.social
bbcradio3bot.bsky.social BBC Radio 3 Now Playing Bot (Unofficial) @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social · 14d
BBC Radio 3
Breakfast

Now Playing
Ruth Gipps, Alex Mitchell, Manchester Camerata & John Andrews
Jane Grey
September 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM
leahbroad.bsky.social
MY NEXT BOOK IS COMING OUT!!!

Unsung: Trailblazing Women Musicians of the Second World War is available to pre-order *now*

It is, I hope, a cultural history of the Second World War you haven't heard before. It's told through 7 different stories:

leahbroad.substack.com/p/my-next-bo...
MY NEXT BOOK IS COMING OUT AAAAAAAAAAAH
Introducing Unsung: Trailblazing Women Musicians of the Second World War
leahbroad.substack.com
September 1, 2026 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
royalphilorchestra.bsky.social
We'll take the music apart and put it back together again in under an hour as you'll hear the insights and perspectives of our musicians, conductor Vasily Petrenko and presenter @leahbroad.bsky.social. [2/2]

⚡ rpo.co.uk/revealed
Mozart Revealed - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Get under the skin of Mozart’s last symphony
rpo.co.uk
August 28, 2026 at 4:12 PM
leahbroad.bsky.social
Five incredible women from music history you should know
August 27, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
davidweuste.bsky.social
Fun to see this profile of my friend Mari from @leahbroad.bsky.social!
magazine lead page image for Choir and Organ feature on Mari Valverde
August 24, 2026 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
friedlind.bsky.social
This is so good! And so terrifying.
leahbroad.bsky.social Leah Broad @leahbroad.bsky.social · 23d
I get so sick of being told that there has been no gender-based prejudice against women musicians. So here are some genuine reviews written about women, between 1893 & 2021, with a couple words/letters changed to make them about men.
August 23, 2026 at 9:17 AM
leahbroad.bsky.social
I get so sick of being told that there has been no gender-based prejudice against women musicians. So here are some genuine reviews written about women, between 1893 & 2021, with a couple words/letters changed to make them about men.
August 23, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
simonrjohnson.bsky.social
Ruth Gipps, Jane Grey Fantasy for Viola & Strings (1941-2)

This is just wonderful stuff, a bit like a more mellow and soulful version of Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

HT @leahbroad.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/album/1odDiH...
Gipps: Jane Grey, Op. 15 - Single by Ruth Gipps | Spotify
Ruth Gipps · single · 2026 · 1 songs
open.spotify.com
August 22, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
jkaconductor.bsky.social
One of the things I am immensely proud of is that a composer most people had never heard of is now played roughly every other day on the digital radio platforms in the UK alone, let alone internationally.
leahbroad.bsky.social Leah Broad @leahbroad.bsky.social · Aug 2
- And the first album ever dedicated to the music of Avril Coleridge-Taylor, including the world premiere recordings of her Piano Concerto, To April, To the Hills, Valse Caprice, Comet Prelude, and In Memoriams open.spotify.com/album/6EroQD...
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works - Album by Avril Coleridge-Taylor | Spotify
Avril Coleridge-Taylor · album · 2025 · 12 songs
open.spotify.com
August 8, 2026 at 10:44 AM
leahbroad.bsky.social
Just got to the Royal Albert Hall to do the radio interval for tonight's prom! Tune in to BBC Radio 3 at 6pm tonight to hear Alexandra Dariescu give the Proms premiere of Nadia Boulanger's Fantasie Variée with the Hallé, and Rachmaninoff & Ravel
August 5, 2026 at 3:45 PM
leahbroad.bsky.social
For women's music to stay in the repertoire, we don't just need recordings. We also need score publication, composer info & advocacy. So I'm delighted to announce the launch of UNHEARD HERITAGE, a recording initiative marrying research & performance leahbroad.substack.com/p/announcing...
if a work can't be heard, performers won't play it, so we desperately need good recordings of women's compositions if they're going to enter the repertoire. So this month I am really delighted to announce the launch of my recordings initiative, Unheard Heritage, which is dedicated to bringing forgotten works out of archives and bringing them to life in world-class recordings. Because women have always been composers. No matter how difficult it was, no matter how trying the circumstances, historical women fought to make their voices heard. We only have to listen.
August 2, 2026 at 2:51 PM
leahbroad.bsky.social
UK petition to require AI firms to disclose training data, so creators can identify use of copyright work petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
Petition: Protect creators' rights: require AI firms to disclose training data
We ask the Government to introduce a statutory duty requiring AI developers to disclose the copyrighted works used to train generative AI in enough detail for creators to identify use of their work, e...
petition.parliament.uk
July 29, 2026 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
sarabn.bsky.social
@leahbroad.bsky.social I have just finished listening to Quartet, so jumping on to say thank you for such a fascinating and frustrating listen.
July 28, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
inaboyle.bsky.social
We’re thrilled by the launch of @leahbroad.bsky.social Unheard Heritage with Resonus Classics initiative! 💿

Read more:
📰 www.gramophone.co.uk/content/news...

✏️ www.colinscolumn.com/forgotten-mu...

#InaBoyle #ElizabethMaconchy #UnheardHeritage #WomenInMusic #ClassicalMusic #Composers
Unheard Heritage & Resonus Classics launch recording initiative - Gramophone
Founded by Leah Broad each album will revives great, forgotten music for new audiences
www.gramophone.co.uk
July 16, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
jkaconductor.bsky.social
Very proud to be part of this with @leahbroad.bsky.social Samantha Ege, and the team at Resonus.
Unheard Heritage & Resonus Classics launch recording initiative - Gramophone
Founded by Leah Broad each album will revives great, forgotten music for new audiences
www.gramophone.co.uk
July 14, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
arqandtheclouds.bsky.social
🧵 the extraordinary Ethel Smyth b.1858

💥 Trailblazing pioneer
1️⃣ First 🇬🇧 woman to write opera
🗳️ Composed anthem for women’s suffrage
♥️ Emmeline Pankhurst ♥️
♥️ Virgina Woolf ♥️
📕 Celebrated author

One of four groundbreaking women composers in @leahbroad.bsky.social wonderful 📕 Quartet

See Alt-text
Ethel conducting the Metropolitan Police band in London 1930, 20 years after she wrote March of the Women in 1910 and a year after women had first voted Ethel supports Emmeline Pankhurst, after she is re-arrested when weak from repeated hunger strikes. Ethel and Emmeline had a close and deep relationship. Celebrated author Virgina Woolf and Ethel Smyth together Ethel loved dogs. Each of her dogs was named Pam I, II etc until their passing
July 6, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Leah Broad
simonrjohnson.bsky.social
Recommend subscribing to @leahbroad.bsky.social 's Slow Listening substack. Just listened to Imogen Holst's Mass in A minor while soaking in the bathtub of a NYC hotel, 10/10 experience, would recommend.

leahbroad.substack.com/p/slow-liste...
Imogen Holst, Mass in A Minor (1927)
Slow Listening #8
leahbroad.substack.com
June 19, 2026 at 11:09 AM
leahbroad.bsky.social
If you're in Oxford on the 1st July, I'll be performing with powerhouse violin & piano duo Fenella Humphreys and Nicola Eimer, playing works from my forthcoming book! Please come along - there will be Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Beethoven, Josephine Baker... artsfestivaloxford.org/events/unsun...
Unsung The Wartime Violin - Oxford Festival of the Arts
Award-winning artists Fenella Humphreys, Nicola Eimer, and Leah Broad bring you the Second World War through the lives of women musicians who entertained the troops, kept hope alive on the Home Front,...
artsfestivaloxford.org
June 16, 2026 at 8:20 AM
leahbroad.bsky.social
Went to the Royal Ballet & Opera's AI & music festival, & left thinking about how creatives can speak out on AI.

"Even if Big Tech is not listening to artists, audiences are. Public opinion about the way technologies are being developed and deployed matters."

leahbroad.substack.com/p/what-can-c...
June 16, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
mradrianclark.bsky.social
Absolutely obsessed with this album at the moment, having first encountered the cello concerto via @leahbroad.bsky.social's Slow Listening on Substack (another recommendation there). I'm now hoovering up as many other Tabakova recordings as I can find.
Dobrinka Tabakova: String Paths - ECM Records
ECM New Series presents the first full album devoted to the music of Dobrinka Tabakova, a composer born in Bulgaria in 1980 but raised from a young age in London. In Tabakova’s music – richly melodic,...
ecmrecords.com
June 6, 2026 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Leah Broad
jimallthetime.bsky.social
Dear Betty, Dearest Grace

Why friendship is important for creative women

via @leahbroad.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/leahbroa...
Dear Betty, Dearest Grace
Why friendship is important for creative women
open.substack.com
June 2, 2026 at 11:45 AM