Ladysmith storyteller brings forgotten female composer’s story to Nanaimo stage
Published 10:52 am Wednesday, October 7, 2026
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Ladysmith resident and storyteller Rachel Dunstan Muller is helping bring the life and music of a once overlooked 19th century female composer to the stage in Nanaimo.
She Composed, Herself: The Life and Music of Mel Bonis will debut Saturday, Oct. 10 at 2:30 p.m. at the Port Theatre by The Quill & Scroll Ensemble, combining storytelling with live cello and piano to explore the life of French composer Melanie “Mel” Bonis.
The original production has been more than two years in the making, beginning when Muller and Nanaimo cellist Alexandra Lee, a member of the Vancouver Island Symphony, first discussed the possibility of collaborating on a project.
After considering several ideas, the pair settled on Bonis, drawn to both her personal story and the strength of her music.
Muller spent more than a year researching Bonis’s life and writing the original script, while Lee selected and arranged the musical excerpts woven through the concert. Pianist Frances Armstrong joined the ensemble late last year as the group continued refining the script and music.
Born in Paris in 1858, Bonis studied at the Paris Conservatory alongside Claude Debussy and went on to compose more than 300 works during her lifetime.
She adopted the professional name “Mel” Bonism concealing her gender as she tried to establish herself in the male dominated classical music world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Her personal life provides another layer to the production, which follows a story involving an arranged marriage, a passionate love affair and a secret daughter.
Bonis’s music has been rediscovered in recent years and is increasingly being recorded and performed internationally.
She Composed, Herself tells that story through a combination of spoken word and performances on cello and piano, exploring both Bonis’s personal life and the barriers she faced as a woman pursuing a career in music.
Nanaimo pianist Nico Rhodes attended an early preview of the production and described it as “that rare intersection between beautiful art that is both moving and gripping, impactful and purposeful.”
The Quill & Scroll Ensemble consists of cellist Alexandra Lee, assistant principal cellist of the Vancouver Island Symphony; pianist Frances Armstrong, past apprentice coach with Opera de Montreal and the Canadian Opera Company; and storyteller Rachel Dunstan Muller, a frequent festival performer and author-producer of Once Upon A Fiddle and other works.