This college's piano recital in celebration of International Woman's Day really hit the wrong note

A London college's piano recital has struck a bum note by using a male pianist to perform on International Women's Day. Yes, really.

In a tweet, speaker, author and PhD candidate Jessica Eaton shared a photograph of a poster for the event, alongside a series of unimpressed face emojis.

On the poster, the event is billed as a 'piano recital of women composers' featuring Morley tutor Nikos Stavlas as the pianist.

People on Twitter were quick to express their outrage.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, a Morley College spokesman apologised for the offence caused, however, stated that the recital would still go ahead, and also said that they'd updated the poster so that it 'more accurately reflected the event'.

Speaking to the paper, he said:

Nikos is one of our piano tutors and his specialist academic interest is in the works of overlooked female composers.

He is an active campaigner for women's equality and a great champion of composers from underrepresented groups.

He proposed this concert in good faith, as a means of showcasing these overlooked women composers.

We accept that having a woman perform may have been more appropriate for the day, but we appreciated Nikos' motivations in proposing the concert.

The performer in this case is entirely secondary to the works being showcased, and we hope that this is reflected in the updated poster.

The spokesman also claimed that Morley College employs more female teaching staff than male, and added:

To this end, Morley recognises that this poster was not in keeping with our core values, and we apologise for the offence that it has caused.

International Women's Day is held on Friday 8 March each year and has occurred for more than a century, with the first gathering in 1911. It is a global day to celebrate the social, political, and cultural achievements of women, as well as a call to arms for gender parity.

Women were only granted the vote in England in 1918 after an active campaign by the suffragettes. At that time, only women older than 30, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of more than £5, and graduates of British universities were granted the vote.

It wasn't until 1928 that women received the vote on the same terms as men.

indy100 has contacted Morley College for comment.