Luise Adolpha Le Beau remained undeterred by the headwinds of the male-dominated world of classical composers. Born in Rastatt, Baden, as the only child of an officer with a passion for the arts and his wife who was no less artistically inclined, Le Beau benefited from a music education from an early age. She was later studied privately with Joseph …

Leokadiya Kashperova (1872–1940) was Igor Stravinsky’s piano teacher, having herself been a student of Anton Rubinstein. To this day, however, her compositions remain in the shadow of the male Russian masters, a fate shared by many other women of this era. Although her output is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her contemporaries, what she did produce demonstrates incredible …