New doco pulls Mozart’s talented sister from obscurity

History is filled with forgotten women. There’s even a term for it in scientific research: the “Matilda effect”.

But one woman in particular stood out to Australian filmmaker Madeleine Hetherton-Miau: Maria Anna Mozart, sister of the renowned composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart’s Sister explores Maria Anna’s forgotten talent.Credit:

“About five or six years ago, I didn’t even realise he had a sister,” the Sydney-based director says. “But even more interestingly, she was also considered a child prodigy. She and Wolfgang had this wonderful musical collaboration for years, and the only reason it stopped was because she was a woman … The injustice of it seems so wrong.”

This took place in the 1700s, but Hetherton-Miau says it’s still surprisingly relevant today. According to a study conducted by the Australasian Performing Right Association, only 13 per cent of Australia’s registered screen composers are female. Further, only 7.7 per cent of the 20,400 compositions scheduled for classical music concerts globally between 2021 and 2022 were written by women.

Hetherton-Miau’s documentary, Mozart’s Sister, highlights this disparity by exploring Maria Anna’s immense talent and how it was gradually obscured over time. By reading more than 700 personal letters written by members of the Mozart family, as well as interviewing musicologists, contemporary conductors, soloists and forensic document examiners, Hetherton-Miau pieced together a narrative that positions Maria Anna as something more than mere “background wallpaper to the main show”.

Madeleine Hetherton-Miau, the director of Mozart’s Sister.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Her story has been explored before, as in the stage production The Other Mozart and the 2010 feature film also called Mozart’s Sister. But Hetherton-Miau says Maria Anna’s story had not yet been told from a factual viewpoint.

“There has been strong pushback to the question of whether Maria Anna composed music herself,” Hetherton-Miau says. “This hasn’t been helped by some people running wild with stories of how she composed major symphonies of Wolfgang’s. She was a significant musician and had the potential to compose, but we can’t find the compositions.”

Mozart’s Sister doesn’t attempt to “prove” anything, and certainly doesn’t suggest Maria Anna composed some of Wolfgang’s major works. Rather, it encourages viewers to question the biases of history. It’s also a cautionary tale for those in classical music now.

“There’s a narrative that things are getting better, and in some ways they are. But it’s usually two steps forwards, two steps back,” Hetherton-Miau says.

“Very few [classical composer] jobs are advertised, so it all works through networks of connections, which many women still lack today.”

More female-written compositions need to be programmed, she says, and experienced composers should help emerging female classical musicians build networks.

“Layers of women’s history have been ignored because of male bias,” Hetherton-Miau says. “So when we do find things, no matter how small, we should imagine what the full story was.”

Mozart’s Sister is playing in select cinemas now.

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