Mary Lyon Concerts
Instrumental music has been at the core of Mount Holyoke College since our founding. Mary Lyon moved a piano into Seminary Hall almost as quickly as she shelved the library’s first books. She believed instrumental music taught young women discipline, provided students with language in a different chord, and—most importantly—Mary Lyon understood that music has the power to console a troubled heart and uplift the human spirit.
The Mary Lyon concerts commemorate the central role of music in Mount Holyoke College's history by celebrating the contributions of women musicians and women in general, through music. The programming therefore gives voice to the often under-represented work of women in music.
Explore our past concerts
2024 Mary Lyon Concert
The MHSO celebrated the works and work of women in its annual Mary Lyon Concert. This concert spanned the possibilities between the work of Paradis, the beloved Romantic Farrenc, and visionary Rachel Portman with her moving work Tipping Points that point at the world ahead.
2023 Mary Lyon Concert
Our 2023 Mary Lyon Concert celebrated the music of women composers, featured Stella Sung's The Phoenix Rising, followed by Florence Price's Symphony No. 3 in C minor. In 1993, Price became the first African American woman to have her work performed by a major U.S. orchestra. Rounding out the program was one of the winners of our 2023 Concerto & Aria Competition.
2022 Mary Lyon Concert
The annual Mary Lyon concert is a concert dedicated to the works of women composers. The 2022 Concert opened with Nkeiru Okoye’s viscerally hopeful musical response to 9/11, before exploring Mayer’s first symphony, a work that is rarely heard in concert.
2019 Mary Lyon Concert
Commemorating Mary Lyon's commitment to the value of music in higher education, the concert featured works about and composed by women.
2018 Mary Lyon Concert
NEVER AGAIN Remembering the Holocaust through the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz
2017 Mary Lyon Concert
Of Hope and Courage – a concert celebrating women composers.
2016 Mary Lyon Concert
Featuring the Symphony Orchestra of Mount Holyoke College in a program of music by women composers.