March is the Coolest Month

For a quarter of a century I have spent the months leading up to March practicing music for recital progams devoted exclusively to music written by women. At the beginning of the twenty-first century (and back into the twentieth century) the very idea that women could write music as well as men could write music was an exotic and sometimes subversive thought. Those of us who have played music written by women knew (and know) that gender has nothing to do with quality when it comes to composition. And those of us who have spent their musical lives trying to prove that point have learned, sometimes the hard way, that public perception and, by extension, public awareness is really important.

You can read my musings on the subject here. The posts go back to 2007, so make sure to click on "older posts" at the bottom of each page to see everything this link has to show. I have tried to do my part to increase public awareness.

The pianist with whom I played Women’s History and Awareness Month recitals for years is no longer performing, but I can still enjoy the fact that a great many musicians around the world are now giving concerts in March devoted exclusively to music written by women. Many find the months leading up to March as an opportunity to expand their repertoire by learning new works by living women, and some think of it as an opportunity to study and perform music by women who are no longer living.

The State University of New York at Fredonia hosts a database that offers detailed searches to help find such music.

March is particularly fun for me these days because musicians from all over the world send me email messages to let me know that they are playing something I wrote, often on a concert in March that is dedicated to music written by women. Some people ask for information to use for program notes, and some people send pre-performances recordings and ask for feeback. I have also enjoyed spending time on Zoom calls with students who are preparing performances of pieces I have written. Having a coaching session with living composer be just a phone call away is something I never could have imagined during my student days.

A remarkable thing about this gender-specific expansion of repertoire is that there seems to be a concurrent movement towards accepting the idea that well-written new music does not have to sound difficult, complicated, dense, noisy, or academic in order to be worth listening to or performing.