Trailblazers: Bosmans and Pejacevic

Tonight’s program, Traiblazers, features violist Dr. Molly Gebrian and pianist Danny Holt performing sonatas by two women born in the mid-to late 1800s. Gebrian transcribed cello and piano sonatas by Croatian composer Dora Pejacevic and Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans. She and her longtime friend and musical collaborator, pianist Danny Holt, recorded these and a cello sonata by Ethel Smyth for their 2023 album Traiblazers.

Both of tonight’s composers were renowned during their lifetimes, after which their compositions were overlooked for decades. And both were hugely impacted by the social and political climate of their time.

Dora Pejacevic, who was largely self-taught, was born into royalty in 1885 and began composing at a young age. She came to reject her privileged background and adopted socialist political leanings after the suffering she witnessed as a volunteer nurse during WWI.

Henriette Bosmans was born into a musical family in Amsterdam in 1856. She was a well-respected performer whose career flourished during the early days of the Nazis, when other piano soloists couldn’t, or wouldn’t, travel to Holland. However, after the Nazi occupation, she was unable to perform in public because she was half Jewish, relying on  underground house concerts to support herself and her mother until the war ended.  

During an interview, Gebrian cited the “beautiful melodies” and “really interesting harmonic language” in the Pejacevic sonata, placing it in the Romantic genre. Holt called the Bosmans’ sonata “transitional,” describing the third movement as having an “otherworldly, floating, weird, ethereal vibe.”

The Performers

Gebrian is both a performer and a scholar with a background in cognitive neuroscience. She has taught collegiate level viola for over a decade and has recently joined the faculty at New England Conservatory of Music where she teaches courses on the science of practicing.

Pianist Danny Holt hails from Southern California and is celebrated for his dynamic performances and unique interpretations of new and 20^th-century music, as well as obscure historical works. He has performed all over the world and has worked with notable composers like Steve Reich and Michael Finnissy, while premiering more than 100 new works.