Beth York

• Interviewed November 14, 2020

Beth York recorded Transformations with Ladyslipper records in 1985, which brought her to the National Women’s Music Festival stage in Wisconsin, followed by concerts and festival performances with Kay Gardner. 

Beth York recently retired as professor emerita of music therapy at Converse University, a traditionally women’s college in her hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She has written about clinical songwriting with women survivors of domestic violence, including “Finding Voice” in Feminist Perspectives in Music Therapy (Susan Hadley, Editor, copyright 2006, Barcelona Press). Beth’s autobiographical piece, “Following Euterpe,” is included in a chapter in Queer and Trans Music Therapy (Lee, Editor, copyright 2022, Oxford University Press).

Beth York and her partner, Barbara Ester, have devoted over twenty-five years of collaboration to writing songs, recording, and performing for lesbian audiences. Their recording, Heartsongs, is available for purchase via email: barbesterd@gmail.com.

Beth York and Barbara Ester have also performed instrumental works in Wisconsin at the National Women’s Music Festival Recital series in 2021 and 2022, including “Songs for Clarinet and Piano.”

Beth York’s recent recording, “Finding Home,” can be purchased through CDBaby or via email: eyork4366@gmail.com.

See also:

Beth York, “Lesbians in Upstate South Carolina 1986-2001: The Upstate Women’s Community Newsletter,” Sinister Wisdom 93 (Summer 2014): 114-18.

Beth York, “Consciousness-Raising with Anima Rising,” Sinister Wisdom 104 (Spring 2017): 15-25.

Beth York, “Transformations: Following the Muse,” Sinister Wisdom 124 (Spring 2022): 19-27.