Patricia Adkins Chiti

Patricia Adkins Chiti (? – 12 June 2018) was a mezzo-soprano and musicologist involved in projects by and for women. She created the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica (Adkins Chiti Foundation: Women in Music) in the nineteen-nineties, after starting Donne in Musica in 1978, and was a promoter of research projects regarding women in music, for which she was recognised worldwide. She received numerous prizes and awards, including the Premio de Investigación Musical "Rosario Marciano" ("Rosario Marciano" Musical Research Award).

Biography
Patricia Chiti was a professional musician and musicologist. Born in England, she acted in public from childhood. She completed her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, where she made her operatic debut in 1972. Since the sixties she was married to the Italian composer, Gian Paolo Chiti. She spoke English, Italian, French and German; in 2012 she was stated to be studying Arabic. In 2004, the President of Italy honoured her with the title of Cavaliere Ufficiale of the Italian Republic. Patricia Chiti wrote and published academic books and articles, more than 500 around the world, on the history of women in music, and edited publications about the Baroque period and music of the eighteenth century. She wrote 40 books and about 800 scholarly articles on women as composers and creators of musical culture, has also written the history of singers and musical families for publishers in Italy, Europe, Asia, the United States and Latin America and prepared editions musical reviews of works by women in Italy and the United States. Beginning in 2000, she collected second-hand music, books and CDs, and sent them to many parts of the world, especially to Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. She died suddenly and unexpectedly on 12 June 2018.

News
In recent years, her activities included the production of an opera for the International Mozart celebrations in Vienna, the publication of academic volumes, including a book on the history of women in jazz, and a history of women in the Mediterranean region. The Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica organisation has also published more than 50 books on the history of women as composers, in English, Italian and Arabic.

Patricia Chiti was a supporter of the European Parliament which has passed a law that provides for Equal Opportunities for Women in Arts and Culture. Since 1980 she conducted festivals, concert series and symposiums in Italy and abroad and she also worked closely as an expert in cultural policy with governments and universities in Europe, USA and Asia. She was a member of the Italian Commission in favour of Equal Opportunities when in March 1988, with an invitation from the Director General of UNESCO, she presented her own proposals in favour of women in the Intergovernmental World Conference for Cultural Policy in favour of Development (The World Intergovernmental Conference for Cultural Policies for Development).

She was President of the international Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica. In 2012, she supervised the collection of materials for the Conservatory in L'Aquila after the earthquake there.

Selected bibliography

 * 'Donne in musica' Patricia Adkins Chiti. EAN: 2560007355544, 1982
 * 'Almanacco delle virtuose, primedonne, compositrici e musiciste d'Italia dall' A.D. 177 ai giorni nostri.' ('...looks at women musicians through the ages from approx. 1500 up until the present') Chiti, Patricia Adkins. ISBN 8840292322 / ISBN 9788840292328, 1991
 * 'Una voce poco fa. Le musiche delle prime donne rossiniane' Adkins Chiti, Patricia, ISBN 8886180004 / ISBN 9788886180009, 1992
 * Italian Art Songs of the Romantic Era (songs by Rossini, Donizetti and others, from the private collection of the editor) Chiti, Patricia Adkins (editor)/ Paton, John Glenn (con) ISBN 0739002465 / ISBN 9780739002469, 1994
 * 'Donne in musica (Donne del terzo millennio)' (Italian Edition) Patricia Adkins Chiti ISBN 8871445937 / ISBN 9788871445939, 1996
 * Songs and Duets of Garcia, Malibran and Viardot: Rediscovered Songs by Legendary Singers: Low (Alfred Vocal Masterworks Series) Patricia Adkins Chiti (Editor), John Glenn Paton (Contributor) ISBN 0882847864 / ISBN 9780882847863, 1997

Selected recordings

 * The Music of the Primadonnas Patricia Adkins Chiti, Gianpaolo Chiti, 2011 • 14 songs • Kicco Music
 * Desolation and Despair (Italian Drawing Room Music of the Romantic Era) Patricia Adkins Chiti, Hiroko Sato, 2011 • 13 songs • Kicco Music