Women have practically always been present in art, not only as models. For some reason, however, female artists have been pushed to the background. Moreover, in spite of the enormous number of negative assessments of women’s works by critics, the greatest compliment a female composer could hear was the statement that she created “like a man”. Ethel Smyth was described as using in her operas vocals and orchestration with the energy typical of men while Clara Schumann was announced (after the publication of the Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 16) to “compose just like a man” – the authors could not get over their awe that a lady managed to write such a successful work in a genre so rarely composed by women. The biggest shock, however, seems to be the situation that happened to Grażyna Bacewicz after her concert in Vienna (mid-20th century!). One of the critics insisted that the author of her works was certainly a man thus suggesting that no woman would be able to compose such good music.

To show the beauty and power of female creativity in music, Aleksandra has prepared a relevant project “Through the eyes of a woman”. She has invited the violinist Marcin Hałat (Hałat Duo) to this and initiated a series of concerts in 2021 with a repertoire created by female composers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. This was done to answer some bothering questions and out of the desire to explore the stories of female artists. “Through the eyes of a woman” is an outstanding project in which artists talk about women, using a repertoire created by female composers such as: Irena Regina Wieniawska vel Poldowski, Ewa Fabiańska Jedlińska, Maria Szymanowska, Clara Schumann, Grażyna Bacewicz, Cecille Cheminade, Dora Pejačević. For the audience, Aleksandra has chosen a diversified repertoire of both Polish and foreign composers.

An asset of the project is the joint improvisation of artists on the basis of the previously presented repertoire in the classical dimension, which shows that they are able to go beyond the frames of musical notation and inspire original musical statements.