Outside Resources
The following are organizations that advocate for diversity in music through many different lenses.
Please explore and support their work!
A SEAT AT THE PIANO
A Seat at the Piano was founded in the summer of 2020 in the midst of social and racial reckoning around the world. We are a team of classically trained pianists with varying backgrounds and experiences who strive to raise the voices of those who are less heard and to inspire more thoughtful, inclusive programming within the performing and pedagogical spheres.
ACDA DIVERSITY INITIATIVES
The mission of the ACDA Diversity Initiatives Committee is to foster diversity and inclusivity in our membership, ensembles, and repertoire through active engagement with underrepresented choral musicians and potential choral participants. As a result of this inclusivity, the committee plans to bring about a broader definition of choral excellence to maintain relevance through the expansion of both the reach and impact of our profession and its musical scope.
THE AFRICAN CONCERT SERIES LONDON
The African Concert Series London fosters education across cultures, it is a place where everyone, adults and children, can learn about the African culture through its music. The work that they do has highlighted a neglected group of composers and performing artists that genuinely represent the diversity of our community, who seem to be airbrushed out of our canon of classical music. The African Concert Series is a place that inspires the younger generation to explore their heritage; a place that shapes the way we see classical music.
AFRICAN DIASPORA MUSIC PROJECT
The African Diaspora Music Project was founded as a research tool to help singers find art songs for performance and The George Shirley Vocal Competition. It was released in its vocal format with nearly 4,000 titles in 2019. In 2021, they released a new version that added more than 1,000 orchestral scores in a format usable by conductors and players. The latest iteration that includes recordings, perusal scores, instrumental and chamber music, and curated lists by trusted orchestral conductors was released in 2022.
ALL CLASSICAL RADIO’S RECORDING INCLUSIVITY INITIATIVE
The Recording Inclusivity Initiative (RII) was created by All Classical Radio, a public station based in the Portland, OR in collaboration with N M Bodecker Foundation. RII seeks to address the gap of classical music composers and musicians from underrepresented communities that make it into the concert hall and onto the airwaves.
THE ADORE PROJECT
The Accessible Diverse Orchestral Repertoire Equity (ADORE) Project is created by three collegiate orchestra conductors committed to broadening and bringing greater diversity to the repertoire of smaller orchestra programs. Each post includes brief biographical information, a program note, an instrumentation list, a perusal score or score sample, a link to the publisher or other information for acquiring performance materials and a recording of the work.
ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN FILM COMPOSERS
Through advocacy, support and education, the Alliance for Women Film Composers aims to increase the visibility of women composers active in media scoring. The AWFC advocates for the inclusion of women composers within industry events; supports filmmakers, game developers and studios in their inclusion of women composers; and educates, mentors and inspires emerging women composers.
A MODERN REVEAL
A Modern Reveal is an online resource dedicated to promoting the vocal works and stories of historical female composers who have been overlooked for centuries. We encourage you to use the resources here to learn about the women that paved the way for future composers and performers of all genders. We hope the stories and music we share in A Modern Reveal will inspire and move you to strive for your own musical and educational goals.
ANNA’S COMPOSER DATABASE
Anna’s Composer Database is a curated list of compositions by historically underrepresented composers by conductor Anna Edwards. Her mission is to encourage and promote musical diversity at the highest level from youth to professional music organizations across the country. This mission has been inspired by years of researching compositions by women, which has led her towards her passion to advocate and explore music from historically underrepresented composers on the concert stage.
…AND WE WERE HEARD
… And We Were Heard connects underrepresented composers with wind band conductor-educators to foster equitable programming practices through collaborative recording and digital dissemination. They are giving underrepresented composers a platform to have their music heard. Composers that submit works to … And We Were Heard are matched with top-notch wind bands and engage in collaborative recording sessions. The resulting audio tracks are hosted on our site along with innovative ideas of how to support diverse voices in music.
ARCHIV FRAU & MUSIK
With over 30,000 works by over 2,000 female composers and conductors, the Archiv Frau & Music is the largest and most important archive of its kind in the world. The collection includes sheet music, recordings, literature, and gray literature about female composers, musicians, and conductors from the 9th to the 21st century in the field of classical music as well as rock, pop, and jazz.
ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN WOMEN COMPOSERS
The Association of Canadian Women Composers actively supports music written by Canadian women and women-identified persons. The ACWC wishes to build on the achievements of the past, encourage women and women-identified composers of the present and develop a body of well researched, catalogued and preserved archival material accessible to students, researchers and performers in the future.
BANDOLOGY COMPOSER SPOTLIGHTS
In these composer spotlights, Bandology is pleased to highlight more than 50 composers who inspire us and come from communities which are too often underrepresented. Each composer spotlight includes a bio, photo and links to their personal website and/or a sample of their work.
Additionally, we’ve highlighted some resources for educators and students to learn more about marginalized identities in composition, both in the past and present.
BLACK MUSIC HISTORY LIBRARY
Black Music History Library is a living register of books, articles, documentaries, series, podcasts and more about the Black origins of traditional and popular music dating from the 17th century to present day. Resources are organized by chronology, genre and/or geography for ease of browsing.
BLACK VOICES MATTER PLEDGE
The Black Voices Matter Pledge offers steps for choral artists and leaders towards dismantling racism in the choral field. We suggest a set of initial action items, organized by role (conductors, music educators, those working in faith communities, community and professional choirs, choral non profits, professional associations, etc.) that choral organizations and practitioners can commit to implementing towards these goals.
BOULANGER INITIATIVE
Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers. We foster inclusivity and representation to expand and enrich the collective understanding of what music is, has been, and can be. We promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions.
CANADIAN WOMEN COMPOSERS (CMC)
The Canadian Music Centre exists to preserve and promote the work of Canadian Composers. The guide serves as a key information resource on Canadian composers. The Canadian Music Centre is a nation-wide organization that exists to promote and preserve the work of Canadian composers, and to make it available to the public. Links within the different guides will redirect you to www.musiccentre.ca, where you can find composer biographies, lists of works, recordings. You can also submit loan requests for scores for free.
CASTLE OF OUR SKINS
Born out of the desire to foster cultural curiosity, Castle Of Our Skins is a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. From classrooms to concert halls, Castle Of Our Skins invites exploration into Black heritage and culture, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present.
THE CHORAL COMMONS
The Choral Commons is a media platform that provides a space for singing communities to realize the liberatory potential of the ensemble as a site of radical imagining. We promote equitable artistic and organizational practices that harness the positive social impacts of participatory music-making for the common good, confronting racism, poverty, ableism, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, displacement, and much more.
CLASSICALQUEER
ClassicalQueer is a space for Queer+ classical musicians to tell their stories in their own words. It is a living record and archive of the artists, instrumentalists, performers, administrators, composers, writers, and conductors who—because of, rather than in spite of our global networks, diversities, and shared adversities—have something unique to say.
COLOURFULL MUSIC
Created by Jodie Blackshaw, Colourfull Music shares concert programs for wind bands of all capability that are FULL of a diverse range of composers from around the globe.
CORELIA PROJECT
The mission of the Corelia Project is to elevate the voices of women and all marginalised genders in classical music through the performance and promotion of their works.
COMPOSEHER
Composeher is an ambitious project by the Glasgow School of Art Choir, to commission seven composers to compose a series of new choral works, all of which were premiered by the choir in May 2023. Inspired by findings on the scale of under-representation of female writers in classical and choral music, Composeher shone a light on high-quality choral music composed by women. The project highlighted the inequality in classical music between the number of male versus female composers being commissioned, using a series of workshop sessions and a pre-concert talk as a platform to engage with, and encourage, a national discussion surrounding females within the music industry.
COMPOSERS DIVERSITY COLLECTIVE
Founded by film composer Michael Abels (Get Out, Us), the Composers Diversity Collective exists to eliminate the industry’s challenge to find culturally diverse music creators, music supervisors, sound engineers, and musicians, to increase our own awareness of each other, and to dispel misconceptions about the stylistic range of any minority composer.
COMPOSERS OF COLOR RESOURCE PROJECT
The Composers of Color Resource Project houses resources for music by composers of color. It is not intended to be limited to (a) “traditional” music theory topics or (b) notated music in the Western art music tradition. Analytical notes are being made available, while a Google Sheet summarizes music theory topics that can be taught using the repertoire. We welcome submissions of annotated scores and lesson plans that incorporate the music of composers of color. This site will be continually updated with more resources for music theory instructors.
THE DAFFODIL PERSPECTIVE
The Daffodil Perspective, the one and only gender equal classical music radio show, produced and presented by Elizabeth de Brito. The Daffodil Perspective is a revolutionary new radio show, rewriting classical music history with a more accurate and gender balanced account. The Daffodil Perspective is showing how women fit into our current version of classical music history and exploring the stories of these women, their music and monumental achievements while putting them in context by playing an equal number of familiar male composers as well.
DECOLONIZING THE MUSIC ROOM
Decolonizing the Music Room is a nonprofit organization using research, training, and discourse to help music educators develop critical practices and challenge the established dominance of white Western European and white American music, practices, and narratives. DTMR aims to disrupt the minimization and erasure of non-dominant cultures and identities in the field of music education to build a more equitable future through our work.
DIVERSE MUSIC THEORY EXAMPLES
The mission of the Diverse Music Theory Examples project is to provide resources to teaching faculty and other curious people to produce a more inclusive curriculum by including works of composers who have worked within the common practice who are not normally encountered in music theory courses. These composers include: women composers, LGBTQ composers, composers of color, and non-Western European composers.
DONNE | WOMEN IN MUSIC
DONNE is a charitable foundation that offers a multimedia platform and searchable database dedicated to women composers. Our aim is to celebrate, advance and amplify women in music so that they are seen, heard and appreciated for their talent so they can leave a legacy of inspiration for future generations.
EDWIN A. FLEISHER COLLECTION OF ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
The Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music is the world’s largest circulating collection of orchestral performance sets – with over 22,000 titles – and provides materials to recognized performance groups around the globe (this includes academic and amateur ensembles) for concerts and recordings. It houses virtually the entire standard repertoire, and is also known for its many rare and out-of-print works available for lending around the world.
EXPANDING THE MUSIC THEORY CANON
Expanding the Music Theory Canon contains musical excerpts intended for use in the undergraduate Western tonal music theory core curriculum. Each theoretical concept is illustrated in a series of examples by women and composers of color. Examples have been intentionally chosen which are aimed for the pedagogical moment when each concept is introduced in the majority of Western tonal music theory curricula. The creator of this site, Dr. Paula Maust, has recently authored “Expanding the Music Theory Canon: Inclusive Examples for Analysis from the Common Practice Period” which will be available in December, 2023.
DR. DERRICK FOX’S DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, ACCESS, & BELONGING RESOURCES
Dr. Derrick Fox is the Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Before moving to Omaha, Dr. Fox was Assistant Professor of Choral Conducting and Music Education at Ithaca College in New York. “This list of articles, books and links include resources that I have consulted on my journey with Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion and Belonging. It is not exhaustive but may provide a starting place for you. Everyone’s journey is different and I hope one of these resources provides an on ramp for you in the conversation and actions that will cultivate an inclusive choral community for you and your organization.”
INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN IN MUSIC
The International Alliance for Women in Music, an advocacy organization of women and men, fosters and encourages the activities of women in music. IAWM's vision is to be the world’s leading organization devoted to the equity, promotion and advocacy of women in music across time, cultures and genres.
INTO THE LIGHT
Into the Light, hosted by composer Kathryn Mishell, was a weekly radio program devoted to the finest art music of the past and present composed by women. Produced at KMFA, the fine arts station in Texas, it aired weekly for eleven years from 2000 to 2010. Its website has archived broadcasts of every episode of the program as well as resources on the featured composers.
IRANIAN FEMALE COMPOSERS ASSOCIATION
Founded by Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Anahita Abbasi, and Aida Shirazi, the Iranian Female Composers Association’s mission is to empower Iranian women in music and in the arts by fostering originality, honoring diversity, and strengthening equality.
KAPRALOVA SOCIETY
The Kapralova Society is a Canadian non-profit arts organization. Founded in Toronto in 1998 by Karla Hartl, the Society's mission is to promote the music of Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940) and to build awareness of women's contributions to musical life. To this end, the Society publishes research on Kapralova and other women in music in its online journal and on its website, and assists projects that make Kapralova's music available in print and on record (only premiere releases).
KASSIA ART SONG DATABASE
Created by Logan Contreras, the Kassia Database is a resource geared toward aiding singers, teachers, pianists, and music lovers to discover and celebrate art song by women composers. The database includes songs from the Baroque period through the 21st century and have been categorized by level, voice type, language, composer, and composer dates.
KEYCHANGE
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Keychange is a global network and movement working towards a total restructure of the music industry in reaching full gender equality.
LGBTQ+ MUSIC STUDY GROUP
The LGBTQ+ Music Study Group was established in 2016 and receives support from professional bodies throughout the UK and Ireland: the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE), the Royal Musical Association (RMA), the Society for Music Analysis (SMA), and the Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI). The Group’s mission is threefold: 1) to promote academic inquiry into issues of gender and sexuality in the study of music; 2) to create a safe space and support system for LGBTQ+ people within the scholarly community; and 3) to serve as a consulting body for wider issues of diversity and inclusion within music research, education and performance.
LGBTQ+ BAND COMPOSERS
The intent of this project is to compile a list of pieces by composers who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and additional gender/sexuality minorities) community and who have written works for band. This project will be treated as a working document and resource for conductors, educators, performers, and scholars interested in the music of LGBTQ+ band composers. Edited, verified, and vetted results of this project will be compiled from voluntary composer submissions and trusted, citable sources. Living composers who did not submit their works directly to this project will be contacted before inclusion unless their identity as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is well-documented in print and/or other media and will be cited.
LISTENING TO LADIES
Listening to Ladies is a podcast which first aired on September 26th, 2016. The episodes feature excerpts from interviews with composers who are women, interwoven with samples of their work. Interviewees include established, emerging and under-recognized composers from the USA, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Iran, Scotland, England, and Australia.
LUNA COMPOSITION LAB
Kaufman Music Center and founders Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid created the Luna Composition Lab, a unique program that provides mentorship and performance opportunities to young composers who are female-identifying, non-binary or gender non-conforming.
MAESTRA
MAESTRA provides support, visibility, and community for the women who make the music in the musical theater industry. Their membership is made up of female-identifying, non-binary, and gender non-conforming composers, music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, rehearsal pianists and other musicians who are an underrepresented minority in musical theater.
MARQUES L. A. GARRETT: BEYOND ELIJAH ROCK
Marques’ site describes his spreadsheet as a working list of the non-idiomatic choral music of black composers. .Non-idiomatic, as it relates to black composers, refers to the original concert music that is not part of the traditional idiomatic canon associated with black musicians. That canon includes spirituals, gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and rap among others. There will be pieces that may be based on spirituals or gospel tunes but are, at their core, original songs similar to ones that use chorale tunes in cantatas and popular songs parodied in Renaissance masses. This list does not include arrangements of existing material such as hymns or other folk songs.
MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS: AN INTRODUCTORY RESOURCE (JUILLIARD)
A dedicated group of studio faculty chairs and other leaders in the Music Division joined together to create Music by Black Composers: An Introductory Resource, a document that seeks to expand knowledge and build a more inclusive approach to repertoire. Repertoire and pedagogical choices can often grow out of habit and a narrowness of knowledge, shaped by a history of exclusion and diminished voices. In the Music Division, we are taking important steps to broaden our knowledge by creating a faculty-researched list of works by Black composers to embrace and work toward a more representative world of classical music.
MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS
Founded by violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Music By Black Composers has the following mission:
•Inspire Black students to begin and continue instrumental training.
•Make the music of Black composers available to everyone.
•Help to change the face of classical music through greater diversity.
MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
The Resource Sharing and Collection Development Committee of the Music Library Association promotes informed and up-to-date practices of collection development, management, and sharing of music resources in all formats to the membership of MLA and other interested parties by gathering, evaluating, and disseminating information related to such practices. Dissemination of information may occur via presentations at conferences, Webinars, and through online and/or print publications of various sorts.
MUSIC OF ASIAN AMERICA RESEARCH CENTER
The Music of Asian America Research Center (MAARC) strives to empower our communities through collecting, promoting, and teaching music created by Asian Americans. They seek to advance knowledge about and social justice for Asian Americans through music.
MUSIC BY WOMEN
Music by Women’s mission is to “strive to elevate women composers and theorists by advocating for the study and performance of their works and providing high-quality easily-accessible resources that bring light to the often overshadowed contributions of women in music.”
NATASHA FARNY
Natasha Farny is the cello professor at the School of Music at the State University of New York in Fredonia. She oversees the Fredonia cello choir and coordinates the string chamber music program and has collected a number of works for cello by women composers.
PIANO MUSIC OF AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
These five volumes, edited by William H. Chapman Nyaho, present a wealth of repertoire for solo piano by over thirty-five composers of Africa and its diaspora. The music, much of which was published here for the first time, includes works of a myriad of styles and influences including blues, jazz and folk-tunes. Ranging sequentially from simple to virtuosic, the set provides material for a pianists complete musical journey, from the start of their studies to advanced recital repertoire. Detailed performance notes are provided for each piece to aid interpretation, and to explore new ways of learning and performing piano music.
PIANO MUSIC SHE WROTE
Pianists Sandra Mogensen and Erica Sipes have known each other on Twitter for more than a decade. When they finally met in person in early 2020, they decided to pursue their shared interest in helping people explore the world of piano music composed by women. In order to make it easy to find this repertoire, they have sorted through the entirety of the great online resource, IMSLP, and have compiled the PMSW Directory. This online guide provides access to thousands of scores of pieces composed by women and information about each composer. In tandem with the PMSW Directory, these two pianists are building a resource of videos of this repertoire on their YouTube channel.
PROJECT SPECTRUM
Project Spectrum is a graduate student-led coalition of music theorists, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists with a two-fold mission. One part of the mission is to shift the large-scale culture of U.S. American and Canadian music academia toward equity by confronting racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, settler-colonialism, and other forms of discrimination and injustice. The other is to bolster community, share resources, and hold space for those academics who are marginalized by the academy. These missions are fundamentally intertwined, and taken together, they serve to diversify and strengthen music academia.
SHE IS THE MUSIC
She Is The Music is a nonprofit organization increasing the number of women working in music – songwriters, engineers, producers, artists and industry professionals. They are an independent, global network that operates as a unifying organization for women from across the industry, creating strength and impact on a global scale. As an umbrella nonprofit, They also provide resources and support for female-focused initiatives that are working to create meaningful change – both through our own programs, as well as external efforts around the world.
STRING REPERTOIRE BY BIMOC
Overseen by violinist Gabriela Díaz, this is a working list of pieces for strings by Black Indigenous Musicians Of Color, started by Lina Bahn and added to by musicians all over the world.
STRINGS OF LATIN AMERICA
Strings of Latin America (SOLA) is an official partner to The Sphinx Organization with the purpose of social engagement through the promotion of diversity in the classical music world. We work to enhance the visibility of the repertoire for string instruments, including chamber music, such as trio and quartets, written by Latin American composers. We do so through the cataloging of works, pedagogic materials, and the promotion such materials to be performed in spaces where European and American music is solely and traditionally presented.
SUHL ENSEMBLE
Sulh is an ensemble that plays music from the Mediterranean, Silk Road, and several regions around the world as well as new works for ethnic ensembles. Based in the New Albany, Indiana and Greater Louisville, Kentucky region many of the musicians of Sulh are active as teachers, producers, advocates, and practitioners of the arts of music and dance traditions from around the world.
UNITED SOUND COMPOSER PROJECT
After 8 successful years of mentor programs for students with disabilities, United Sound is expanding to tackle another barrier to equity in music by forming the United Sound Composer Project. What is the Project? The Composer Project is a group of highly successful leaders in the fields of music composition, music performance, music education, and business. They have joined forces to spread awareness, make change, and help train the next generation of creators.
VIOLIN MUSIC BY WOMEN COMPOSERS
These graded anthologies—Violin Music by Women, and now Viola Music by Women—are designed to provide short, fun, pedagogically sound pieces for every level of player-- which just happen to be composed by women. The site includes the content of each anthology, sound files, and information on each composer in the series. Edited by Dr. Cora Cooper (Kansas State University).
WIND REPERTORY PROJECT
Founded by Nikk Pilato, the Wind Repertory Project™ is an attempt at a comprehensive database of wind literature, expanded by contributions of band directors, conductors, students, and wind band enthusiasts worldwide. While there already exist many fantastic sources for this sort of information, static media cannot keep up with the steady influx of new repertoire, and cannot -by nature- be as comprehensive as an open community project.
WOMEN’S PHILHARMONIC ADVOCACY
Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 in order to:
•Recognize the achievement of The Women’s Philharmonic (1980-2004) over their 24 years of activity.
•Build on this work by advocating for the performance of women composers by orchestras and ensembles.
•Address the place of women composers (historic and contemporary) in today’s repertoire of orchestras and ensembles in the US and internationally.
•Present information that highlights the shortage of programming of works by women; the heritage of The Women’s Philharmonic emphasizes that this should and can be corrected.
YOUNG WOMEN COMPOSERS CAMP
The Young Women Composers Camp (YWCC) is a two-week day camp at Temple University designed for girls ages 14–19 who are interested in pursuing a career in music. The YWCC would offer an invaluable learning opportunity to girls who may have a strong interest in music composition, but do not have access to the necessary training. We aim to create an environment of creativity, empowerment, and acceptance for girls in the traditionally male-dominated field of music composition, and hope to see our graduates apply for music degrees with increased confidence and preparedness for success.
