Soprano Franziska Heinzen and pianist Benjamin Mead have just released their second duo album Women Composers, which celebrates 24 women composers in 24 songs. British-Polish-German Mead is a Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Heinzen lives in Switzerland, having grown up surrounded by the Swiss Alps. The pair met at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany in 2015. Their like-minded musical partnership is the basis of their continued collaboration. Travelling throughout Europe to rehearse for recitals as freelance musicians prior to COVID, Mead spent most of the various lockdowns in Switzerland, the suspension of live performances allowing for more time to be dedicated to projects like this recording. He spoke to Shamistha de Soysa about the new album.

Benjamin Mead and Franziska Heinzen. Photo © Bertie Watson Photography

What was the inspiration for this anthology and how did you select the songs to record?

Back in 2018, we wanted to create a women composer’s program for Clara Schumann’s Bicentenary in 2019. At first, we wanted to choose a selection of cycles by women composers, but found it difficult to focus only on a few. Whereas...