Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was an English composer, writer, and suffragist, best known for her operas and her involvement in the women’s rights movement. Born into a military family, she defied her father’s wishes to pursue music, studying composition at the Leipzig Conservatory, where she encountered prominent composers such as Brahms, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky. Her early works gained recognition in European musical circles, and she became one of the first female composers to have her operas performed at major venues. Among her most notable compositions is The Wreckers (1906), a dramatic opera about a Cornish village sabotaging ships, and Der Wald (1902), which remains the only opera by a woman ever performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera until the 21st century.

Beyond her musical achievements, Smyth was deeply involved in the British suffrage movement, joining the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1910. She became close to its leader, Emmeline Pankhurst, and composed The March of the Women (1911), which became the movement’s anthem. Her activism led to a brief imprisonment in 1912, during which she famously conducted fellow suffragists in song using a toothbrush from her prison window. As her hearing deteriorated in later years, she shifted her focus from composing to writing, producing several autobiographical and critical essays on music and her life, further cementing her legacy as an influential thinker and artist.

Smyth’s contributions to music and society were eventually recognized with a Damehood in 1922, making her the first female composer to receive such an honor. Despite facing resistance in the male-dominated world of classical music, she was a trailblazer who challenged societal norms through both her art and activism. In recent years, her music has seen a resurgence of interest, with performances and recordings bringing renewed attention to her innovative and bold compositions. Smyth remains an enduring symbol of artistic and social defiance, demonstrating the power of music as both an artistic and political force.