The Essay

In the week of International Women's Day, five women tell us about their lives in music including what, and who, inspires them. Today, Kathryn McAdam – AKA ‘Soprano on sabbatical’

The composer Nicola LeFanu tells us about her life in music as part of this series celebrating inspiring women. When she was growing up it didn't occur to her that composition was an unusual thing for a woman to do; it seemed completely natural, surrounded as she was by women who wrote music: her mother, the composer Elizabeth Maconchy, and her friends including the Welsh composer Grace Williams and the Irish composer Ina Boyle. It was only when Nicola went on to study music herself that she realised how few women had been included in the books which told the history of Western Classical music. In this edition of The Essay, Nicola shares her story of what, and who, has inspired her own career spanning over half a century and how things have changed for women in music during her lifetime.

A week of Essays in which five women tell us about their lives in music including what, and who, inspires them. Today, the mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly talks about her career, her family, and the inspirational characters she has played.

Stephen Johnson studies the audience's reaction to Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks

Stephen Johnson considers how Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 thrilled the first audience

Stephen Johnson considers how Shostakovich's Symphony No 5 surprised it's first audience

Stephen Johnson considers how Byrd's Mass for 4 voices was received by its first audience

Stephen Johnson considers how Mahler's Symphony no 8 was received by its first audience.

Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through five powerful, poignant letters.5.Marking the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte's birth, Rachel Joyce - a best-selling author herself - considers how, on the publication of Jane Eyre, Bronte reacted to becoming a literary sensation.When Jane Eyre was published in 1847, it was a literary sensation. Rachel Joyce reflects both on Bronte's modest excitement that her book was being read by "such men as Mr Thackeray", and her absolute confidence in her own writing and literary judgement.Rachel Joyce is the best-selling author of The Lonely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and recently wrote a new adaptation of Jane Eyre for BBC Radio 4.Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Charlotte Bronte's true identity explored through her powerful and poignant letters - letters which are often particularly revealing when read with the beneift of hindsight.The journalist Jane Shilling has reflected on women, ageing and creativity in her book, The Woman in the Mirror. Two hundred years after Charlotte Bronte's birth, Jane Shilling wonders about her feelings as she wrote to her dear friend, Ellen Nussey, "I shall soon be 30 and have done nothing yet", shortly before embarking on her greatest work, Jane Eyre.Producer: Beaty Rubens.