"Strong Voices" — A Book by Laura Decurtins on Women in the Musical Culture of Graubünden
A study of women's historical participation in the musical life of the Swiss canton of Graubünden.
In May 2026, the Zurich publisher Chronos Verlag released the book Starke Stimmen: Frauen in der Bündner Musikkultur (Strong Voices: Women in Graubünden’s Musical Culture). It was written by Laura Decurtins — a Swiss musicologist and research associate at the Institute for Cultural Research Graubünden. The book was published in German.
Graubünden is the largest canton of Switzerland and the only officially trilingual one: its population speaks German, Romansh, and Italian. Decurtins’ research focuses on the musical life of this region and the historical exclusion of women from it — driven by social norms and prejudice.
The book documents how women gradually gained visibility and recognition in the region’s musical culture during the second half of the twentieth century. Decurtins recovers the contributions of women in Graubünden’s musical life from obscurity, giving them voice through their personal stories and professional experiences.
Laura Decurtins studied musicology, history, and Romansh at universities in Zurich and Vienna, completing her doctorate in 2019. Her earlier work Chantai rumantsch! — a study of Romansh musical history — was awarded the Jacques Handschin Prize by the Swiss Music Research Society.
