Women Composers
Originally posted: March 24, 2004
I attended a Youth Symphony Concert on Monday evening in Ojai (CA), and a choral festival the next day in another county. By my tally, in the Youth Symphony there were there were eight composers, and none of them were women. In the choral festival, we heard pieces from 42 composers in all of which 35 were male and 5 female, or a ratio of 7:1.
What message are we giving to kids? To the public? To the audience? No wonder I have heard many times that women “just can’t hack it as composers. If it were not so, there would be pieces to play.” I suppose by that reasoning, we could have said that blacks and women can’t hack it as athletes, until Jackie Robinson broke the barrier, or women got Title IX. And now the best down hill ski jump effort is from an 18 year old Norwegian woman, who bested all her teammates, but still can’t compete in the Olympics. Why? Well, there just aren’t that many women ski jumpers around to make the event worth practical. Do Olympic Committee men really have this kind of logic?
I will continue to be a composer activist, no matter what the obstacles out there.
Find a cause you believe in and go for it. Just make sure it doesn’t exclude people from their rights.
Naomi