Label dedicated to women composers to launch in September 

La Boîte à Pépites, a new classical record label which aims to promote forgotten women composers whose works have been lost or left unrecorded, will launch on 30 September with a debut album featuring world premiere recordings of works by Charlotte Sohy. 

Founded by cellist Héloïse Luzzati, La Boîte à Pépites (the jewel box) the record label is part of Luzzati’s Elles – Women Composers project. The initiative began with the creation of the Un Temps pour Elles music festival in France and the La Boîte à Pépites YouTube channel.

Luzzati, who is also the label’s artistic director, said: 'A few years ago, the question of the role of women in the history of music began to gain a certain importance in my life as a musician. How could I have spent so many years without ever having played a piece composed by a woman? That is why I created the association ’Elles - Women Composers’ whose mission is to breathe new life into unknown or at best barely known works by women... By having the pieces recorded by a plethora of different artists, my hope is to shift the emphasis of the CDs from the players to the composer, and to help her works to, little by little, come to their proper place in the history of classical music.' 

For her Elles – Women Composers project, Luzzati collaborates with cultural organisations across France including the National Orchestra of Avignon-Provence, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Royaumont Abbey and the Palazzetto Bru Zane. 

Luzzati’s relationship with conductor Debora Waldman and François-Henri Labey, Charlotte Sohy’s grandson, led her to focus the label’s first release on Sohy. It is thanks to Labey’s conservation efforts that scores, which may otherwise have been lost, were made available for the recording.  

September’s release is due to be followed by the 2023 release of works by Rita Strohl. Several musicians have already agreed to contribute to future recordings. These include Karine Deshayes, Elsa Dreisig, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Célia Oneto Bensaid, Fiona MacGown, the Modigliani quartet and the Wanderer trio. 

You can find out more about La Boîte à Pépites here.