Where the ladies at?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my future in a field that is pretty male dominated. Historically, music has been a man's business in almost every aspect. In the past century or so women have made large advances in this respect, but in a lot of music related careers we are still vastly outnumbered.

Thanks to blind auditions, female participation in orchestras has greatly risen over the last few decades. However, there is still a large gap between the number of males and females on the podium (according to this article, American orchestral conductors are 80% male).

In composition as well it seems that we are outnumbered. I recently discovered that I've never played a piece in band written by a woman. After a search on the wind repertory project, I found a total of 29 female composers of band music, versus 706 men. Perhaps this is because historically there haven't been a lot of women trained in composition, and that wind ensembles were very male exclusive for most of their history.

What I think we should do is celebrate the few women who do advance in these male dominated fields, and hopefully they will inspire the next generation of girls to pick up a baton, or try out their school's copy of Sibelius. So today I'm going to list a couple of the cool female composers of band music that I've recently discovered.


1.  Julie Giroux 

Julie Giroux is an Emmy award winning composer living in the United States. She has studied with John Williams, and went to school at Louisiana State University and Boston University. She is a very well rounded composer, writing for film, orchestra, and choral ensemble. However, in recent years she has written music primarily for wind ensemble (and she was the only woman composer I found who does so). She has certainly added many gems to the modern wind repertory. While listening to some of her music, I particularly loved her 'Symphony of Fables'. It has a movement based on the story of the Pied Piper which includes an awesome flute solo (I'm a bit biased).



2. Libby Larsen 

Libby Larsen is a well known American composer. She has written more than 500 works, which have been recorded on over 50 CD's. She is a Grammy award winner, and was the co-founder of the American Composer's Forum. She has written for huge range of ensembles, but has a good sized repertory for wind ensemble.

Here's a link to a really innovative composition she wrote called "Introduction to the Moon". The piece itself is half improvised by the performers, and includes audio recordings of poem readings. When the musicians start singing at the end I always get shivers up my spine!

What I'd really like to hear, but sadly couldn't find a recording of, is her composition called "Encircling Skies". It's orchestrated for double SATB chorus, narrator, orchestra, band, didgeridoo, conch shell, three pianos, and three marimbas. Wicked.

3. Joan Tower 

Joan Tower is generally super cool. She's been called one of the greatest female composers of all time. She's also a pianist, conductor, and Grammy award winner. She studied at Columbia University in the 1960's and her music is influenced by the serialism she was exposed to at that time.  Though she hasn't written a huge amount for band, her composition "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman" is awesome and I think she deserved to be on this list just for that alone. (see the top of this post for a recording)

4. Chen Yi 

Dr. Chen is a Chinese violinist and composer born in Guangzhou. She was the first woman to earn an M.A. in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Later, she studied at Columbia University, and is currently a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.

I really like her piece "Dragon Rhyme", which is a neat mix of Western music and Chinese folk tunes.




Let me know if you have suggestions of more cool lady composers to listen to! I think that when I'm a band teacher I will try to expose my students to works of a more diverse selection of composers, and it's a good idea to start compiling a mental list now!

Happy listening,

E