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Ethel Smyth - composer and suffragette
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Composers in the clink: Classical music breaking the law!
10. Ethel Smyth - composer and suffragette
In the male-dominated world of classical music composition, female composers can often be overlooked - not so with Dame Ethel Smyth. During her musical education she met composers like Dvorak, Grieg and Tchaikovsky, as well as Clara Schumann and Brahms. However, as a member of the suffragette movement, she was imprisoned for two months in Holloway Prison. When the conductor Thomas Beecham went to visit her, he found her conducting the singing of her fellow inmates with a toothbrush.
