Righting Classical Injustices
The Cecilia Chorus of New YorkNearly 90 years after Dame Ethel Smyth completed The Prison, her last major work had still never been heard in New York in its full orchestral setting. For The Cecilia Chorus of New York’s Carnegie Hall premiere, we turned that absence into the idea: classical music doesn’t just have forgotten works. It has injustices waiting to be righted.
The campaign reframed a concert as a cultural correction, inviting audiences to hear a composer, suffragist, and outsider finally receive the stage she should have had a century earlier.
Stats
+126.3% - Ticket Sale Increased
$175,000 - Earned Media coverage
14,000 - Facebook views
+25% - Twitter mentions
$75 - Media spend
Selected quotes
“Challenging the White-Male Canon with Ethel Smyth”
— The New Yorker
“The dignity that all composers demand…The Prison has finally received.”
— The Boston Musical Intelligencer
Selected Press
The New Yorker
Gramophone — Video of the Day
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
ConcertoNet
Vocal Area Network
BroadwayWorld
WQXR
Musical America
Credits
Creative Director: Ben McCoy
Editor: Jessica Sheptin
Director: Jeanne Wikler
Camera: Spencer Macnaughton