While I was a student, I’d select my concert repertoire from music libraries, without a thought as to whether or not the sampling of composers at my disposal - deemed as “legitimate” repertoire - came solely from a male dominated, Eurocentric view. Though the pendulum began to swing away from these trends decades ago, the pandemic has truly accelerated efforts towards making a more inclusive, vibrant swath of music that features diverse composers, cultures and idioms - inclusive of gender, race and human experience - accessible to all. Vocal arts based organizations are now heavily focused on the task of being anti- racist - promoting voices that represent the wider swath of human experience, and taking big steps in programming and hiring practices to remedy the imbalance. Music organizations are re-programming the way audiences hear music. And that is an AMAZING thing!
Here are just a few exciting and worthwhile databases and projects that aim to diversify our auditory performance experiences:
Kassia Database: A resource for singers, teachers, performers, and the supporters of art song by women composers.
African Diaspora Music Project: The mission of ADMP is create a repository of music; to provide access to scores; to encourage research, exploration and performance of new works; to assist student competitors; to promote and uplift the contributions made by African-Americans to art song, be they composers, performers or scholars. Art song here is defined as belonging to the tradition of Western art culture.
Graphite Publishing: Graphite promotes talented composers and quality new music. “Some concert music pushes musical frontiers but compromises audience comprehension and enjoyment. Some tips the scale heavily toward accessibility. Graphite evens the balance by cultivating excellent composers who can write vocal music with distinction and craft and yet is still accessible to the artist and audience.”
The Institute for Composer Diversity: The Institute for Composer Diversity works to encourage the discovery, study, and performance of music written by composers from underrepresented groups.
Indictus Project: “Giving voice to overlooked and under-represented classical music” Indictus’ mission is to record, perform and promote the music of women, minorities, and other marginalized and neglected composers throughout history.
It is exciting to see so many professional organizations and musicians taking on the mantle or responsibility to remedy the wrongs of colonialism and contemporize many voices that have been ignored for too long.
Yay to our classical music orgs- we are making progress!