Composer Gender Diversity in Instrumental

Home , Anna Bon, Anne Dudley, Christopher Tin, Composer, Fanny Mendelssohn, Instrumental

Socially Responsible Music Repertoire: Composer Gender Diversity in Instrumental

Ensembles

Dissertation

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy

in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

Trevor Marcho

Graduate Program in Music

The Ohio State University

2020

Dissertation Committee

Professor Eugenia Costa-Giomi, Advisor

Professor Daryl W. Kinney

Professor David M. Hedgecoth

Copyrighted by

Trevor Marcho

2020

Abstract

Music composed by women is underrepresented in the repertoire of professional orchestras and in school instrumental music ensembles. The purpose of the present investigation was to explore this disparity. Five studies were conducted to explore different facets of the complex landscape comprising issues of gender in music composition and their impact on musical culture and society.

Study 1 focused on statistics from multiple sources, including the League of

American Orchestras, WOSU Classical 101 Public Radio and the Pulitzer Prize in Music showing that although a growing number of women composers are gaining repute and acclaim, women are still grossly under-represented among composers of music for professional music ensembles. Study 2 examined the thoughts, beliefs and experiences of experts in the field of professional classical music and in post-secondary schools of music. Results suggest that educational institutions and professional orchestras tend to program familiar music which inhibits programming innovation; however, participants acknowledge their responsibility for enacting social change through progressive programming practices with the help of advocates for women composers. Study 3 aimed to examine the thoughts, ideas and beliefs held by audiences of live professional orchestras about why the gender disparity in music composition exists. Patriarchal traditions were perceived to be the most important reason for the disparity particularly for those with graduate degrees. Study 4 sought to examine the thoughts and beliefs held by ii

instrumental school music educators about gender-balance in their curricula. Findings show that barriers exist in identifying and acquiring music composed by women.

Additionally, demanding performance schedules obligate teachers to maintain the status quo regarding the composers they choose and leave little time and energy for teachers to explore new and progressive programming practices. Study 5 explored school music directors’ beliefs about their roles as leaders for transformative social change and their current and past curricular practices, as well as the value of professional training specifically designed to transform such practices. Findings suggest that teachers perceive themselves as transformative leaders, that they value opportunities to learn about progressive programming, and adopt changes in programming if provided with support and resources.

The results of the investigation showed that the programming practices by professional orchestra administrators and by music educators favored well-known male composers over female composers. Furthermore, descriptions of their experiences and beliefs regarding the lack of representation of music composed by women in both professional and educational musical settings revealed that they acknowledge their roles as leaders for social change. Barriers including market forces, demanding teaching schedules and sheet music purchasing practices inhibit their effectiveness in enacting change. More resources may be needed, especially by beginning band directors, that would enable discovery and acquisition of ability-level appropriate music composed by women.

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Dedication

Dedicated to my loving wife, partner and companion, Lynn, for her unshaking support and faith in me.

Acknowledgments

I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family for their love and support, and particularly to my wife, Lynn, for encouraging me to reach higher than I ever thought I could. You have all shaped me into who I am and I cannot repay you for that.

To my advisor and mentor Eugenia Costa-Giomi, thank you for your guidance, and for being kind, honest and encouraging throughout my journey. I have grown in ways that I never thought possible, and I cannot possibly thank you enough for the opportunities you have provided me. To Daryl Kinney, thank you for your advice and guidance throughout my coursework. I have always valued your insight and thoughtfulness. To David Hedgecoth, thank you for being a sounding board and for always saying “yes” when I asked for your time and energy.

To the friends and colleagues I have made while at OSU, thank you for our talks, coffee runs, lunches and dinners, and chats around the office. To Brent Fisher, I have enjoyed going through this journey with you from the time we first met at our interview.

Best of luck, and I know we will remain close.

Finally, thank you to all the people who participated in this research, by granting interviews and allowing me access to your worlds. This work is not possible without you all.

Vita

1979…………………………………………Born – Bangor, Maine

2008…………………………………………B.M.E. Music Education

University of Maine, Orono

2013…………………………………………M.M. Music Conducting

University of Maine, Orono

2017-2019…………………………………...Graduate Research Associate

Music Education, The Ohio State University

2019-2020…………………………………...Fellow, Global Arts and Humanities

Discovery Theme, The Ohio State

University

Fields of Study

Major Field: Music

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii Dedication ...... iv Acknowledgments...... v Vita ...... vi List of Tables ...... xi List of Figures ...... xii

Chapter 1. Introduction ...... 1 The Investigation ...... 4 The Five Studies ...... 6 The Researcher: Positionality and Managing Subjectivity ...... 11 Context of the Investigation: General Literature Review ...... 12 Gender disparities and sexism in classical music ...... 12 Historical considerations ...... 15 Gender Roles in Music Classrooms ...... 21 Social Responsibility and Teachers ...... 23

Chapter 2. Women Composers in the World of Music Performance ...... 27 Abstract ...... 27 Introduction and Literature Review ...... 27 Method ...... 33 League of American Orchestras...... 33 WOSU Classical 101 Radio ...... 34 The Pulitzer Prize ...... 36 Results ...... 37

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League of American Orchestras...... 37 WOSU Classical 101 Radio ...... 41 The Pulitzer Prize in Music...... 45 Summary and Conclusions ...... 46

Chapter 3: Gender Inequity in Classical Music: Interviews with Experts in the Field..... 50 Abstract ...... 50 Introduction ...... 50 Method ...... 53 Participants ...... 54 Trustworthiness ...... 56 Data Collection and Analysis...... 56 Results ...... 57 Discussion ...... 65 Gender Disparities ...... 65 Identity ...... 70 Institutional Conservatism ...... 72 Social Responsibility ...... 78 Progress ...... 81 Conclusions ...... 83

Chapter 4: Audience Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Women Composers...... 84 Abstract ...... 84 Review of Literature ...... 84 Sexism/Bias...... 86 Patriarchy/Gender Roles ...... 88 Familiarity/Contemporary Music...... 89 Music Education ...... 89 Method ...... 91 Participants ...... 91 Research Site ...... 92 Design and Procedure ...... 93 Results ...... 95 viii

Discussion ...... 106 Conclusions ...... 114

Chapter 5: School Band Directors’ Thoughts and Beliefs Toward Gender Diversity in the Band Curriculum ...... 116 Abstract ...... 116 Introduction and Literature ...... 116 Method ...... 120 Participants ...... 120 Data Collection ...... 122 Analysis...... 123 Validity and Reliability ...... 124 Results and Discussion ...... 124 Gender Issues ...... 126 Curricular Considerations ...... 129 Teacher Efficacy Outcomes ...... 133 Acquiring Sheet Music ...... 138 Composers...... 141 Music Programming...... 142 Summary ...... 145

Chapter 6: Music Directors as Leaders for Social Change ...... 147 Abstract ...... 147 Introduction and Literature ...... 147 Method ...... 151 Workshop ...... 153 Measures ...... 155 Results ...... 157 Survey 1 ...... 157 Survey 2 ...... 160 Modified Leadership Practices Inventory - Delta ...... 166 Workshop Evaluation...... 167 Open Ended Questions ...... 168

Discussion ...... 170 Summary and Reflections ...... 175

Chapter 7: Conclusions ...... 178 The Problem ...... 178 Social Responsibility ...... 180 Barriers ...... 181 Progress ...... 185 Limitations of the Investigation ...... 188 Future Research ...... 189 Concluding Remarks ...... 190

References ...... 192

Appendix A. Women Composers Featured in the MusicMaster Database ...... 210 Appendix B. Conductors in MusicMaster who Recorded Works Composed by Women ...... 214 Appendix C. Semi-Structured Interview Questions: Experts in the Field ...... 220 Appendix D. Survey of a Classical Music Audience ...... 222 Appendix E. All Famous Composers Named by Audience Members...... 226 Appendix F. All 20th and 21st Century Composers Named by Audience Members ...... 230 Appendix G. All Living Composers Named by Audience Members ...... 237 Appendix H. All Women Composers Named by Audience Members ...... 243 Appendix I. Teacher Interview Questions ...... 246 Appendix J. Music Directors as Leaders for Change Survey 1 ...... 247 Appendix K. Music Directors as Leaders for Change Survey 2 ...... 256 Appendix L. Workshop Assessment Questionnaire ...... 269

List of Tables

Table 1: Male and female composers featured in the Orchestra Repertoire Report ...... 38 Table 2: Pieces of music composed by men and women featured in the Orchestra Repertoire Report (ORR) ...... 39 Table 3: Performances of music composed by men and women featured in the ORR .... 39 Table 4: Women Composers in WOSU Categories by Entries ...... 41 Table 5: Women Composers by Time Period ...... 42 Table 6: Top Ten Women Composers in MusicMaster by Number of Entries ...... 44 Table 7: Number of Occurrences of Themes ...... 60 Table 8: Thematic Interactions ...... 62 Table 9: Age Range of Participants ...... 95 Table 10: Importance of Knowing Composers ...... 96 Table 11: Number of Composers Named by Participants ...... 98 Table 12: Mean Number of Composers Named by Participants’ Musical Experience .... 99 Table 13: Number of Composers Named by Gender of the Respondents ...... 99 Table 14: Number of Occurrences of Themes ...... 126 Table 15: Composers Discussed ...... 142 Table 16: Demographic Data from Survey 1 Participants ...... 158 Table 17: Women Composers Programmed by Workshop Participants ...... 160 Table 18: Grade Levels Taught and Number of Years Teaching Experience by Survey 2 Participants ...... 161 Table 19: Music Composed by Women Programmed in the Last Five Years...... 162 Table 20: 2018-2019 Programming Practices of School Instrumental Music Directors 163 Table 21: Current Year Programming Practices of School Instrumental Music Directors ...... 165 Table 22: Women Composers Programmed by Participants ...... 166 Table 23: Combined LPI Scores ...... 167 Table 24: Frequency and Percentage of Responses in Emergent Themes ...... 170 Table 25: Women Composers Featured in MusicMaster as of April, 2017 ...... 210 Table 26: Conductors in MusicMaster who Recorded Works by Women ...... 214 Table 27: All Famous Composers Named by Participants ...... 226 Table 28: All 20th Century Composers Named by Participants ...... 230 Table 29: All Living Composers Named by Participants ...... 237 Table 30: All Women Composers Named by Participants ...... 243

List of Figures

Figure 1. Percentage of Entries of Music Composed by Women by Time Period ...... 43 Figure 2. Number of Responses by Theme ...... 103 Figure 3. Number of Responses by Education and Theme ...... 105

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Chapter 1. Introduction

“Repertoire is the curriculum” (Reynolds, 2000). Those four words, written by H.

Robert Reynolds, one of the eminent pedagogues in instrumental music education, speak volumes about the values held by many band and orchestra directors, including myself.

As an undergraduate music education major, my main focus was learning about the highest quality repertoire that all school band students needed to know. Composers such as Frank Ticheli, Gustav Holst, James Barnes, Francis McBeth, H. Owen Reed, and

Clifton Williams, among others, were at the top of my list of important band composers.

These composers had developed reputations for writing great music that I thought all students should experience.

When I began teaching in public schools, my first instinct was to teach the things that had attracted me to band. I loved the music of these eminent composers and wanted to program them as much as possible for my own ensembles. There were also new composers contributing to the band literature who were being lauded by my colleagues and promoted in journals, magazines and online forums. Composers like John Mackey,

Brian Balmages, Randall Standridge, and Timothy Loest were composing high quality band music, publishing new works each year. These too were composers I admired and whose music I wanted my students to experience and appreciate.

It was not until recently that I realized all the composers I have mentioned thus far

– those who have gained notoriety and renown – are men. In retrospect, I often ask 1

myself if my programming choices, while musically and educationally valuable, covered everything I wanted students to get from their band experience. In an age when privilege and social justice are at the forefront of so many conversations, I wonder whether my music programming choices inadvertently reinforced age-old stereotypes about gender in the music profession and in the culture. As a school band director for eight years, the issue of providing gender-specific role models for my students never occurred to me. I followed the trends of the day – choosing the composers I would champion based on their current popularity with other music teachers or on labeling assigned by music distributors, such as “editor’s choice.” I taught the music of the most famous composers, such as Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Bach because they were taught to me. A small part of my subconscious hoped that women composers would have a better chance at representation on the stage someday, but I did not consider my own role in perpetuating the suppression of their work from the mainstream Only when studying the problem as a graduate student did I develop a passion for helping to balance the male dominated music curricula that persist in schools around the United States.

I read literature on the lack of women composers represented in the classical music world, studied programming habits, and spoke with musicians and teachers. I have come to appreciate how business decisions regarding repertoire made by administrators of professional orchestras relate to music education. In the music-consumer world, the symphony orchestra is arguably the most publicly visible, accessible, and recognized classical music ensemble; many Americans spend time and money on live classical music by attending orchestra concerts, listening to public and private classical music radio

stations, and seeking out their favorite recordings online. In the music education world, however, the band may be considered the most visible ensemble type; school bands usually attract the greatest number of students (Elpus & Abril, 2011), and parents display their appreciation for the value of classical music by renting and purchasing instruments for their children and securing private music instruction. In this chapter I will describe how both the business and educational aspects of classical music have been gendered, and how gender roles, stereotypes and biases have diminished the presence of women in music composition, and may continue to discourage women from composing classical music for large instrumental music ensembles.

Articles in popular media bring the issue to our attention with increasing regularity. For example, in 2015, an established weekly newspaper published an article in which well-known women in music were deemed to be inferior musicians to men

(Thompson, 2015). This article was the topic of an article in the Washington Post drawing attention to classical music experts who continue to demean women in music

(Midgette, 2017). In another instance, The Times of London reported in 2016 that a new, gender-blind, judging process at the British Composer Awards led to the highest number of female composers being nominated for major awards (Sanderson, 2016). Though blind auditions been the norm in professional music ensembles since the 1970s (Doeser,

2016), blindly judging compositions was a novel idea in 2016, resulting in a higher-than- usual number of award nominations going to women composers. The New York Times reported that the 2016 performance of “L’Amour de Loin,” by Kaija Saariaho was only the second opera composed by a woman to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera; the

first was staged more than a hundred years earlier in 1903 (M. Cooper, 2016).

Incidentally, as of 2019, the Metropolitan Opera has not featured another opera composed by a woman since Saariaho’s in 2016 (Metropolitan Opera, 2019). A Cleveland online news outlet reported in 2018 that the Cleveland Orchestra’s repertoire was noticeably devoid of works composed by women (Oliveira, 2018); each of the 40 composers featured in the 2017-2018 season was a man. These examples serve to illustrate the prominence that gender equity has gained in modern society as reflected by major media outlets. Recently, movements aimed at improving gender equity in music have been fueled by reflections of these changing societal values regarding traditional gender roles and the suppression of musical works created by women. At present, however, an equitable share of the mainstage and of performances of school bands and orchestras has not been reached.

The Investigation

Existing research into gender issues in music is abundant, but much of it has focused on performing and conducting in professional classical music. For example,

Allmendinger and Hackman (1995) examined how the inclusion of women in orchestras affected the orchestra’s functions, member relationships and the women’s satisfaction, finding that after an initial drop in each category, scores rose as the share of women in the orchestras surpassed 50%. Literature directed toward female conductors often describes challenges regarding acceptance in a male-dominated world; this literature helps to set the stage for the discussion of women composers who are similarly ostracized and must operate in a state of “otherness” (Bartleet, 2008). Although from the late 1970s through

the mid-1990s, feminist scholars and others have written about the difficulties faced by women-composers (Barnes & Neules-Bates, 1974; Gates, 1994; Neuls-Bates, 1978;

Vagts, 1989; Wood, 1980), there is scarce literature from the last two decades about the

(lack of) progress made by women composers in the world of instrumental music education. The findings from research conducted for this investigation has led me to believe that repertoire performed by school music ensembles is connected in some ways to repertoire performed by the most visible classical music ensembles: symphony orchestras. There are further connections between music education and professional ensembles when one examines enrollment in post-secondary music schools.

In college and university music schools in the United States, 45% of undergraduate music students are women (DataUSA, 2020), however only 22% percent of graduate students entering music are women, and only 22% percent of composition students are women (HEADS, 2017). Coupled with the fact that only around 2% of the music performed by professional and school instrumental music ensembles is composed by women, an alarming trend is exposed: Nearly half of the aspiring musicians in undergraduate music programs are women, yet they comprise less than a quarter of the aspiring composers in graduate composition programs, and almost none of the music performed by professional or school ensembles is composed by women. Why do the numbers of performances of compositions by men eclipse those by women? Could this disparity be due in part to a lack of female role models for women throughout their educational careers? What barriers have existed, or still exist that keep music composed by women from being performed in school auditoriums and on the main stage?

Here I will investigate the disparity of women composers in music education, discuss the complex and multi-layered contributors to the disparity, and propose tools and resources to decrease the gender gap in music composition in music education curricula.

To facilitate the description of this complex phenomenon, I conducted five studies, each of which was designed to investigate different facets of the problem and to answer a unique set of research questions.

The Five Studies

Five studies were conducted to fully describe the gender disparity in orchestral and school ensemble composition. The findings of each study, in most cases, led to the design of the subsequent study. For example, the findings of the first study uncovered several important and unanswered questions which influenced the design of the second study. Each of the five studies is presented in a separate chapter as a self-contained and publishable manuscript with its own review of literature, research purpose, method, results, and discussion sections.

Chapter 1 introduces the problem at hand: A disproportionately small amount of the music performed by school and professional instrumental music organizations is composed by women. The chapter goes on to describe my positionality as a male and how my privilege impacts subjectivity, and it describes the existing literature relating to issues surrounding the problem: Historical considerations and traditional gender roles, sexism, feminism, social progressiveness and social responsibility.

The first study (Chapter 2), co-authored with my advisor, sought to explore the number of works composed by women that are performed by professional orchestras and

played by a classical music radio station, as well as the number of women seeking higher education in composition. Descriptive statistical analysis was employed to summarize that data for ease of discussion (Lomax & Hahs-Vaughn, 2012). Data were gathered from the League of American Orchestras’ Orchestra Repertory Report, WOSU Classical

101 Radio’s MusicMaster database, and from the website of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, which listed prize winners and finalists.

The study outlined in Chapter 3 sought to understand why such a large gender gap exists in music composition. I examined the beliefs and attitudes of people in the classical music industry and in higher education about the gender disparity in composition utilizing a phenomenological approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 75) to explore and describe the experiences of individuals in the world of professional music who have insights into the gender disparity in composition. Two orchestra executives and two university music professors – one of whom was a composer – participated in semi-structured, phenomenological interviews (Roulston, 2010, p. 16) with open-ended questions and room for probing and follow-up questions. I used a constant comparative

(Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 316; Conrad, 1978) analysis technique to develop emergent themes into categories, which were then re-categorized throughout the coding process to develop each category and sub-category.

Chapter 4 describes the third study, in co-authorship with my advisor, which sought to further understand the reasons for the gender gap in music composition by examining the beliefs and knowledge of people who express interest in classical music. I will discuss results from both the pilot study, for which participants belonged to a

sampling frame (Fowler, 2014, p. 15) of people who attended one of three University band concerts. Results of the pilot study compelled me to edit the wording of at least one question-item for clarity. The sampling frame (Fowler, 2014, p. 15) that I used for the main study consisted of people who attended a concert performed by a professional symphony orchestra in a mid-Western city. I employed this type of convenience sampling in an effort to maintain “representativeness” (Heeringa, West & Berglund,

2017, p. 17); it was inferred that people attending a professional orchestra concert may have a high level of interest in classical music, as well as a greater-than-average knowledge of classical music composers. Audience members answered survey questions on a paper questionnaire about their knowledge of women composers, as well as their ideas about why music composed by men is performed more often than music composed by women.

For Chapter 5, school music teachers participated in phenomenological interviews

(Roulston, 2010, p. 16) to examine their experiences, programming practices and ideas, as well as thoughts and beliefs about gender equity in their music curricula. Utilizing similar methods to Chapter 3, my advisor and I employed a transcendental phenomenological approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 78) to separate our own experiences as much as possible and to focus solely on those of the participants. The participants were middle-school and high-school music teachers who taught band (though some also taught choir, orchestra or other music electives). Transcripts of the interviews were checked for accuracy by the participants to improve trustworthiness (Roulston,

2010, p. 87), and we used constant comparative analysis techniques (Conrad, 1978;

Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 316) to categorize and re-categorize emergent themes.

The fifth and final study (Chapter 6) aimed to learn if/how music educators see themselves as transformative leaders, and if that sense of leadership can be employed to enact social change within their classrooms and their curricula. A professional development workshop was offered to music teachers with a focus on including works composed by women in the school instrumental music curriculum and teachers answered questions about their curricular music programming practices. Participants were evaluated for transformative leadership skills using a version of the Leadership Practices

Inventory-Delta (Kouzes & Posner, 2006), which was modified to fit the needs of this study. Results of the analysis yielded important insights into problems faced by music educators regarding repertoire programming, and how some of those problems may be addressed.

Finally, Chapter 7 provides a discussion of the intersections and convergences of the results across the five studies. Here, I link the main ideas of the investigation to the existing literature around traditional gender roles, sexism, social responsibility and social progress. Limitations and future research possibilities are also described here.

Each of the studies that embody this investigation have unique methodological limitations. For example, in Chapter 2, I examined the Orchestra Repertory Reports from

2001, 2006 and 2012, attempting to gather information that illuminated trends in programming practices regarding the performances of music composed by women.

Exploration of the years in-between may have told the story in more detail, especially

considering the decreasing sample size leading up to the final year of publication of the report. Additionally, while data gathered from WOSU were valuable, it is but one public radio station, and therefore results are unique to that station.

In Chapter 3, the participants, though data rich, were selected due to their proximity to the researcher, either through prior relationships or physical proximity. This purposeful non-probability sampling did yield important data and interesting results; however, their experiences should not necessarily be generalized to those of others in similar positions.

In Chapter 4, the audience attendees who arrive early heard a pre-concert lecture about Gustav Mahler in which his wife, Alma, was mentioned. This may have threatened external validity in that she was forbidden from composing her own music by her husband. Additionally, composers featured in the concert program were likely represented more robustly than they would if they had not been on the concert program.

Further, participants were self-selected; it is possible that only those with an interest in feminism, women’s rights, and/or equality completed the survey. Without demographic data from the entire audience, it is unclear whether more women were likely to complete the survey, or if more women attend symphony orchestra concerts than men.

Chapter 5 featured five interviews of middle school band directors, and one from a high school band director and there were five women and one man. This sampling fails to gather adequate data for comparisons between grade levels and between the gender of the teachers. Additionally, only one early-career teacher and one late-career teacher were

interviewed. More variety of experience levels could have revealed important information about how programming practices and teachers’ values evolve over time.

Participants in Chapter 6 were self-selected in that they were interested in attending a workshop focused on learning about women composers for school band directors. It is likely that they do not represent the larger population of band directors.

Additionally, participants self-reported data regarding programming practices in the past five years, the previous school year, and the upcoming school year. Self-reporting may lead to exaggerated responses, thus, skewing the data.

The Researcher: Positionality and Managing Subjectivity

As a male, I understand and am aware that my ability to be objective and to truly understand some of the intricacies of the gender and power structures that are being discussed in this dissertation may be called into question. I do not want to appear to have

“solved the problem” for women, or for my own voice to become the voice of change in this area. Instead, my goal is to share what I have learned by asking questions that provided insights into the problem at hand.

I endeavored to approach the research questions and analyses with reflexivity and representation in mind (Creswell, 2018, p. 228). My role as a researcher is to question and report the findings of my investigations but I recognize that my own past and background has influenced my perspective. I must acknowledge the role of men in the discrimination of women in the past through actions and ways of thinking. The reader should consider my intent, but also my position as a white male, having experienced the abundance of privilege that accompanies that identity in the United States.

Context of the Investigation: General Literature Review

Each of the five studies included in the present investigation (Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively) provides a focused review of literature relevant to the investigation in question. Here I present a review of literature on the broader context of the investigation to provide an overview of historical, social, and educational considerations surrounding the gender disparity in professional and school music composition. I will discuss the existing literature regarding gender disparities in music, including issues in popular media and overt as well as implicit sexism. I will continue by addressing historical considerations, such as the impact of traditional gender roles, gender bias within the orchestral world and the military foundations of the school band format. Finally, I will discuss positive steps in promoting the work of women-composers in both professionally performed classical music and school instrumental music ensembles through the lenses of feminism and of social justice.

Gender disparities and sexism in classical music

Most people in the United States can probably name at least a few well-known composers such as J. S. Bach, Beethoven and/or Mozart, and many people who are classical music aficionados may be able to name many more. It is interesting then to learn that most undergraduate music students, who study music history and literature within their degree programs, can name a multitude of composers, but that very few of those included in the list are women (Strempel, 2006). This could be in part due to the generally accepted music curricula used by schools and universities that utilize a broad but shallow view of the creative accomplishments in Western art music, or “classical”

music (Bernabé-villodre & Martínez-bello, 2018). Traditional gender roles have forced women out of creative artistic vocations and into more domestic ones. Additionally, women’s creative voices have been suppressed. Bartleet (2008) describes the situation in this way: “Not only have women's voices been marginalized, their presence has also been limited to a token minimum” (2008). Tokenism creates a problem for underrepresented groups by positioning them as “other,” further ostracizing them from the mainstream.

Tokenism can also provide a false sense of accomplishment; music directors and school music teachers may feel a sense of “ticking the box” by programming a piece of music composed by a woman, but in reality this a way of doing the bare minimum to promote social justice.

As various waves of feminism took-hold from the 1970s through the present day, women have found it easier to reach higher levels of education and artistic achievement, but the proportion of male-composed to female-composed music is still very skewed in favor of men. Women have found it difficult to navigate sexism in post-secondary composition programs, publishing, and the extremely male-dominated world of professional orchestras (McCartney, 1995). Even as recently as 2015, only 14.3% of the works by living composers performed by the largest U.S. orchestras were composed by women (O’Bannon, 2016b). It may be argued that women should be better represented in music composed within the last 30 years than music composed before that time because the professional restrictions that women encountered since before the mid-20th century have been lifted. However, a 2016 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra report shows that

music composed by women in the last 30 years had not been performed any more than music composed by women prior to that (O’Bannon, 2016a).

Green (1997) claimed that music is considered feminine and ‘of the body,’ while men approach composition from a more technical standpoint, promoting its more transcendent qualities: Rational and objective, which are considered masculine qualities. By establishing the acceptable processes by which one composes music in masculine terms, men effectively excluded women from the profession (p. 85-86). Green

(1997) furthered the argument that music is gendered by analyzing the use of language regarding women’s and men’s musical accomplishments: When critics write positively about women’s music, they use masculine terminology. She used the example that

Schubert can write “sensitively,” but women write “with power,” as if they feel the need to make up for the fact that their music was composed by a woman (p. 103-104).

Traditional gender stereotypes regarding women’s incapability of producing high quality art have existed for centuries and, unfortunately, persist (Green, 1997, p. 85). Even when female musicians were lauded for their performances that praise was often given using masculine language (Green, 1997, p. 103). Terminology related to power and technical prowess are used to describe successful performances and compositions by women, deepening gender stereotypes while simultaneously diminishing musical contributions by women that do not conform to such masculine language.

Men are not alone in their historical bias against the creative works of women through the use of language. A landmark study by social psychologist, Goldberg (1968) found that creative works by women were discriminated against by men, but also found

that women held prejudicial beliefs about their own gender. Goldberg asked participants to read an article and then rate for quality; the author’s name on the article for half of the participants was a male name (John T. McKay), and on the other half was a female name

(Joan T. McKay). However, a meta-analysis of research using Goldberg’s experimental design (Swim, Borigida, Maruyama, & Myers, 1989) has shown that the differences between ratings of men and women tended to be minimal. It was postulated that the

“flexibility of social perceivers’ thinking” (Swim et al., 1989) may be an important factor in rating the quality of creative works. In other words, the socially constructed idea that gender affects the quality of creative output may have changed over time. While at one time, both men and women tended to rate creative works by women lower than those by men, modern social trends toward gender equality have diminished the effects of gender on those ratings.

Men have dominated the world of classical music for centuries essentially by implicitly and/or explicitly creating a hostile work environment; women have been excluded from the composition profession through sexist language, marginalization through tokenism, and gender bias. However, “social perceivers” (Swim et al., 1989), or socially progressive individuals in key roles such as music educators and orchestra music directors and administrators may be diminishing the impact of centuries of suppression of women in music.

Historical considerations

Historical research in music in the last 40 years has found that women have been remembered more for their secondary or supportive roles in music than for their work as

creators and contributors to the Western musical canon (Wood, 1980). Women in music are remembered as siblings, spouses or teachers of important male composers rather than as composers themselves. Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Alma Mahler, for example, are recognized for their promising potential as musicians and composers, but ultimately, their stories tell a tale of oppression of their creative abilities. Abraham

Mendelssohn, father of Fanny and her well-known brother Felix, wrote to Fanny that,

“Music will perhaps become his [Felix's] profession, whilst for you it can and must only be an ornament; never the root of your being and doing” (Strempel, 2006). The elder

Mendelssohn was not alone in his sentiment that a woman cannot become a professional composer; Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler and highly trained musician and composer in her own right, was referred to by her biographer only as a muse who,

“devoted her life to men whom she considered to be geniuses” (Monson, 1983, p. xvi).

Clara Schumann, a supremely gifted musician and wife of eminent composer, Robert

Schumann, resigned herself to a life with little creative musical fulfillment. She wrote, “I once believed that I had creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not wish to compose—there never was one able to do it” (Lam, 2018). Well-known composition pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger had a promising start to her composing career, but institutional sexism and patriarchal attitudes eroded her self-confidence. She ultimately abandoned her professional composition career and instead taught some of the world’s greatest composers (Potter, 1999). Although the late 19th century saw an increase of women attending music conservatories and forming women’s ensembles, these

immensely creative and musical women each fulfilled gender roles that had been passed with little change from previous generations.

All-female orchestras, such as the Vienna Ladies’ Orchestra, organized in 1867, provided a non-professional outlet for women who played orchestral instruments. This amateur ensemble gained attention from critics not for its artistic prowess but for its pleasing appearance; reviews of their performances glossed over the musical accomplishments, focusing instead on the physical attractiveness of the women in the orchestra (Jagow, 2017). More recently, a college women’s acapella group performing back-to-back with a men’s acapella group was given polite applause and was privately chided for their appearance, while the male group received standing ovations (O’Toole,

2000). The clothing worn by pianist Yuja Wang was the first topic in a critique of her recent performance of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29 in Bb, “Hammerklavier” at Carnegie

Hall (Malcolm, 2016). These are but a few examples of the misogynistic and patriarchal attitudes that have been used, perhaps unintentionally, throughout history to diminish the accomplishments of female musicians and composers. Men are often judged on their merits, while women are judged by how well they “present their femininity” (O’Toole,

2000).

Past European traditions dictated many of the gender roles that were transported to America during its infancy. Agrarian societal values enabled those traditionally female roles – housekeeping, child-rearing, and other domestic duties – to be perpetuated

(Jagow, 2017). As the United States entered the “Progressive Era” (1890-1920), a time of technological and social progress, women became more engaged in musical pursuits,

sometimes even forming bands (Hersey & Sullivan, 2009). Women entered military bands in the United States during World War II (Sullivan, 2008) and were present for the evolution from women’s bands to fully incorporating women into regular active duty military bands. For example, Nichols (2015) described the experiences of two women in the U.S. Airforce bands; one joined the all-female Women in the Air Force Band in 1955, and the other joined the fully gender-integrated U.S. Airforce Band in 1983. Both bandswomen spoke of barriers and challenges, particularly in gaining acceptance from other musicians (Nichols, 2015).

It should be noted that the until the emergence of opera in the 1600s, women were excluded from making music except in the home – often for their father’s or husband’s guests. The need for sopranos and contraltos in popular operas of the day may have given women their first chance to study music and develop a career (Graham, 2000). The

Roman Catholic Church forbade women from performing music, though a woman, Saint

Cecilia, was named the patron saint of music (Jagow, 2017). In fact, music history texts have largely ignored the contributions of women overall. For example, Cecile

Chaminade (1857-1944) composed over 200 works, but the notable New Grove

Dictionary of Music likens its quality to that of “drawing room music” (Graham, 2000).

It is clear that the musical roles of men and women have been clearly differentiated for centuries, favoring the creative accomplishments of men.

Advancing through the 19th century, gatekeepers in the orchestra world believed that women were too weak to handle the “powerful art” involved in making music

(Carter, 1988). Additionally, the grueling rehearsal schedules of professional orchestras

were considered too hard on women (Jagow, 2017). The oppression of women’s creativity continued into the 20th century; the Great Depression saw working women used as scapegoats – often accused of taking jobs from men. This changed briefly during the

First and Second World Wars, when men were drafted into the military, leaving many orchestras and military bands open to women. After the end of each war, however, men regained dominance in musical ensembles (Sullivan, 2008). Sexist and gender-biased attitudes persisted through the 20th century and continue in pockets of the orchestra world today. For example, the Vienna Philharmonic came under scrutiny in the 1990s for its policies promoting gender and ethnic purity (Osborne, 1996, 1999). Additionally, the

Munich Philharmonic recently settled a 13-year legal battle concerning the hiring of a principle trombonist, who, upon discovery that she was a woman, was demoted to the second trombone position and stripped of all solo opportunities (Eakin, 2003).

Nowadays women continue to play supporting roles in orchestras in the United

States. The League of American Orchestras (Doeser, 2016) reported that between 55.7% and 59.2% of orchestra staff-members were women, compared with 44.3% and 40.8% for men. Orchestra staff-members ensure that non-musical needs of the orchestra are met, such as payroll, advertising and marketing, librarian duties and other administration activities. They are, in a sense, caretakers of the orchestra, allowing musicians to focus on artistic pursuits.

Overall, the landscape of gender equity has changed drastically within orchestras in the last 30 years. The League of American Orchestras reported that the gender gap

among performers has narrowed substantially, with nearly equal representation of men and women in the largest orchestras in the United States (Doeser, 2016).

Military history of the band. During the military beginnings of the band in the

United States in the mid and late 1800s, most band leaders and composers were male.

From the end of the Civil War until World War I is considered the “Golden Age of

Bands” (Sullivan, 2008). Former military musicians became music teachers and town bandsmen after the Civil War (Swafford, 1998), contributing to the popularity of the band genre in the U.S. There were several all-female bands during the “Golden Age,” such as

“Miss Sousa, Jr.’s” Ladies Military Brass Band, which toured the country from 1898 until

1913 (Sullivan, 2008). In the years between World War I and World War II, military band musicians became school music teachers in droves, bringing with them a military milieu, complete with uniformed marching bands (Humphreys, 1989). The popularity and influence of bands led by John Phillip Sousa, Patrick Gilmore and others in the late

19th and early 20th century cemented the band’s place in schools (Palmquist & Payne,

1992).

In the years after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Unites States created several military bands staffed entirely by women. They included the Marine Corps

Women’s Reserve Band, the 404th ASF Women’s Army Corps Band, and the Coast

Guard SPAR Band, among others (Hersey & Sullivan, 2009; Sullivan, 2008). The mission of these bands was to carry on the military music tradition despite the need for men to fight in the European and Pacific theaters. After these ensembles disbanded,

many of the musicians joined town bands or became teachers, and some were able to craft professional careers as musicians.

It was not until 1972, with the adoption of Title IX, the Equal Opportunity in

Education Act, that many all-male (and all-female) military bands were forced to accept both sexes. Title IX is also credited with the incorporation of males and females into school bands (Sullivan, 2008), and now school music ensembles generally have more female students than male students (Elpus, 2015; Elpus & Abril, 2019; Elpus & Abril,

2011). The Equal Opportunity in Education Act drastically changed the gender landscape of school and military bands; these institutions can be regulated and governed.

Historically perpetuated traditional gender roles, however, have persisted, manifesting in music classrooms through subtler means.

Gender Roles in Music Classrooms

As they do in professional musical settings, traditional gender roles also manifest in the music classroom. In one such example, Armstrong (2008) studied a music classroom in which students were to compose music using computer technology. There were fewer computers than there were students, resulting in the boys taking control of the computers first, forcing the girls in the class to take on secondary roles in the projects.

Armstrong also found that males were often positioned as experts in technology in the classroom and had more power to shape the culture of its use (2008). When female students are placed at a disadvantage through mismanagement of technology in the classroom, it is reasonable to expect that many would find it difficult to succeed at technological tasks. The consequences of failing to address such challenges could

transfer into a career such as music composition, a technology-heavy pursuit, which may deter some women from entering the field.

Traditional gender roles and stereotypes continue to influence students in instrumental music classrooms (Abeles, 2009; Zervoudakes & Tanur, 1994). Fourth and fifth grade students choosing instruments for popular music ensembles sometimes base their choices on the perceived gender of the instrument itself; male students chose “boy’s instruments,” such as electric guitar and drums, and female students chose “girl’s instruments,” such as keyboard or vocalist (Cooper & Burns, 2019). Additionally, middle school students have been shown to conform to the traditional gendering of band and orchestra instruments; flute and violin players are most often female and tuba and bass players are most often male (Abeles, 2009; Delzell,1989). Gender stereotypes permeate into students’ instrument choices through gendered language as well;

Cumberledge (2018) found that performances of students who played instruments that are traditionally considered feminine were evaluated using feminine descriptors, such as

“caring” or “sensitive.” Conversely, performances of students who played “masculine instruments” were described with masculine language, such as “leader” or “dominant.”

Doubleday (2008), an ethnomusicologist, wrote that choosing to play an instrument that does not conform to one’s gender has a social impact, setting an example for others to follow. Perhaps educators and parents could identify critical moments in their student’s and children’s development in order to intervene and ensure that these traditional gender roles are disrupted so that students develop a broader and more balanced view of their future musical and creative opportunities.

Social Responsibility and Teachers

Feminist scholars in music education seek to dismantle rigid notions of musical understanding within and without the classroom. Music educators and music directors promote the study and performance of music solely for its artistic values. However, feminist scholars argue that removing or ignoring the context in which the music lives creates problems with understanding and experiencing the music (Lamb, 1994). While other subjects in academia wrestle with issues of multiple identities – gender, patriarchy, race and class – classical music institutions continue to promote a conservatory style practices of music teaching and performance (O’Toole, 2000). Feminist musicologists argue that these nonmusical issues are equally important to the musical issues that receive most of the attention of music directors and educators (Gould, 2011; O’Toole, 2000).

Feminist scholars have formed academic forums and sponsored concerts and festivals to highlight music composed by women (Wood, 1980). These types of events are closed systems, however, and serve only as first steps to wider acceptance and renown. Events that highlight music composed by women are often advertised as events for women, which may imply that they are exclusively for women. While many women may find comradery, professional support and venues for performances of their work, the exclusionary nature of these types of events could further define women as “other” and preclude wider acceptance of their work among mainstream audiences. Recognition of women composers as simply “composers,” and acknowledging past musical achievements of women is an important step toward their acceptance into the mainstream

Western musical canon (Kuster, 2013).

Women have been composing music for centuries with little recognition, and it is important for music educators to respond to that body of work by sharing compositions by women with students (Artesani, 2012). Many students are unaware of the cultural contributions made by these composers, and therefore develop an unbalanced perspective of musical creativity and music-making (Palmquist & Payne, 1992). Scholars agree that works composed by women should be included in the instrumental music curriculum of any school ensemble to reflect a gender-balanced attitude toward music-making and creating (Jagow, 2017; Palmquist & Payne, 1992). Bands and orchestras – both professional and in schools – are culturally isomorphic regarding the values of the society in which they developed. Osborne (1999) defines cultural isomorphism as, “the processes by which artistic expression tends to reflect the general cultural and sociopolitical beliefs of its environment.” Exclusion of works composed by women is an admittance, in effect, that their work is not valued as highly as those of men.

Some scholars argue that continued integration of music composed by women into the curriculum is better than occasionally highlighting their contributions, as students may perceive the “otherness” as meaning unequal, or “less-than” (Gelfand, 1997;

Palmquist & Payne, 1992). Normalization of the creative work of women could lead to a smoother integration of their music into school curricula, as well as the mainstage concert programs of professional bands and symphony orchestras. Some music researchers believe that it is the responsibility of educators to raise awareness of the past achievements of women composers. For example, Gates (1994) stated, “Those of us who teach music history, music appreciation, and theory must do all in our power to ensure

that the works of women composers of all historical periods are included in our courses.”

Integrating women composers more thoroughly into music curricula could send a powerful message to music students: Women have been creating music despite the social challenges they have confronted, and much of that work is worth knowing and performing.

Some passionate advocates and educators have developed fully formed lessons, units and other curricular materials to help music educators incorporate the contributions made by women in music into their courses. For example, Artesani (2012) published an article outlining a general music unit for middle- and high-school students that outlined a series of “firsts” that have been accomplished by seven women in both classical and popular music. The author linked each lesson to the National Standards for Music

Education and outlined step-by-step lesson plans for teachers to follow. This resource is ready-made for music educators who would like to include the artistic accomplishments of women in music into their curricula, but do not have prerequisite knowledge about those musicians and composers.

Incorporating women composers into school curricula could provide role models for female music. Strempel wrote about the perpetuating cycle that needs to be broken:

“A lack of visible role models leads to a lack of students leads to a lack of future role models” (2006). Research suggests that structured gender-specific mentoring programs have enabled women to advance is many traditionally male-driven fields (Grant, 2000), and mentorship can be an effective tool in supporting women in creative and leadership fields (Bartleet, 2008; Gelfand, 1997). The American Symphony League and the

Chicago Symphony have instituted a mentorship program for young conductors and many of the participants have credited gender-specific role models as instrumental to their career success (Grant, 2000). Programs such as these could facilitate mentor- mentee relationships for composers as well, assisting aspiring women composers in navigating the challenges discussed here.

The array of problems and outdated social norms that have diminished the recognition of music composed by women and have often inhibited women from becoming composers is vast and complex. Little by little throughout history, women have gained more freedom and recognition in music, however their creative work continues to be overshadowed by that of men. It is important to begin to study some of the complex problems – to explore and examine aspects of those problems that might intersect with other aspects and further complicate what seems to be a simple issue: There are fewer performances of music composed by women than of music composed by men.

To understand this problem, it is helpful to begin to understand the depth and breadth of the gender gap in performances of music composed by women compared with music composed by men.

Chapter 2. Women Composers in the World of Music Performance

Abstract

Women composers are under-represented in the orchestral repertoire, although recent trends may indicate slight improvement toward a more equitable share of the orchestral world. The present descriptive study combines statistics from multiple sources, including the League of American Orchestras, WOSU Classical 101 Public

Radio and the Pulitzer Prize in Music. These sources of data each contributed differently to provide and overview of the current state of women composers within the field of

Western art, i.e., classical music. Results suggest that a growing number of women composers are gaining repute and acclaim, but women are still grossly under-represented among composers of classical and doctoral composition programs. Positive trends can be seen among specific orchestras and specific conductors who promote women’s compositions, as well as Pulitzer Prize winners in composition. A lack of familiarity with music composed by women and a lack of strong female role models for young composers may be the largest barrier facing women composers.

Introduction and Literature Review

Women have been composing music for centuries, yet their efforts have been largely unappreciated (Gates, 1994; Midgette, 2013). For example, works by Fanny

Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, two of the more historically well-known women composers, are performed rarely – sometimes only once per season – if at all, by major 27

orchestras (Orchestra Repertoire Report, 2014). A report published by the Baltimore

Symphony Orchestra (O’Bannon, 2016a) stated that 1.8% of the total works performed by the 22 of the largest orchestras in the U.S. had been composed by women, and that the works composed by women made up only 14.8% of the pieces written by living composers (O’Bannon, 2016b).

It may be argued that women should be better represented in music composed within the last 30 years than music composed before that time because the professional restrictions that women encountered prior to the 21st century have been lifted. However, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra report noted above shows that newer works by women had not gained much ground in terms of having their music programmed and performed. An example of women composers’ exclusion from classical music can be found in the Metropolitan Opera. During its 2016-2017 season, the Metropolitan Opera staged “L’Amour de Loin,” an opera composed by Kaija Saariaho; this was the only opera composed by a woman to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera since 1903 and was the first performance of this opera since its premier in Salzburg in 2000 (Cooper,

2016). The examples from the Metropolitan Opera and the Baltimore Symphony

Orchestra seem to convey the same message: Women composers face many challenges that do not impact men. Are women composers being discriminated against in the classical music world?

Gender inequality in music is not a new topic. In fact, although steps have been taken in the past century to lessen its impact, female composers continually fail to earn the renown that is afforded their male counterparts. Indirect discrimination occurs in

classical music when gendered preconceptions affect how women are treated and what opportunities are provided to them (Born & Devine, 2016). This form of discrimination is usually subtle and may manifest itself in situations where judgement is used for assessment. For example, when evaluating compositions as entries in a contest where the composer’s name is known, or perhaps within an educational setting, where a male advisor guides a female student toward a career in academia rather than professional composition (Ostrander, 2010). Arguably, the feminist movements of the last five decades have contributed to increased numbers of women in performance (Bartleet, 2008;

Doeser, 2016). But according to McCartney (1995) women still encounter difficulties in navigating sexism in our current music environment. She specifically refers to women entering the gendered worlds of post-secondary composition programs, music publishing and professional orchestras, and developing strategies such as “acting like one of the boys” (McCartney, 1995). “Feminist musicology” (Bartleet, 2008) has grown from the

1970s through the present day contributing to more awareness of the creative accomplishments of women. Additionally, more women than ever before have won positions as performers in major orchestras through the adoption of blind audition practices, which narrowed the gap between women and men in the orchestral ranks to near equal numbers (Doeser, 2016). As more women have entered the performance arena of professional orchestras, doors have opened for younger generations to find a supportive network of role models and mentors who can facilitate and promote musicians’ career advancement (Grant, 2000).

The power of mentoring by positive, gender-specific role models cannot be underestimated in the progress of female students in composition programs (Grant, 2000;

Bartleet, 2008). Structured mentoring programs have been successful in promoting women in other areas of the orchestral world that also tend to be male dominated. For example, the League of American Orchestra’s Conductor’s Mentor Program has had a positive impact on female conductors (Grant, 2000). Professional organizations for women composers, such as the International Alliance for Women in Music

(www.iawm.org), Association of Canadian Women Composers (www.acwc.ca), and New

York Women Composers, Inc. (www.newyorkwomencomposers.org) exist to provide women with the support needed to further their careers and provide a network of colleagues with whom they can collaborate.

Some female role models have emerged in the composition world, who may have bolstered interest and inspired women to enter the field. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

(1867-1944) was arguably the first successful woman to gain fame as a composer of large-scale orchestral works. However, even with her notoriety she reported struggling with her identity as the “token” woman in a sea of men, and her 168 catalogued compositions are rarely programmed (Block, 1998; Orchestral Repertoire Report, 2014).

American composer Jennifer Higdon was third on the list of most-performed living composers from the Baltimore Symphony report with 18 performances of her works; she is the only woman on that list (O’Bannon, 2016b). For comparison, the most played male living composer had 35 performances in that same season.

Several organizations have gathered repertoire data that can be analyzed to explore trends and examine some of the issues that arise within the field of classical music. The League of American Orchestras (LAO) is an organization dedicated to furthering orchestral music through support of its member orchestras. The LAO published their Orchestra Repertoire Report each year between 2001 and 2013. Like the

Baltimore Symphony’s report, these data may be useful in extrapolating findings regarding performances of music composed by women. In the present study I examined three performance seasons of repertoire data in the LAOs Orchestra Repertoire Report spanning 12 years searching for women composers performed in each of the three seasons.

In order to further investigate the presence of women composers in the world of professional performances, I sought out other sources of data representative of mainstream performance opportunities. An important performance venue in classical music is public radio. Public radio station WOSU: Classical 101, located in Columbus, Ohio, has the largest audience for classical music in the region with an average of 1,000 listeners per hour and 55,000 listeners each week (RRC, 2017) – many more listeners than most symphony orchestra concerts. Though generalizations cannot be made about all public radio stations, this one kept very detailed databases containing their music library and information about how often individual compositions are played on the air.

How can we evaluate whether women have achieved recognition in composition other than through the marketplace of public performance venues? Composition awards can provide insight into a different side of the creative output of women composers.

Awards are given based on artistic and creative merit rather than popularity, and examination of composition award trends, such as the Pulitzer Prize in music may reflect different values than other performance data. Research in creativity suggests that perceptions of compositional ability by gender play a role in deciding these awards

(Colley, North & Hargreaves, 2003). There are stereotypes about women’s perceived deficiencies in the technical aspects of music composition and these have historically affected assessment and evaluation practices of men’s and women’s creative outputs

(Green, 1997; Gould, 2003; Armstrong, 2008). In fact, a meta-analysis conducted by

Baer and Kaufman suggested that studies in creativity may favor women over men, meaning that despite stereotypes, most studies show that women may be more creative than men (2008).

Inadequacy of information about the creative contributions by women in music may be partially to blame for the inequitable treatment of women composers. Despite changing attitudes toward gender equality, this inadequacy in the actualization of information could be driving the market for what classical music consumers and concertgoers hear. For example, music directors and other administrators of professional orchestras are driven by the need to sell tickets for live performances and that means that the “masterworks” (tried and true pieces known to fill seats in the concert hall) are relied upon for an overwhelming majority of concert programs (See Chapter 3). Orchestras often program less familiar music (composed by living composers or women composers) in an effort to promote its performance and educate their audience, but the “masterworks” still occupy most of the program of any given concert season (See Chapter 3). And as it

is well known, the masterworks have been almost exclusively composed by men

(O’Bannon, 2016a).

In the present study, we explored the under-representation of women composers in classical music by analyzing data from a variety of sources. The data gathered reflect trends in the “visibility” of women composers in the performance and artistic milieu in the United States and consumer marketplaces for classical music. We examined the data available through the League of American Orchestras, a public radio station specializing in classical music and the Pulitzer Prize in music.

Method

Data from the League of American Orchestra’s Orchestra Repertoire Report,

WOSU Classical 101 public radio’s music database, and the Pulitzer Prize in music were analyzed to explore trends in the dissemination of music by women composers in the form of actual performances. Each source was unique in the type of data collected and collection method (i.e. survey, artifact analysis, music library analysis), and as such provided different perspectives regarding the presence of women composers in the world of classical music composition.

League of American Orchestras

The League of American Orchestras conducted surveys to examine the repertoire performed by member orchestras from 2000 to 2013. The data collected from three separate surveys were organized into the Orchestra Repertoire Report by season. The survey was discontinued after 2013 due to diminishing participation in the survey by its member orchestras: 111 orchestras in 2001-2002, 237 in 2006-2007, and 57 in 2012-

2013. Each database was organized by composer, date of first performance, ensemble, conductor and soloists. The soloist data was irrelevant for the purpose of the present study and thus not analyzed.

Over the course of its existence, the League of American Orchestras made changes to its survey tool, resulting in changes in the data analysis. The 2001-2002 report showed not only the date of first performance, but also subsequent performances providing insight into whether women composers were being programmed in single performances, or within one of the multiple-day series. After the 2001-2002 season, only the date of the first performance was provided. In addition, the 2006-2007 and 2012-

2013 Orchestra Repertoire Reports presented data on the most-performed American composers and most-performed living American composers. This additional data allowed for a more thorough analysis, highlighting American composers of new music.

Data of the three examined seasons of the Orchestra Repertoire Report were analyzed to answer the following questions: (a) How many female and male composers were featured in the repertoire of the participating orchestras? (b) How many of the pieces performed by the orchestras were composed by women and men? (c) Did any conductors perform pieces composed by women multiple times?

WOSU Classical 101 Radio

Public radio station WOSU: Classical 101, located in Columbus, Ohio, has the largest audience for classical music in the region with an average of 1,000 listeners per hour and 55,000 listeners each week (RRC, 2017). The music library is extensive, containing over 35,000 compact discs; tracks that are used for programming are uploaded

into a computer program called MusicMaster (www.musicmaster.com). This software has been in use since 2006, and it enables radio-show hosts to organize the content of their shows by track length, composer, performer, conductor, instrumentation and genre.

There were numerous titled folders in the software reflecting the radio’s categorization of the repertoire. They included:

• Essential Short: Pieces under 20 minutes in length that were deemed

essential to any classical radio station

• Essential Long: Pieces over 20 minutes in length deemed essential to any

classical radio station.

• Secondary Short: Pieces under 20 minutes in length deemed very

important, but not essential.

• Very Long: Pieces longer than 45 minutes, i.e., symphonies, concerti,

other multi-movement works.

• Women’s History: Pieces tagged for use during Women’s History

programming each March. Pieces performed, conducted, or composed by

women.

The MusicMaster database did not keep track of individual works by composers, but instead listed music in the form of tracks from a compact disc. Some tracks were grouped into a single entry in the event that a radio show host wanted to play multiple movements of a larger work, while others were single tracks, sometimes signifying single movements of a larger work. In total, the program contained 204,522 entries, many of which were duplicate pieces, and some duplicate tracks. For instance, Mozart’s 40th

Symphony in G minor, K550 (a popular request) was in the MusicMaster program many times, with many duplicates of the same recording under different categories. I analyzed the MusicMaster database in April 2018 (the database is continually expanding) to explore the following questions: (a) How many of the entries in MusicMaster were composed by women and men? (b) Did any orchestras or specific conductors in

MusicMaster record a substantial amount of music composed by women?

It is important to acknowledge the measure of air-time dissemination of classical music over radio used to collect the data. WOSU radio used data collected by Nielsen

Audio, a measurement and data analytics company. “Nielsen family” members carry a transceiver that picks up a coded signal from any source of music within listening distance. This enables music heard from the car radio, home television or radio, grocery store, shopping mall, or any other location to act as data to be collected and analyzed by

Nielsen Audio. Listener data was analyzed from the company’s “Vital Signs Report” from March, 2016 to February, 2017 (Nielsen Audio, 2017).

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize in Music has been awarded for new American compositions each year since 1943. A prize was not awarded in the years 1953, 1964, 1965, or 1981 because the board did not reach a majority decision in favor of an entry. The winners and finalists since 1980 are listed on the Pulitzer Prizes website (www.pulitzer.org), along with the name of the composition and the ensemble that created the winning performance or recording. Notably, there is no evidence to suggest that the nominations undergo blind

adjudication. The guiding questions used for analysis were: (a) How many of the finalists and winners were women, and (b) what trends can be seen over time?

Results

Analysis of the different sources of data were best examined independently of each other, due to the different collection methods. The Orchestra Repertoire Reports provided survey data that offered a different perspective of the overall picture of women composers in the orchestra world than did the WOSU Classical 101 music database, which reflected specific compositions that were played on the air by the radio station.

The Pulitzer Prize data allowed for examination of composers at the creative pinnacle of their careers.

Three Orchestral Repertoire Reports were examined: 2000-2001, 2006-2007, and

2012-2013, allowing for examination of any trends that may have occurred. The

MusicMaster database enabled multiple categorizations to be examined and explored.

The Pulitzer Prize data allowed for a longitudinal approach to the analysis and a perspective that did not involve an audience. Results from each source combined effectively to paint an overall picture of gender inequity in the world of classical music.

League of American Orchestras

To determine frequency of performance, I conducted a frequency count of composers from the repertoire of the three selected seasons of the League of American

Orchestras. Table 1 shows the results regarding the total number of composers whose music was performed in each season, as well as the breakdown of male and female composers featured. The proportion of music composed by women and performed by

American orchestras overall did not fluctuate much among the three seasons we examined, with women’s compositions constituting an average of 5.5% of the total music performed (See Table 1).

Table 1

Male and Female Composers Featured in the Orchestra Repertoire Report Percentage of Total Number of Male Female Female Season Composers Composers Composers Composers 2000-2001 464 440 23 4.9 2006-2007 480 451 28 6.0 2012-2013 301 284 17 5.6 Note. Totals may not add up due to the exclusion of composers identified as “Anonymous” or “Traditional” from the male and female columns.

In addition to tabulating the number of composers featured in the Orchestra

Repertoire Report, we also calculated the number of pieces composed by men and women that were performed. Table 2 shows the disparity in the number of orchestral compositions by female and male composers performed. Tabulation of the number of times that pieces by male and female composers were performed each season (See Table

3) revealed that music composed by men, especially well-known composers (i.e., Mozart,

Beethoven and Tchaikovsky), were performed numerous times each season by nearly every orchestra in the League of American Orchestras. In contrast, music composed by women were rarely performed more than once per season.

Table 2

Pieces of Music Composed by Men and Women Featured in the Orchestra Repertoire Report (ORR) Pieces Pieces Total Composed by Composed by Percentage of Season Compositions Men Women pieces by WC 2000-2001 1,226 1,208 17 1.4 2006-2007 2,209 2,157 49 2.2 2012-2013 933 915 18 1.9 Note. Totals may not add up due to the exclusion of composers identified as “Anonymous” or “Traditional” from the male and female columns

Table 3

Performances of Music Composed by Men and Women Featured in the ORR Pieces Pieces Percentage of Total Pieces Composed Composed Pieces by Season Performed by Men by Women WC 2000-2001 2,746 2,730 15 0.5 2006-2007 5,779 5,742 36 0.6 2012-2013 1,473 1,453 20 1.3

The League of American Orchestras also published the list of the 10 most frequently performed works by American composers each season. Joan Tower appeared third in the 2006-2007 list, and Jennifer Higdon appeared seventh in the 2012-2013. That the work of two women composers were among the most performed by American orchestras provides further indication that changes are occurring towards a more inclusive repertoire. Additionally, it is worth noting that the 2006-2007 list of most- performed American living composers featured two women: Joan Tower and Jennifer

Higdon, respectively, and the 2012-2013 list featured three: Jennifer Higdon, Hannah

Lash and Cindy McTee, respectively (Orchestra Repertoire Report, 2014). 39

Most conductors are in decision-making positions when it comes to programming for their orchestras, though they may not be the sole deciders (See Chapter 3). They carry great influence and can champion the works of composers about whom they are passionate. The analysis of the Orchestra Repertoire Report according to conductor showed that 99 of the 912 total conductors played music composed by women. Of these, only 20 conducted two or more works by women composers. Perhaps these conductors feel the pressures of their stakeholders – sponsors, musicians and audience members – to program music that would sell tickets and albums (See Chapter 3).

While not all conductors are programming music by women, it appears that some conductors do perform women’s compositions, and program their music more often than others. It is unclear from these data whether these conductors are actively promoting music composed by women or if they consider themselves “gender-blind” when it comes to high-quality music. Notably, the conductors who programmed the most music composed by women were male. There are several female conductors of major orchestras

(e.g., Marin Alsop, JoAnn Falletta and Odaline de la Martinez), and one might expect them to program more music composed by women, however, they may be under the same pressures experienced by all conductors to program music that audiences will purchase tickets to hear. Perhaps the task of programming women composers’ music is best accomplished by conductors whose name alone can draw large audiences.

Up to 17 orchestras performed multiple works by women composers. Of those,

14 performed two or three works composed by women, and three performed four compositions by women. Only two orchestras performed multiple pieces written by

female composers in more than one season: The Nashville Symphony (4 in 2001-2002; 3 in 2006-2007), and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (3 works each seasons). The data do not reveal the intent of the music directors of these orchestras. However, the fact that these particular organizations programmed so many more works composed by women than the other orchestras suggest that possibly there were underlying reasons, rather than by chance. Further research is necessary to reveal what those underlying reasons could be.

WOSU Classical 101 Radio

Of the total number of entries included in the MusicMaster database, 195,361 entries were composed by men (95.5%) and 1,656 entries were composed by women

(4.5%). Entries listed under “Anonymous” and “Traditional” were isolated from these numbers to avoid confounding the data. Table 4 presents women composer data according to selected categories within the MusicMaster database.

Table 4

Women Composers in WOSU Categories by Entries Entries by Categories Total Entries Women Composers Percentage Essential Short 2933 0 0.0 Essential Long 2074 0 0.0 Secondary Short 9385 12 0.1 Very Long 374 0 0.0 Women’s History 300 81 27.0 Operas 608 1 0.1 Note: Categories are determined by the station manager based on track length and importance of the piece of music.

There were 116 total women composers in MusicMaster from different time periods (See Table 5, and Figure 1). Analysis of composers from these time periods showed that Medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen was the most-recorded woman composer in the database, with 165 entries and 93 separate works and relatively well- known composer Amy Beach was the second most represented in MusicMaster with 154 entries and 78 works. Twenty-three women composers had only one entry, 54 had between two and nine entries, and 39 had ten or more entries.

Table 5

Women Composers by Time Period Time 20th 21st Period Medieval Baroque Classical Romantic Century Century Composer 1 4 8 18 42 43

Figure 1. Percentage of Entries of Music Composed by Women by Time Period

2.1 10 2.3 25.7

23.7

36.1

Contemporary 20th Century Romantic Classical Baroque Medieval

The ten women composers with the most entries into MusicMaster (See Table 6) were from a range different time periods and composed for several different musical formats. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, for example, produced few large- scale orchestral works, but were relatively well represented in the database, while Joan

Tower and Amy Beach both composed works for large symphony orchestras and were not as well represented (See Table 6).

Table 6

Top Ten Women Composers in MusicMaster by Number of Entries Composer Nationality Entries Hildegard von Bingen Germany 165 Amy Beach United States 154 Cecile Chaminade France 134 Clara Schumann Germany 90 Fanny Mendelssohn Germany 75 Lili Boulanger France 62 Judith Lang Zaimont United States 55 Rebecca Clarke England 51 Joan Tower United States 46 Liz Story United States 42

Although a small number of conductors and ensembles made multiple recordings of music composed by women, many conductors recorded at least one work composed by women. Notably, conductor Marin Alsop had 16 entries, Joel Revzen, 24, Leonard

Slatkin, 11, Trevor Kirk, 14 and JoAnn Falletta had 9 entries. Some conductors made entire albums featuring a single woman composer: Anne Dudley recorded her own work;

Marcel Peres, Dennis Keene and Jeremy Summerly, each recorded music composed by

Hildegard von Bingen; and Frederick Fennell, recorded music composed by Dana Suesse. 44

Seventeen different orchestras recorded two or three albums with at least one work composed by a woman, but the London Symphony and the Louisville Orchestra stood out with seven and five albums, respectively. Conductor Marin Alsop had two albums in the library featuring the works of Joan Tower and Libby Larsen, recorded with the Colorado

Symphony.

The Pulitzer Prize in Music

From its inception until 1983, only men were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music.

In 1980, the Pulitzer Prize Board appointed its first woman board member and since that year, the number of women on the board has steadily increased. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music was Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983 – 40 years after the inception of the prize. It took another eight years for the second woman (Shulamit Ran) to win, and another seven years before the third woman (Melinda Wagner) won. In 2010,

Jennifer Higdon became the fourth female winner, followed by Caroline Shaw in 2013,

Julia Wolfe in 2015, Du Yun in 2017, and Ellen Reid in 2019. Out of the 72 Pulitzer

Prize winners, eight were women (11%). Nearly all of the winning compositions since

1943 have been large-scale works and those composed by women are no exception: two concerti, two symphonies, one vocal ensemble, one oratorio and two operas.

Pulitzer Prize finalist data has been available since 1980 although there is no finalist data for 1982. Each year, there is a pool of two or three finalists from which a winner is chosen. The first time a woman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music was 1983 (Vivian Fine and Ellen Taafe Zwilich), when Ellen Taafe Zwilich became first female prize winner. The next female finalist, Joan Tower, was selected in 1993,

followed by Julia Wolfe in 2010 and Ashley Fure and Kate Soper in 2017. For comparison, since 1980, of the 64 non-winning finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in music, five were women and 59 were men. This seems to indicate that although women were gradually represented more equitably as winners since 1980, there are still very few women nominated as finalists for the prize compared with men.

Summary and Conclusions

The analyses of the various sources of data regarding the performance of large- scale art music written by men and women suggest that despite advances in social awareness and progressive ideology, the creative output of women composers is not as visible as that of men. However, there is evidence that changes are occurring toward a greater representation of women in the field. These changes are evident in the results of notable music composition competitions such as the Pulitzer Prize. Classical music radio and performances by professional orchestras, however, may encounter challenges that make it more difficult to program unfamiliar music, including works composed by women.

The results of the various analyses show that the number of women composers were much lower in the WOSU MusicMaster database than in the repertoire data of the

League of American Orchestras. Orchestras perform live music for audiences a limited number of times per season. They advertise their programs, which are well-planned in advance in an endeavor to earn subscribers and casual concertgoers. They try to attract the best soloists and aspire to turn each concert into a major event that will captivate the audience and entice them to attend the next concert. Radio, on the other hand, attempts

to keep listeners engaged every hour of every day; program managers have the unenviable task of trying to please listeners with their favorite music, often relying on listener data gathered from automated tracking software and from listener requests.

WOSU Classical 101’s mission is to provide listeners with the music that they love and with which they are familiar (Dring, 2018).

Many of the women featured in the League of American Composers Orchestra

Repertoire Reports were not found in MusicMaster. Arguably, WOSU has less flexibility to introduce its audience about new and obscure music than do orchestras, who can draw an audience with a major work or famous soloist, and then plant a new piece of music within the concert program. An audience member attending a symphony orchestra concert may feel obligated by several factors to give a piece of unfamiliar music a chance. These factors may include the cost of the ticket to attend or the time already spent at the concert, or it may be considered rude to leave just because one does not prefer to hear a new composition. These economic and social factors enable the audience member to hear a new or unfamiliar composition – perhaps by a woman composer – that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to hear. In contrast, radio offers the listener every opportunity to opt-out of the listening experience by changing the station. If a listener is not interested in hearing a composition that is unfamiliar, they may simply turn the dial to another station, or turn the radio off altogether. This act is transformed into a piece of data that is collected (Nielsen Audio, 2017) and used by the radio station’s program manager to make decisions about future programming, effectively limiting less familiar music within the programming.

Awards in the field of art-music are not constrained by listeners’ preferences as much as the performance of live music or the programming of music on the radio. A board made up of music-lovers, critics and aficionados may judge a new composition based on artistic merits rather than by the number of people who are willing to hear it.

Arguably, the Pulitzer Prize board has the unique ability to influence public opinion, rather than simply reflect its values. It is difficult to tell from the available data whether the selection of the first female finalists and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in music was influenced by the appointment of the first female member to the Pulitzer Prize board in

1980, but that possibility does exist.

A positive trend has been growing in the arts world: The Pulitzer Prize in Music has been one of the more forward-thinking organizations, having awarded prizes in near equal proportions to women and men over the last eight years. However, women composers are still not represented in the concert repertoire of the symphony orchestras, opera houses, or even radio stations within the United States to the same degree as male composers. There are some gains being made by women among live performances of symphony orchestras, especially medium-sized and smaller organizations, but it seems that until audiences are more familiar with the best of these works, many women may not experience the acclaim and notoriety that men now enjoy. For instance, John Adams and

Melinda Wagner are both Pulitzer Prize winning composers within four years of each other. John Adams’ music was featured in the WOSU MusicMaster database and was performed in each of the Orchestra Repertoire Report seasons analyzed for this study.

Melinda Wagner’s music, however, did not appear in either source. It is clear that

although organizations such as the Pulitzer Prize have begun to recognize creative accomplishments by women in a more equitable way, there may still be societal barriers to the performances of those accomplishments such as maintenance of the status quo or biases.

While explicit gender bias is not accepted by today’s standards, there may be cases of institutionalized gender bias. Only through diligent and careful examination of societal views, opinions and ideas about the gender gap can women gain more of a foothold in the world of composition. Future research should examine barriers within college composition programs, as well as within the institutions that program music for audience consumption, such as the music directors of symphony orchestras, and program directors of classical music radio stations. The results of this study describe a vast and complex landscape of gender representation in a field where traditional gender norms and the financial realities of professional performance opportunities and radio programming make it difficult to achieve equality.

Chapter 3: Gender Inequity in Classical Music: Interviews with Experts in the Field

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the thoughts, beliefs and attitudes toward women composers held by those who influence music education and orchestra programming. Four participants were interviewed based on their professional qualifications (post-secondary music professors and/or orchestra executives). Analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in five emergent themes: 1) Gender Disparities, 2)

Identity, 3) Institutional Conservatism, 4) Social Responsibility, and 5) Progress.

Educational institutions and professional orchestras tend to program familiar music which inhibits programming innovation. However, participants acknowledge their responsibility for enacting social change through progressive programming practices with the help of advocates for women composers.

Introduction

Women have been composing music for centuries, however their artistry goes largely unappreciated (Gates, 1994). Music composed by well-known figures such as

Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann are performed as little as once per season – if at all, by major American orchestras (League of American Orchestras, 2014). According to

McClary (2002), the male-dominated culture in Western Art Music has set this standard and has effectively kept women from attaining notoriety at the highest levels of artistry

(McClary, 2002). 50

Historically, people (men, in particular) tend to assign gender characteristics to objects as well as tasks and activities (Doubleday, 2008). Certain musical instruments have been gendered over time, i.e. flute, violin, and clarinet for females; trumpet, tuba and percussion for males (Abeles, 2009; Eros, 2008; Wrape, Dittloff, & Callahan, 2016).

Musical activities have been similarly gendered. Traditionally, women have been encouraged to study music and to teach music, but only since the 1970s have they been encouraged to perform music at the highest levels (Doeser, 2016). There are movements and groups that have been challenging these practices. Advocacy groups, such as the

International Alliance for Women in Music and the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy are just a few of the many groups that exist to support women in music. The rise of women’s rights and feminist ideologies have also contributed to greater awareness of the musical achievements of women. The efforts of feminist musicologists and advocates may have caused number of compositions composed by women that are performed by orchestras in the United States to rise slightly over the last decade (See Chapter 2;

Pulitzer Prize).

Feminist movements from the 1970s through the present day have enabled women to reach higher levels of education and artistic achievement, but the proportion of male-composed to female-composed music is still very skewed in favor of men. Women have had to navigate sexism in post-secondary composition programs, publishing, and the extremely male-dominated world of professional orchestras (McCartney, 1995). Even as recently as 2015, only 14.3% of the works by living composers performed were composed by women (O’Bannon, 2016a). In music education, women are

underrepresented in music history textbooks (Bernabé-villodre & Martínez-bello, 2018) and in instrumental performance curricula (Zigman & Costa-Giomi, 2018).

Societal attitudes have changed over the last century and classical music has gained much from these changes (Hersey & Sullivan, 2009; Sullivan, 2008). More women play in major orchestras than ever, due in part to blind auditions, and women are beginning to lead major orchestras from the podium in greater numbers as well (Bartleet,

2008; Jagow, 2017). Socially responsible practices regarding ethnicity and gender are beginning to reshape aspects of the business world once thought to be inherently masculine. For example, corporate boards are becoming more gender balanced, improving the reputations of their companies (Bear, Rahman, & Post, 2010).

Despite changing societal attitudes toward gender equality there is a lack of knowledge and information about women composers. Familiarity influences programming in the sense that classical music consumers and concertgoers are predisposed to hear music that they have heard before or is written by composers they know (See Chapter 4). In other words, familiarity could be driving the market for what classical music consumers and concertgoers hear. If music composed by talented women composers were better known to audiences, it is conceivable that influential music directors and conductors would program them with more frequency (Pome, Tamburri, &

Munn, 2011). This in turn would pave the way for yet more women to realize their own professional goals in music composition and, in doing so, enrich the musical landscape.

The present study aimed to learn about the education of, and attitudes toward women composers by some of the influencers in classical music, such as orchestra executives,

composers, and post-secondary music educators who are in the privileged position to educate audiences about the creative output of women composers.

Method

The present study sought to examine the thoughts and beliefs held by a sample of experts in music performance and academia. I used a transcendental phenomenological approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 78) to separate my own experiences as a male public-school band director from the experiences of participants. Additionally, I used this approach to collect data from others who have professional experience with the disparity between men and women in composition. I used a phenomenological interviewing method (Roulston, 2010, p. 16), developing a set of open-ended questions and with room for probing and follow-up questions to understand the participant’s feelings, perceptions and understandings regarding the disparity of music composed by women compared with men in the classical music profession.

Four participants were chosen for their expertise and experience in the professional classical music world. Two participants worked in academia: A composer

(female) and university music professor, and a university music education professor, performer and advocate of women-composers (female). Both were employed by a public university in the Northeastern United States. Two participants worked in administrative roles in professional orchestras: The Executive Director of a regional symphony orchestra in the Northeastern United States (male), and the Director of Artistic Planning and

Business Development for a professional symphony orchestra in the Midwestern United

States (male). Purposeful non-probability sampling was utilized due to the access to the

participants: three of the four were acquaintances. The fourth had the necessary expertise for the study and was in close physical proximity to the researcher.

Participants

Joan, the composer and university professor has navigated the male-dominated landscape of composing, publishing and having works performed for many years. She offered a unique perspective, having been on both sides of academe – as a female composition student surrounded only by male students, and as an adjudicator and academic advisor for young composers at all educational levels. She has composed music for a wide variety of ensemble and solo formats including symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, wind ensembles, solo works, and opera. Her lived experiences offer a necessary perspective to this study, as the researcher identifies as white cis-male and has experienced all of the privilege that comes along with that identity.

Wilma, the advocate, performer and university music education professor has taught undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on women-composers and organized events to highlight musical works by women. She has published educational articles and materials to help music educators incorporate a more gender-balanced approach to general music education. Her knowledge and passion for promoting gender equity in music contributed an educational perspective to the results of the study.

John is the Executive Director of a regional symphony orchestra in the

Northeastern United States. He assists the orchestra’s Music Director and board in programming tasks, including the selection of music and soloists and he purchases or rents sheet music. John manages the finances for the orchestra and maintains proper

instrumentation and personnel within the orchestra as well as in support and administrative positions.

Patrick is the Vice President of Operations and Artistic Planning of a Midwestern orchestra in the United States. He works closely with the Music Director and other stakeholders and funders to choose repertoire for the orchestra and curating the series by setting a tone a for each concert and goals for each season. Patrick negotiates contracts with guest artists for appearances and with composers for commissions. He was once a composer, and this was reflected in his passion for promoting the music of living composers and providing the audience with new music that may push the boundaries of their comfort zone. Patrick’s position and his passion merged in a balance of business and artistic sensibilities that provided a unique perspective to the discussion.

The sample was data rich due to the participants’ varied experiences, and is from a population of convenience, in that the researcher knows three of the participants and has developed a rapport with them. The fourth participant, Patrick, was recruited via email/phone call and was selected for his expertise and experience in orchestra administration. Emails were sent to the four participants, requesting participation in the study, and participants signed an Institutional-Review-Board-approved consent form.

Wilma, Joan and John each participated via Skype videoconferencing. Each of them were interviewed in their workplace offices which created a quiet, comfortable and familiar location for the interview. Patrick was interviewed in-person in his own office – also a quiet, comfortable and familiar location. Each interview lasted between 25 and 35 minutes.

Trustworthiness

Interview questions were checked by music education scholars and graduate students outside the study, looking for possible bias and for question validity. Detailed notes were taken throughout the interviews, and participants were sent a copy of the notes from their particular interview for member-checking (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 261).

Each participant made appropriate corrections or clarifications, ensuring that their ideas and statements truly were representative of their own beliefs and experiences. Analysis of the transcripts required the development of a codebook of emergent themes. A graduate student and colleague served as a second coder, improving reliability in the final codebook.

Data Collection and Analysis

A one-on-one semi-structured interview design grounded in a phenomenological interviewing method (Roulston, 2010, p. 16) was conducted with each participant. A predetermined set of interview questions was used as well as probing and follow-up questions, either within that interview, or through later email and phone communications.

Participants were each asked a pre-determined set of questions tailored to their experience and position. There was also a set of questions asked of all participants (See

Appendix A). The researcher asked follow-up questions as were appropriate under the guidelines of semi-structured interview protocols: A set of questions was prepared ahead of time, but follow-up and probing questions were used to obtain further details and descriptions from each participant (Roulston, 2010, p. 15).

Edited interview notes were analyzed for thematic representations of the participants’ perceptions (Roulston, 2010, p. 151) through a coding procedure resulting in the emergence of five themes. Each theme was accompanied by various sub-themes that adequately describe the beliefs, attitudes and opinions of the interview participants, and linked their ideas in ways that contributed to the overall story behind the research questions.

Results

Five main themes emerged throughout the inductive analysis of participants’ opinions and beliefs about the lack of women composers in classical music, both in education and professional performance: 1) Gender Disparities, 2) Identity, 3)

Institutional Conservatism, 4) Social Responsibility, and 5) Progress. Differences in topic, expertise and approach by each participant necessitated sub-categorizing each theme in order to unify the main ideas while maintaining the integrity of each participant’s unique experiences:

Gender Disparity

• Women are under-appreciated as composers

• Career challenges

• Gender bias/sexism

• Historical gender roles/stereotypes

• Historical lack of opportunities

Identity

• Professional isolation

• Independence

• Self-Selected

• “Women Composers”

Institutional Conservatism

• Tokenism

• Programming

• Financial

• Familiarity

• Status quo

• Contemporary Music

Social Responsibility

• Gender bias

• Stakeholders

• Artistry

• Dialogue

• Inclusiveness

Progress

• Individual advocacy

• Advocacy groups

• Women-composer events

• Normalization

• Education 58

Statements regarding Institutional Conservatism were raised by participants more often than any other theme, suggesting that participants believe that institutions such as those in education and professional orchestras do not innovate in terms of musical programming and educational materials and discussions. Innovation in orchestral programming is accomplished by highlighting non-standard literature (Pome et al., 2011), including, perhaps, works composed by women. In education, innovation occurs when teachers differentiate instruction for their students, based on the needs of each student. For example, female students often find more success when teachers focus on organization of content and materials, whereas male students may not require this focus (Zhukov, 2012).

Some of the sub-themes emerged often enough that trends could be discerned.

For example, interviewees discussed financial topics 20 times and mentioned programming 22 times (See Table 7), and each participant agreed that the term “women composers” is not desirable, though most acknowledged that the label is useful in illuminating the gender disparity currently being studied.

Table 7

Number of Occurrences of Themes Themes Sub-Theme Occurrences Gender Disparities 36 Under-appreciated 10 Career challenges 8 Gender bias/sexism 3 Historical gender- roles/Stereotypes 5 Lack of opportunities 10 Identity 10 Professional isolation 3 Independence 1 Self-selected 1 "Women composers" 5 Institutional Conservatism 54 Tokenism 5 Programming 23 Financial 20 Contemporary Music 8 Social Responsibility 21 Gender bias 2 Stakeholders 7 Artistry 8 Dialogue 1 Inclusiveness 3 Progress 27 Individual Advocacy 2 Advocacy Groups 5 Women composer Events 4 Normalization 8 Education 8

Some sub-themes intersected with regularity. Table 8 illustrates how often subthemes interacted both within the same main theme, and between main themes. For example, the code “Lack of Opportunities” intersected five times with the code “Career

Challenges.” The statements made by participants implied both ideas, but it was obvious that they should not be coded into one theme. While women composers face a lack of opportunities in many facets of their life as composers, it is not only in their career path.

Education, traditional gender roles in the home, and the isolation that accompanies belonging to an underrepresented group (women composers) all contribute in various ways to the lack of opportunities discussed by participants. Additionally, issues regarding “Financial/Market Forces” appear often with both “Programming” and

“Familiarity.” These three themes are interwoven, yet important enough to discuss independently.

Table 8

Thematic Interactions Number of Sub-Theme Interacting Sub-Theme Interactions Under-appreciated Programming 3 Inclusive 1 Education 1 Gender Bias 1 Status Quo 1 Historical Gender Roles/Stereotypes 1 Lack of Opportunities 2 Career Challenges Independence 1 Lack of Opportunities 3 Financial/Market Forces 1 Education 1 Stakeholders 1 Sexism 1 Sexism Self-Selected 1 Lack of Opportunities 1 Career Challenges 1 Historical Gender Roles/Stereotypes Lack of Opportunities 1 Under-appreciated 1 Status Quo 1 Lack of Opportunities **Career Challenges **5 Gender Bias 1 Gender Roles 1 Professional Isolation 1 Tokenism 1 Independence 1 Education 2 Women Composer Events 1 Programming 2 "Women-Composers" 1 Financial/Market Forces 1 Under-appreciated 2 Professional Isolation Tokenism 1 Lack of Opportunities 1

Continued

Table 8 Continued

Inclusive 1 Normalization 1 Programming 1 "Women-Composers" 1 Independence Career Challenges 1 Lack of Opportunities 1 Self-Selected Sexism 1 "Women Composers" Women Composer Events 2 Professional Isolation 1 Inclusive 1 Normalization 2 Programming 2 Lack of Opportunities 1 Tokenism Professional Isolation 1 Lack of Opportunities 1 Programming 1 Programming Under-appreciated 3 **Financial/Market Forces **4 **Familiarity **4 Stakeholders 1 Professional Isolation 1 Inclusive 1 Normalization 1 "Women-Composers" 2 Education 1 Contemporary Music 3 Normalization 1 Tokenism 1 Inclusive 1 Artistry 3 Women Composer Events 1 Lack of Opportunities 2 Stakeholders 1 Status Quo 1 Financial/Market Forces Familiarity 3 **Programming **4 Stakeholders 2 Artistry 3

Continued

Table 8 Continued

Career Challenges 1 Lack of Opportunities 1 Contemporary Music 1 Advocacy Group 1 Contemporary Music Programming 3 Normalization 2 Education 2 Artistry 1 Familiarity 1 Financial/Market Forces 1 Gender Bias Lack of Opportunities 1 Career Challenges 1 Status Quo 1 Under-appreciated 1 Stakeholders Familiarity 1 Programming 2 Financial/Market Forces 2 Career Challenges 1 Artistry Financial/Market Forces 3 Inclusive 1 Programming 3 Contemporary Music 1 *Dialogue *No Intersections *0 Inclusiveness Education 1 Under-appreciated 1 Professional Isolation 1 Normalization 1 Programming 2 "Women-Composers" 1 Artistry 1 *Individual Advocacy *No Intersections *0 Advocacy Groups Financial/Market Forces 1 Women-Composer Events "Women-Composers" 2 Programming 1 Normalization Education 2 Professional Isolation 1 Inclusive 1 Programming 2

Continued

Table 8 Continued

"Women-Composers" 2 Contemporary Music 2 Education Inclusive 1 Under-appreciated 1 Normalization 2 Programming 1 Contemporary Music 2 Career Challenges 1 Lack of Opportunities 1

Discussion

Gender Disparities

“Universally, in the entire industry, [women] are poorly represented.” – Patrick, participant

Though women have been composing music for centuries, and there are more women making a living as composers now than ever before, their work is still performed less often than music composed by men. The participants of the present study each expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of gender equity in the orchestra world, and the rest of the classical music industry. Wilma cited a blog on the Women’s

Philharmonic Advocacy website which referred to O’Bannon’s (2016b) research, claiming that 14 of the top 21 orchestras in the world did not program a single work composed by a woman in the previous season. According to the blog, only two of the reporting orchestras performed more than one work composed by a woman that season

(Sarah, 2016).

The under-appreciation and lack of recognition of the work of women in the past and today emerged during the discussion of gender disparities. According to Wilma, several pieces composed by women such as those by Fanny Mendelssohn exist in private collections and are unavailable to most musicians and decision-making-bodies for programming. Additionally, Wilma would like to see more representation of works by women in textbooks and listening examples in educational settings, as well as other classroom materials, such as the best-selling composer poster series’ that adorn music classroom walls.

John, the Executive Director of a symphony orchestra, was surprised that Amy

Beach was not publicly celebrated in her hometown of Boston in 2017 on the 150th anniversary of her birth. John also claimed that he had heard nothing from publishers about Joan Tower’s upcoming (at the time of the interview) 80th birthday in 2018, though several periodicals and only a small number of ensembles promoted celebration events.

He said that publishers often promote the music of specific composers to commemorate them on anniversaries such as this, but that very few women are given such an honor.

This can create barriers for these women who are not having their work shared at the same rate as equally creative and productive men (Gould, 2011b).

Composing is wrought with career challenges – Wilma, acknowledged: “Not many male or female composers can make it full time. Even Ellen Taafe Zwilich is back teaching at Florida State.” Joan, a composer herself also stated that most composers, both men and women, make a living through a primary or secondary occupation, but she believes that this is truer of women than of men. John sees that institutional

representation is a challenge as well: “If more women are in key roles, like conductors, board members, executive directors, they can move things.” Corporations have indeed found this to be an important point. Companies with a balance of women and men on their boards of trustees are seen as more trustworthy by stakeholders and customers alike

(Bear et al., 2010). Perhaps the lack of women in leadership roles in classical music plays a large role in the gender disparity in compositions performed by orchestras.

Sexism comes into play explicitly as well as implicitly. When Joan attended graduate school for composition, she was the only woman in her class/cohort. She credited her “tenaciousness” with her ability to endure a toxic, masculine environment: “I had to get used to being the only woman even as an undergrad, so I was used to it. Those of us who were the self-selected, tenacious type stayed because we made peace with some of the behaviors that went on. Nowadays, people put up with less of that.” When women are permitted to enter male-dominated fields, such as music composition, they must sometimes endure “behaviors” by other students and professors that might make them uncomfortable, some of which could be implicitly or explicitly sexist. One notable example of this is described in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, in which a female music composition student’s experiences with harassment by a well-respected composition professor are documented (Wilson, 2002). To cope with this, some women have found that setting aside their femininity allows them to be taken more seriously by male colleagues (Green, 1997).

“There were few opportunities – in most cases, women weren’t permitted to enroll in conservatories until the mid-20th century.” Wilma’s statement spoke to the

impact of traditional historic gender roles on the women who are composing today.

Some women, however found ways to subvert those traditions in the arts and literature.

Wilma cited George Sand as an example. George Sand was a pseudonym for a writer named Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, who was also Chopin’s mistress (Powers, 2019).

Regarding music performances, Joan remembered when the Munich Philharmonic was in the news for its difficulties around hiring a female trombonist. The Times Colonist reported (Smart, 2013) that trombonist Abbie Conant won the position of principle trombonist in a blind audition with the orchestra in 1980 only to be demoted to second trombone and denied solo opportunities. Her 13-year legal battle with the orchestra resulted in recognition of the gender discrimination exhibited by musicians, the conductor, and the administration. Joan also spoke about adjudicating composition competitions for school-aged children:

In high school, the girls – at least in the contests I’ve judged – tend to

write vocal pieces or small ensemble, like jazz combo with vocals, while

boys tend to write serious, pretentious things that may categorize them as

“super-nerd.” It may be that the girls are not willing to put themselves

under that tent, or that stereotype. Maybe the nerd stereotype of the

technical aspect of composing is not helpful.

Teachers often see the differences by which female and male students approach technical activities, such as composition. For example, a study conducted by Armstrong (2008) reported about an instance in a music classroom where students working on a composition assignment that required the use of computers. There were fewer computers

than students in the classroom, and the male students quickly took over the use of each computer, relegating the female students to secondary roles in collaboration.

The inability for women to enroll in conservatories until the mid-20th century (see

Wilma’s comment about her “tenaciousness” above) also illustrates a lack of opportunities for women trying to study composition, make a living as a composer, and to find venues and ensembles willing to showcase their works. In fact, many women- composers in history are known because of their affiliation to men, such as Clara

Schumann, who was married to Robert Schumann, though by all accounts was a stunning musician and gifted composer in her own right (MacDonald, 1993). Fanny Mendelssohn, sister to composer Felix Mendelssohn may had penned some of the pieces credited to her brother (Kimber, 2002). Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart accompanied her younger brother, Wolfgang, in early concert tours (Halliwell, 1998, p. 32). What potential might she have realized under her father’s tutelage if women were allowed the same opportunities as men? Women who did not have powerful connections found it even more difficult to gain recognition for their work. For example, how many concertgoers know of Hildegard von Bingen, the Medieval Benedictine abbess and composer (See

Chapter 4) (Artesani, 2012)?

Joan remembered that, “30 years ago, I was the only woman in my graduate

(composition) program’s entering class. In fact, there was only one woman in every graduate entering class at that time in that department, which was typical of many grad programs.” Data from the National Association for Schools of Music show that there is still a disparity in the number of women who enter graduate programs in music,

especially in composition (HEADS, 2017). It is unclear, however, why this disparity continues in graduate school when the share of women with bachelor’s degrees in music is relatively robust (44.1%) (DataUSA, 2020). If traditional gender roles associated with raising a family come into play at the age when most women might consider graduate school, perhaps providing better access to child-care could begin to lessen the impact of the disparity.

Identity

Even women who have found success have struggled with their identity as a composer. One of the challenges in securing that identity is that there are few role models and peers whom women can idolize or with whom to commune professionally

(Gould, 2003). Professional isolation can occur in circles of composers. Joan explained:

“Cliques, or tracks of like-minded composers, tend to stay separate; although I may know or have met people from different tracks, they tend to stay among their own. Sometimes cliques are defined by what school they attended, or what composers they admire.”

These cliques are exclusive and difficult to break into. Joan then described the additional maze that women must navigate: “This means that women have to deal with the different cliques as well as deal with being a small segment within those cliques, given the smaller numbers of female composers in grad composition programs.” Ultimately, Joan came to terms with her identity as a loner and with “otherness” (Bartleet, 2008; Born & Devine,

2016), but clearly hoped for a time in the near future with a more equitable representation of women on concert programs: “I’m fine with being the only woman on a program or with being on an all-women program, but do we really have to?”

Joan made a point to talk about the increased number of choices a composer has nowadays. Where composers may have had to choose between academia or attaching themselves to a publisher, composers can now “…write for [their] own group of performers, or for the tech industry.” The Berklee College of Music dedicates a webpage

(https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/composer-video-games) to an explanation of how composers create a career in the tech industry, specifically in film and video game scoring. While there is little academic literature regarding video game composers, the internet is replete with lists of video game composers. For example, an article on an online magazine for video game enthusiasts, Dummymag, lists the ten best female video game composers selected by Lena Raine, a composer herself

(https://www.dummymag.com/10-best/10-best-female-video-game-composers-lena- raine/). As video game music surges in popularity, perhaps women composers in this industry will find that their work is appreciated equally to that of their peers who compose for more traditional classical music ensembles.

As discussed previously, Joan acknowledged that she was “… the self-selected, tenacious type…” who stayed in her graduate school program regardless of the challenges she has experienced. This identity seems to be prevalent in women who have

“made it,” so to speak, and may be an important factor in navigating difficult terrain in a profession that is not welcoming to women. Grit is a trait often found in people who display perseverance due to high levels of interest and effort in a particular subject

(Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Joan, and other women who have found success as

professional composers, may exhibit high levels of “grit” as they have endured the sexism and bias that has defined patriarchal world of classical music composition.

Institutional Conservatism

Symphony orchestras and post-secondary schools and departments of music are some of the most venerable and visible institutions that promote classical music in the

United States. They are not considered to be socially progressive, but are conservative bastions where the music of only the most well-known composers is heard time and time again (Marín, 2018). Beethoven and Mozart are the most often performed composers by professional orchestras, eclipsing performances of any other composer (Leauge of

American Orchestras, 2013; O'Bannon, 2016a; Marín, 2018). Music schools in colleges and universities often offer a “conservatory-style” education, which elevates the traditional form of teaching music (mentor-mentee), and honors the classical music orchestra, wind band, and choir formats over all others.

Wilma voiced her opinion about institutional conservatism that manifests within professional symphony orchestras through programming: “Orchestras want to sell tickets and people want to hear what they know. We need to get people to take a chance on something new.” She goes on to explain that there is music composed by women throughout history that has not been released for public performance by private collectors and estates.

Programming concerts for a large orchestra is often in the hands of a select few.

Patrick partners with his orchestra’s Music Director to plan the artistic direction for upcoming seasons, and then narrows down the exact repertoire for each concert:

He [the Music Director] has a big vision of what he wants, and I help him

narrow it down to exactly which pieces, soloists and guests. I then

implement the decisions through negotiations with artist managers… The

Music Director’s personal vision is to challenge our listeners with new

music when possible.

John is in a similar situation to Patrick in that he works closely with the orchestra’s Music Director to shape the tone of the upcoming seasons. Together, they also present programming ideas to a board programming committee made up of two community members and one orchestra representative. For John, “Diversity and inclusion are factors, as well as finances – the instrumentation of the orchestra.”

However, he acknowledges that his orchestra’s concert programs similar to other orchestra concert programs: “If someone looks at our programming, they will see a lot of

Germanic, Classical, and Romantic music.”

Joan has seen some progress made recently by some institutions. She has noticed that “Some people are particularly concerned with diversity in programing over the last few months.” Inversely, however, it concerned John that, “Bigger orchestras will sometimes run a chamber music series with some women composers, claiming to support them, but they are always asked “why not the main stage?”

Another barrier that institutions face is that much of the available music composed by women is relatively new and modern. John echoed this when he said, “By programming female composers, for the most part, you are also committing to programming newer works, with some historical exceptions. Audiences want to hear the

meat and potatoes.” The meat and potatoes to which he refers is the stable of famous, well-known and beloved (all male) composers, such as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, to name a few. As Wilma adeptly summed it up, “Money, sales drive programming. They program pieces that people will leave home to hear.”

Finances and market forces are an important factor, which was discussed most often by Patrick and John, who both serve as administrators for their orchestras. Patrick stated that, “A Symphony Orchestra is a massive financial undertaking. We have salaries, concert hall costs, advertising, etc…” It may be important to remember that executives and other decision-makers such as Patrick and John walk a fine line between artistic integrity, financial solvency and societal advancement. John added, “I keep an eye out for balance, both financially and artistically.” Patrick commented that the audience’s preferences drive the programming – both repertoire and guest artists: “I’ll go with whoever our listeners decide will provide a meaningful artistic experience.”

Both John and Patrick spoke about considerations for stakeholders, funding entities and audience-members when planning a concert season. For example, Patrick said, “We need to think about stakeholders, funders, ticket-buyers, and what helps the orchestra to grow.” He continued, “They are spending money and time on us. We are competing with the couch, and Uber-Eats. It’s not cheap and we don’t want it to be cheap.” The decision-makers in orchestras must ensure that audience-members will find the concert program to be worthwhile of their time and money. Familiarity is an important factor at play in the decision-making process and will be discussed more deeply in a subsequent study (see Chapter 4). People are more likely to gravitate toward

music with which they are familiar than they are to listen to new music (Hamlen &

Shuell, 2006; Schubert, 2007).

In the realm of classical music, programming familiar music means programming the Masterworks of classical music. Straying from the time-honored and beloved composers too much can be detrimental to audience attendance. John explained that audiences prefer the classic masterworks and by taking risks on new music, “You may be making a decision to make a program that won’t sell tickets.” Patrick elaborated, “You can program new music, but you had better have a Beethoven symphony (or something that attract an average audience member), otherwise you’ll be under financial strain.” He continued, “Straying [from the traditional masterworks] risks financial loss, and a bad situation for the organization. Our main goals are to present music to the community and employ musicians.”

Orchestras sometimes take chances to support the music of living composers, and to provide new and educational opportunities to their audiences, but, as John attests, it is sometimes at their own risk. “Our ‘Celebrating Women’ concert was the lowest attended concert of the season, and one of the worst-selling concerts in years.” This concert was made up of some music composed by women, and some music performed by women, and most of the music was relatively obscure (Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C; Lucas

Richman’s The Dream I Share (World Premiere) for female soloists and women’s choir;

Amy Beach’s Symphony in E minor, op. 32 “Gaelic”). John stated, “There just isn’t a female composer that people have grown up with and know well.” Fortunately for his orchestra, John knew of resources, such as the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy

(discussed in more depth later), that provide a safety net that may allow orchestras to take such risks. Of this group, John said, “One thing they offer is grants to off-set the ticket sales lost when programming new or unknown composers.”

Much of the available music composed by women is contemporary music, mostly composed since the latter part of the 20th century (Gates, 1994). John stated that, “New composers and female composers essentially are one-in-the-same.” When combined with the financial need to program familiar Masterworks, this proves to be challenging for those who wish to promote the work of today’s composers, especially women. Despite this challenge, Patrick spoke passionately about promoting new music: “I love it, both as a composer, which I don’t personally do anymore, but also out of my own curiosity. I drink in the music of every concert as an audience member…” Speaking specifically of composer Caroline Shaw, who had been a guest recently, Patrick added, “I like the younger, newer artists living and working within their skills to create art. You can tell when someone is trying to push the bounds. It looks and sounds sloppy.” John echoed his counterpart’s passion for promoting the music of living composers:

We are in a unique position where [the Music Director] is a composer,

writing at least one new piece or commission per year. It is always a

challenge to offer new works but [the Music Director] is 100% in tune

with that. In the last five years we have done two or three premieres,

like Christopher Tin’s piece (Sireines), and Dreamtime Ancestors by

Christopher Theofanidis. This past year we programmed a piece by

Connie Ellisor (Conversations in Silence).

Both John and Patrick have taken-on the challenges associated with programming new music because they appear to understand the importance of furthering the art form, propagating it for the future of classical music.

Music composed after the Romantic period has had problems on the concert stage for many years (O’Bannon, 2016b). Modern harmonic structures and musical ideals are not always accepted by audiences, who may find the music to be overly complex and aesthetically displeasing (Sigurjonsson, 2010). John sees this as a problem for many women-composers:

Part of the challenge in programming female composers is that so much of

it is brand new or late 20th century, in styles that can be perceived as

inaccessible regardless of gender. There are some contemporary female

composers whose music is easier to program because it is more accessible,

like Joan Tower and Jennifer Higdon.

Composers such as the two cited here may be able to blaze the trail more effectively for other women, but even their music is only programmed occasionally compared to that of their male peers (See Chapter 2).

Wilma was concerned that maintaining the status quo regarding education is a factor worthy of consideration. She said, “We often teach the way we were taught, so we need to make an effort to change.” Wilma spoke about the posters of composers purchased by many music teachers to provide historical examples of Masterworks composers: “Catalogues sell posters and other educational tools with composers that are all-male.” Joan was equally concerned that institutions sometimes do the bare minimum

to satisfy moral requirements. She said, “I think that there is still a feeling out there that if a concert has one woman on the program, then ‘great! We did our jobs!’”

Social Responsibility

“We want to do a better job, not just for women composers, but for new music in

general.” – John, participant

Improving gender balance is a socially responsible act, and social responsibility has been shown to impact the reputations of organizations (Bear et al., 2010). Much of the existing literature is in big business, in which working to create more gender balance can lead to high levels of corporate social responsibility. This improved social responsibility has boosted the reputations of companies with their stakeholders (Branco

& Rodrigues, 2006). John illustrated how social responsibility is important for similar large organizations, such as professional orchestras as well. He said, “Some decisions are not about selling tickets – it is our responsibility as a community of artists to promote new music.” John continued, “My personal goal is to put new music out there so that it becomes normalized. It’s not good to do one-offs. That’s not a good way to affect change.” The stakeholders for professional orchestras are the sponsors, patrons, and ticket-buying audience, and John suggests that the “community of artists” that comprise the world of classical music share a responsibility to those stakeholders to ensure that new music (including music composed by women) prospers in the symphony orchestra.

Continuing this sentiment and urging orchestras to embrace the challenges associated with promoting and performing the music of unfamiliar composers, Joan said, “We need to get people to take a chance on something new.” The “community of artists” referred

to by John have the difficult task of selling this new music by new composers to their stakeholders. Could models of corporate social responsibility be practical in raising the reputations of orchestras that meet that challenge?

Musical organizations that do not appear to meet the challenge of embracing their social responsibility have been receiving unwanted attention. According to Patrick,

“There is a movement lately where orchestras are being called-out for not programming works by women and minorities.” Media outlets often reflect the values of society, and as social justice issues change over time, so do the types of coverage given to those issues. The last two decades have seen a myriad of news agencies, large and small, reporting on gender inequality in classical music. In one example, The Washington Post reported in 2017 that a British newspaper columnist recently disparaged the work of women composers such as Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Ethyl Smith and Fanny

Mendelssohn, calling them “inferior talents” (Midgette, 2017). The example set by the

British newspaper was used by Midgette to illustrate how the classical music world continued to limit and diminish the contribution of women composers. In another instance, the Vienna Philharmonic was the center of attention when several articles in newspapers and journals exposed the sexist ideals of musicians in the orchestra who felt that allowing women into the ensemble would change the sound and the group dynamic

(Eakin, 2003; Osborne, 1999). Though nearly 20 years old, this example illustrates

Patrick’s point that social justice change is coming about through the bullhorn of the media as a reflection of new, more socially responsible ideals.

Within the “community of artists” who seem to feel compelled to act with more social responsibility, Wilma thought that some concert promoters and festival organizers want to meet the challenge of enacting change through better representation of women composers. Wilma, a composer, said,

There is a sense that people want to do something, but when they put a lot

of filters on their search, such as staying within a small region, we are

back to where we started, with just a few women composers found that

meet the criteria.

When a festival organizer begins looking for composers who fit a specific and narrow set of criteria, they are less likely to find very many. For example, searching a small, rural state for female composers who have a piano piece ready for performance by a specific date may be constricting the field to a point where few or no women composers are represented in the festival. One danger in broadening the criteria to include more women composers is that some compositions (by male and female composers) are not up to the musical standard required for a professional performance. John described this danger, saying that, “the most important thing is to promote talent first. It doesn’t help the cause to push someone into a prominent role if the talent isn’t there. And there is plenty of talent!” John’s point is that highlighting the music of a composer solely due to their membership in a marginalized group does not necessarily elevate that group. When there are those who continue to disparage the work of women composers (see Midgette, 2017 above), ensuring that only the best work is advanced could be a way to silence those critics.

Progress

The media’s outing of social irresponsible institutions in the classical music world may have contributed to some momentum gained by women composers in recent decades. Speaking about the share of women composers featured in concerts, competitions and festivals, Wilma said, “It may be more proportional now. Some people are particularly concerned with diversity in programing over the last few months.” This progress has come in part from advocacy groups that specialize in promoting women in classical music. Joan advised that people visit the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy website (www.wophil.org). This group began by supporting the Women’s Philharmonic

Orchestra, but now offers promotion and grants to women composers and publishes recordings of their music. As an orchestra administrator, keyed-in to the decision-making process for his orchestra’s programming, Patrick is also familiar with the promotional efforts of the group: “The Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy had just put out a new edition of her [Amy Beach’s] Gaelic Symphony, which [the Music Director] is familiar with.” The International Alliance for Women in Music (www.iawm.org) is another such group, which is devoted to supporting women in music and promoting gender equity in musical activities. Wilma has taken advantage of this group, and is “… a member, and

I’ve won some awards [and] gotten support from the Alliance.” Advocacy groups provide a much-needed service to women composers, though Wilma and Joan both agreed that they would prefer to not need that support. Of these advocacy groups, Joan said, “They are necessary in music as well as art and literature. It’s unfortunate that we need them, but they are necessary.” John expressed a similar attitude: “It would be

wonderful to live in a post-label society where gender and race are neutral.” John also acknowledged that the issue must be faced head-on. He said, “With the recent issues with women’s rights, if we didn’t talk in terms of gender, it would get washed under the table.” Advocacy groups work to maintain a much-needed dialogue about the gender disparities in music. While advocacy groups such as the Women’s Philharmonic

Advocacy and the International Alliance for Women in Music have contributed to a more equitable landscape for women composers, their very existence may serve as a reminder that the gender disparity is still substantial. However, conversations and activities continue due in part to the important work done by the advocacy groups discussed here, and a myriad of others.

Conversations about gender in music, and specifically about women composers also have a place in the music classroom. Wilma and Joan (both university music professors) have a unique perspective on how educational institutions can promote the contributions of women in music, and how they can inspire a new generation of creative women. Wilma suggested that, “There should be more composition in regular theory classes. It is not enough to just play your instrument well; you need to arrange, compose, sing, etc.” Incorporating more composition into music classes may need to be done with inherent gender differences in mind. In applied music lessons, female students tend to do better when the instructor is more organized and thoughtful about teaching, whereas male students do not seem to need that organization (Zhukov, 2012). Perhaps more women would become composers if university music theory classes incorporated more

composition into the curriculum. It is unclear, but educational institutions could certainly play some role in providing support to female students who are interested in composition.

Conclusions

The programming decision-makers are not only providing music that audiences know and love but must focus on educating audiences about new music and the direction that classical music is moving into the future. Patrick has worked to setup an expectation that audiences have of him and his orchestra. He said,

With us, audiences know that they are going to hear new works and works

by female composers. Consistently programming those will help develop

the audiences’ ears for new music. New composers and female composers

essentially are one in the same. We need to take the plunge and insist on

education.

When orchestra administrators and music directors focus their efforts on educating their audience, perhaps new music and music by less-familiar composers, such as women, can gain a more prominent place among the masterworks concerts that audiences are used to seeing (Pome et al., 2011).

The complexities of maintaining a symphony orchestra, filling the seats in concert halls, educating students and audiences and promoting the cause for new and high-quality music may seem like a daunting task, but it has been done for over a hundred years. As more women composers become known, and are supported by orchestra directors, educational institutions, advocacy groups and audiences, the landscape of classical composition could become more gender diverse.

Chapter 4: Audience Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Women Composers

Abstract

Music composed by women is not performed by professional orchestras nearly as often as music composed by men. Prior research suggests there may be several interconnected underlying reasons for this disparity. The present study aims to examine the thoughts, ideas and beliefs held by consumers of live professional orchestra music about why that disparity exists. Audience members attending performances of a professional symphony orchestra (n = 200) referred to eight major causes: 1. Few women composers; 2. Lack of recognition of their work; 3. Concert programming traditions; 4.

Ingrained patriarchy and gender roles; 5. Sexism and bias in the music milieu; 6.

Opportunities (or lack thereof) for women composers; 7. Intrinsic musical value of their music; 8. Gender characteristics; 9. General problem of contemporary composers.

Women were more likely to respond to the questionnaire than men, and people with graduate degrees were more likely to assert that patriarchy was to blame than people with a bachelor’s degree or less. Implications to music education are discussed.

Review of Literature

Music composed by women is performed less often by large instrumental ensembles than music composed by men. Less than two percent of the music performed by the largest American professional orchestras in 2016 was composed by women

(O’Bannon, 2016a). However, a recent review of the musicians in 22 well-known orchestras around the world show that women make up 31 percent of their rosters

(Stanley & Shendruk, 2018). This is a major increase toward gender equality from the days in which there were no or few women in the ranks of important orchestras such as prior to 1970, when audition procedures began to change (Doeser, 2016); blind auditions becoming the standard procedure for audition into professional musical organizations have contributed to this change (“All ears: American orchestras,” 1996; Doeser, 2016).

Despite increasing numbers of women in musical performing positions, why are there so few performances of music composed by women by the largest and most visible musical organizations in the United States? There have been efforts to reverse this trend, but the results of such efforts have not been sufficient to reach an equitable share of performances of music composed by women compared with those of music composed by men.

Organizations supporting women in music, such as the International Alliance for

Women in Music (www.iawm.org) and the now-disbanded Society for Women

Musicians (Fuller, 2018) have promoted the work women composers. As a result, there have been more performances of their work by orchestras. Other efforts made in the past to decrease the gender disparity in composition include the New York Composer’s

Forum, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, sought to highlight the work of American composers. Composers such as Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell, benefited from the program, as well as Amy Beach and Ruth Crawford-Seeger (De Graaf, 2008).

Such efforts have been successful in promoting music composed by women for smaller ensembles – music composed by women for chamber ensembles and for soloists is performed at a higher rate than that of orchestral performances, however the symphony orchestra is what comes to mind when people think of classical music (Midgette, 2017).

Audience Finder is an arts council commissioned by the United Kingdom to study classical music audience data. This council reported that orchestra concerts between

2014 and 2016 had issued more tickets and had a higher income than any other classical music artform, such as chamber concerts and recitals, or popular classical concerts

(Bradley, 2017). Therefore, performances of a composer’s music by professional orchestras are an important benchmark that helps us measure the current gender disparity in classical music. There are several factors and considerations that may contribute to the lower numbers of compositions by women that are performed by orchestras, each of which deserve some clarification and exploration.

Sexism/Bias

Is there a difference in quality between music composed by men and women?

Much of the existing literature suggests that the gatekeepers of classical music have tried to imply that there is a difference, but they are continually discredited (Jagow, 2017;

Piirto, 1991) The first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in music was Ellen Taafe Zwillich in 1983. Since then, eight other women have won the prize, and winners have alternated equally between male and female each year since 2013 (www.pulitzer.org). It is unclear what the causes of such a trend are; there is no evidence suggesting that the compositions are judged blindly. Perhaps societal pressures, a greater number or female nominees, or 86

the changing in the guidelines by which compositions are judged contributed to this increase in women awardees. Regarding another prestigious composition award, the

Times of London reported in 2016 that more women were short-listed for British

Composer Awards, due in part to a new gender-blind judging system (Sanderson, 2016).

By removing the composer’s name (which could indicate gender) from the judging process, entries are judged more fairly. Another example of why blind judging is effective in reducing gender bias was made clear through Goldberg’s (1968) seminal study. He found that people judging the quality of writing tend to give higher scores if the author’s name is male, regardless of the quality of the work. This framework, known as the Goldberg Paradigm has been studied in creative fields including music and been found to be most salient in disciplines in which tradition dictates that the work is an inherently male pursuit (Colley, North, & Hargreaves, 2003).

The Goldberg Paradigm can be seen at work in music education as well. Legg

(2010) found that teachers grading student composition projects in one music class scored compositions thought to be written by female students an average of eight points (out of

30 possible points) lower than compositions thought to be written by male students.

Evidence from the Pulitzer Prize in music and British Composer Awards, along with empirical studies using Goldberg’s framework all suggest that outdated gender norms and patriarchal institutions impact the assessment of the quality of composition and contribute to the gender disparity in the composition field.

Patriarchy/Gender Roles

The Western classical music tradition has made it difficult for women composers to navigate certain institutional structures such as academia and top-level professional orchestras. Many women seek ways of getting their music performed by composing for chamber groups and soloists (Midgette, 2017). While women have found avenues that allow them to flourish as composers, those avenues do not come with the recognition and notoriety that are provided to composers whose works are performed by the major orchestras of the world. Women’s compositions, though contributing to the freer and more creative structures of chamber music, still play a secondary role in a culture that celebrates the more visible and accepted format of the symphony orchestra.

Patriarchal societal norms are sometimes transmitted through the language used to describe music. In her seminal work, Music, Gender, Education (1997), Elizabeth Green suggested that a musical patriarchy has been sustained simply by promoting gendered meaning in music (p. 15). Descriptions of compositions such as powerful, strong and energetic may imply masculine sounding music, while language that is soft and gentle implies feminine music. The language used to describe music inherently attributes value to the quality of the work. When music composed by women is described using softer language, it gives the work a quality of “otherness” that sets it apart from music composed by men (MacArthur, 2010).

Many women prefer not to be identified as “women composers” because they feel it limits them (Midgette, 2017). Rather than being referred to as “composers,” the added qualifier “women composer” is used. This label may diminish their work in some way, 88

labeling them as “other” in congruence with attitudes toward their work. Additionally, all-women’s music concert programs may actually harm the cause of equality by segregating the work of women (Gelfand, 1997). In a conversation with the executive director of one professional orchestra, it was mentioned that a “women’s music” concert, celebrating women as composers and soloists, was the lowest attended concert of the season, while integrating women composers into Masterworks concerts had a smaller negative impact on attendance (Hinrichs, 2018). Ironically, efforts to highlight the work of women composers have often ostracized them even further from the mainstream.

Familiarity/Contemporary Music

Additionally, music composed by women may share at least one problem with other contemporary music and the music of still-living composers – these composers are not as familiar to listeners as the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms (often referred to as “The Three B’s”), and therefore, not often programmed on live concerts (Strempel,

2006). The influence of familiarity is so prevalent that the current practice for many orchestras is to program new and unfamiliar music prior to the intermission to keep audiences from leaving before hearing these new works (MacArthur, 2010). With such a bias toward older, familiar works, it is no wonder that music composed by women today struggles to find its way to the mainstage.

Music Education

Teachers and directors of middle and high school instrumental ensembles such as bands and orchestras often choose music for their curricula from lists curated by their state’s professional music teacher associations. One analysis of the Texas Prescribed 89

Music List, which is maintained by the state’s University Interscholastic League, found that only two percent of the music on that list is composed by women (Zigman & Costa-

Giomi, 2016). These findings are similar to those of O’Bannon’s (2016a) analysis of professional orchestra performances. They allow us to link these educational and professional instrumental ensembles, extrapolating issues discussed in terms of professional orchestras so that they can relate to school music ensembles. If the percentage of pieces composed by women rises in school bands and orchestras, would it correlate, or possibly contribute to an increase of music composed by women performed by professional orchestras?

In addition to repertoire, school music textbooks do not provide many female role models, therefore female students are not provided with gender-appropriate examples to follow (Gates, 1994; Strempel, 2006). Occasionally, general music texts will provide a few cursory anecdotes about Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn (Artesani, 2012), but we learn very little about their actual compositional activities compared with their roles as the supportive wife and sister of their more well-known male counterparts, whose music is deemed worthy of performance by large ensembles.

Teachers often misunderstand their own roles as facilitators of past gender roles.

In the classroom, teachers are more likely to call on boys, to clarify questions for boys, and to guide boys toward technical fields like math and science (Kommer, 2006), and it is likely that this implicit bias also exists in the music classroom. The results of one study suggest that when school-aged males and females are composing music together in a music-technology classroom, the females are immediately at a disadvantage because the 90

males tend to claim all of the computers early on, forcing the females into secondary roles in the projects (Armstrong, 2008). The teacher in this classroom did nothing to accommodate the less aggressive attitudes and learning styles of the female students in the class. Would the teacher have acted more proactively if she considered the ramifications on learning outcomes of such an action? What factors should teachers consider when planning their music curriculum? Perhaps knowledge of the factors and considerations that contribute to the gender disparity in music composition would have empowered this teacher to accommodate her students differently.

The present study aims to examine people’s attitudes, beliefs and ideas about the gender disparity of composers of orchestral music. What factors and considerations do people give to the question of why there are more male composers than female composers? What do people who enjoy classical music think about the fact that major orchestras perform music composed by women so infrequently? What perceived barriers have stood in women’s way, and do they still exist? To answer these questions, we surveyed the audiences attending two orchestra performances of the same program in a single weekend.

Method

Participants

Two-hundred-two people (124 females, 77 males, one non-response) responded to a paper-copy survey that was inserted in the program of a concert series performed by a professional orchestra in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Approximately 2,000 people attended the concert series. The target sample was chosen on the assumption that people 91

attending a professional orchestra concert will have a relatively high level of interest in, and knowledge about composers of Western art music. In addition to placing paper-copy surveys in each program, I was stationed in the lobby of the concert hall, recruiting participants face-to-face. The concert series lasted two days, and there were an equal number of responses each day (n = 101/day). Since both performances were identical, it was reasonable to expect that no person attended both performances, and that each participant only gave one response, though the possibility of a small number of duplicate responses is acknowledged. Two surveys were discarded because respondents indicated that they were under 18 years old (one male, one female), thereby failing to meet the

Institutional Review Board requirement that participants be at least 18 years old, so the ultimate number of respondents was 200 (N = 200; 123 females, 76 males).

Research Site

Researchers were granted access to the concert hall in which a professional orchestra was performing two concerts featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C# Minor, as well as the Violin Concerto “Concentric Paths,” by Thomas Adés to an estimated

2,000 people in total. Notably, the pre-concert lecturer made a cursory remark about

Alma Mahler’s musical interests, noting that Gustav prohibited her from composing on the grounds that it did not conform to current gender norms.

Paper copies of the survey were placed inside the programs and distributed to each attendee by ushers. In addition, one of the researchers was on-site to collect completed surveys, provide writing implements, and answer questions about the purpose, procedures and consent. When asked about the purpose, the on-site researcher made no 92

mention of women composers, but only told potential participants that they were gathering information about how much audiences know about composers. While most participants completed the survey at their seats, a large number utilized time before the concert, during intermission and after the concert to complete the survey in the lobby, having received a paper-copy from the on-site researcher.

Design and Procedure

A survey questionnaire was used to examine the knowledge of women composers, and attitudes and beliefs about women composers held by concertgoers at a professional orchestra concert. A pilot study was previously conducted at a series of university band concerts with a large sample (N = 103) to determine validity and reliability of the survey tool and study procedures. Improvements were made to the survey tool, and then the full study was conducted.

Participants recorded their answers in pen or pencil on the survey itself, which consisted of a four-page booklet, utilizing the front and back of each page. The first page consisted of a consent statement by which participants agreed that by completing the survey, they consented to having their responses used for the research and confirmed that they were at least 18 years old. The remaining three pages of the survey instrument contained fifteen items, including questions about age, gender, musical experience, education, composer knowledge, and beliefs and attitudes regarding the importance of knowing about the composers of the music whom they listen and/or perform (if they are musicians). Finally, an open-ended question asked participants to explain why they

thought music composed by women is performed less frequently than music composed by men.

It was explained to participants in the survey and in recruiting statements that they should not use any outside sources (i.e., the internet or asking others for information) in order to complete the knowledge portion of the survey. While a vast majority of the participants were unsupervised while completing the survey, the researcher on-site did not observe any person using their mobile devices or consulting fellow concertgoers when completing the survey. While the survey required only 10 to 15 minutes to complete, most people had it in their possession for either the first half of the concert

(approximately 45 minutes), or sometimes the entire concert (approximately two hours and twenty minutes), allowing them time to consider their answers carefully.

Demographic data were analyzed using the IBM® SPSS Statistical Software

Package, obtaining frequencies and descriptive statistics regarding age, gender, education level, musical experience, and composer knowledge. In addition, univariate analyses were used to determine the effects of various variables.

Responses to the open-ended question were analyzed using a grounded theoretical framework (Glaser, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1994) to explore possible themes that emerged from the body of responses. I used open coding procedures (Strauss & Corbin,

1990) to categorize and re-categorize responses throughout analysis to identify and combine related themes. It was possible for each response to contain ideas that fit into multiple themes. If so, the response was counted more than once. Themes were then

analyzed with demographic data to determine trends based on gender, education, musical experience and music knowledge.

Results

Two hundred valid responses were collected from participants over two performances of the same concert program. Seventy-six participants were male (38%) and 123 were female (61.5%) and one participant did not disclose their gender. The average age of participants was 61.6 years old, and Table 9 reports the age range broken into groups. It should be noted that many participants over 57 years old chose not to answer the open-ended question.

Table 9

Age Range of Participants Age Frequency Percent Valid 18-29 25 12.5 30-44 31 15.5 45-59 31 15.5 60-74 82 41.0 75-88 30 15.0 Total 199 99.5 Missing 1 00.5 Total 200 100.0 Note: One participant declined to provide age.

Most participants were highly educated; One hundred twenty-two had a graduate degree, 50 held a bachelor’s degree at most, 23 had attended some college, and five participants had no education beyond high school. A large majority of the participants

had some prior musical background – either having played instruments or sung in the past, or possibly in the present. Ninety-one percent of the participants reported having musical experience and 9% reported having no musical experience. Some participants had a great deal of experience in music. Nine (4.5%) participants reported being college- level music faculty or graduate students and another nine (4.5%) participants reported being undergraduate music students. However, 177 (88.5%) of the participants reported that they had no post-secondary musical training.

Participants were asked to rate how often they knew the names of the composers of the music to which they listen and/or play(ed) (for participants with musical experience). A five-point Likert-type scale was used (1 = Not Important, 2 = Slightly

Important, 3 = Moderately Important, 4 = Very Important, 5 = Extremely Important).

Table 10 shows a breakdown of the ratings provided by participants by number of responses (frequency) and by percentage. Most participants (60%) agree that it is moderately important or very important to know the names of the composers to whom they listen. Among the participants with musical experience, 44% of the respondents reported that it is either very important or extremely important to know the names of the composers they perform(ed).

Table 10

Importance of Knowing Composers Listen Perform Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Not Important 15 7.5 19 9.5 Slightly Important 31 15.5 14 7.0 Moderately Important 56 28.0 28 14.0 Very Important 64 32.0 34 17.0 Extremely Important 31 15.5 54 27.0

Participants were asked to recall as many composers they could (up to 10 maximum), in each of the following four categories: a) Famous Composers, b) 20th and

21st Century Composers, c) Living Composers, and d) Women Composers. Participants could name 10 composers in some of the categories; Famous Composers: 145 (72.5%);

20th and 21st Century Composers: 71 (35.5%); Living Composers: 18 (9%); Women

Composers: 9 (4.5%). Table 11 shows the mean number of composers named in each of the four categories along with standard deviations and score variances. Participants named more famous composers than any others (M = 8.53), and the category with the fewest responses was women composers (M = 1.37).

Table 11

Number of Composers Named by Participants N Mean Std. Deviation Famous Composers 199 8.53 2.96 20th and 201st Century Composers 199 5.54 4.03 Living Composers 199 2.43 3.60 Women Composers 199 1.37 2.55 Note: One participant noted that they know composer’s names but did not have time to complete the task.

Results of an independent-samples t-test comparing the number of composers recalled by participants in each of four categories to their musical experience found no significant effect (See Table 12). However, results of an independent samples t-test did show that gender had a significant effect on the number of composers named in two of the four categories: (a) Famous Composers; males (M = 9.24, SD = 2.26), females (M =

8.16, SD = 3.17); t(196) = 2.57, p < .005, and (b) Women Composers; males (M = 1.80,

SD = 2.86), females (M = 1.11, SD = 2.32); t(196) = 1.88, p = .024. Male respondents generally named more composers in each of those categories. Though there was a significant difference in the number of women composers named by gender, the small number of responses by all participants in that category threatens the validity of the result

(M = 1.37).

Table 12

Mean Number of Composers Named by Participants’ Musical Experience Musical No Musical Experience Experience Mean SD Mean SD p Famous Composers 8.50 3.01 8.88 2.28 .611 20th and 21st Century Composers 5.59 4.04 5.00 3.90 .566 Living Composers 2.44 3.66 2.35 2.91 .925 Women Composers 1.41 2.62 0.88 1.61 .414

Table 13

Number of Composers Named by Gender of the Respondents Females Males Mean SD Mean SD p Famous Composers 8.16 3.17 9.24 2.26 .000 20th and 21st Century Composers 4.73 3.95 6.91 3.79 .284 Living Composers 2.04 3.05 3.09 4.29 .356 Women Composers 1.11 2.32 1.80 2.86 .024 Note: Bold indicates that p < .05.

Of the 1,724 entries for famous composers, Participants recalled the names of 132 different composers, 14 of whom were women. In the category of “20th and 21st Century

Composers,” participants named 207 composers (20 women) and there were 1,074 entries. The “living composers” category was comprised of 167 different composers (31 women) with 434 entries, and finally, participants named 91 “women composers” with

265 entries. See Appendix B for a detailed breakdown of the composers listed and frequencies with which they were entered into the survey. Responses of “Mendelssohn” or “Schumann” without providing a first name were not included in the count of male or

female composers, because I could not be certain if participants meant Clara or Robert

Schumann, or Felix or Fanny Mendelssohn. However, it is likely that the male composer was intended. Responses were not excluded if inaccurately assigned to a category, because I wanted the participant’s perceptions to be highlighted regardless of fact. For example, Amy Beach (1867-1944) was listed as a living composer by one participant, and Thomas Adés was listed once as a female composer by another one. If the participant believed it to be true, it was left in the data intact.

Mahler received a large number of entries in the “famous composers” and the

“20th and 21st century composers” categories (fourth and sixth highest, respectively), and

Thomas Adés received many entries in the “20th and 21st Century composers” and “living composers” (12th and first, respectively) but I believe this is because they were both listed on the program for the concert. If Mahler had not been on the concert program, the top four “famous composers” would have likely been Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Brahms, in that order (See Appendix C).

Of the 200 participants who completed the survey, 163 responded to the open- ended question: “Music composed by women is performed less frequently than music composed by men. Why do you think this is so?” Analysis of the responses to this question item resulted in the emergence of nine major themes, listed below with an example of an actual response for each:

• Fewer women – “There are simply fewer of them composing.”

• Lack of recognition – “Women are not being recognized as much as men

for their work.” 100

• Programming tradition – “Currently played music has been composed

over hundreds of years 95% of which time almost all composers were

men.”

• Familiarity – “Lack of familiarity.”

• Sexism/bias – “Sexism. Women are not valued as much as men.”

• Patriarchy/gender roles – “It was less socially acceptable for women to

compose music before the modern era.”

• Opportunities – “Because historically women have had less opportunities

to succeed.”

• Intrinsic musical value – “Maybe less intense, loud, ‘athletic’”

• Gender characteristics – “…women stereotypically have a (science tested)

harder time self-promoting and risk taking, which is often required to

break-into male rich fields.”

• The contemporary music problem – “Hopefully contemporary women

composers will be more fortunate. Not enough new music is programmed

in general.”

The theme, “opportunity” was recoded multiple times using several different themes, attempting to determine if past and present opportunities could be separated into separate themes, however researchers concluded that a single theme was a better representation of the participants’ views and beliefs.

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Women were more likely to provide an answer to the open-response question

(84.5%) than men (76.3%). Three themes: “intrinsic musical value,” “gender characteristics” and “contemporary music problem” are not included in the figures because there were only one, two and seven responses respectively that fit within those themes. Figure 2 shows the overall number of responses given within each theme. Both women and men responded that “patriarchy” and “gender roles” were the most important factors in the gender disparity seen in classical music. However, women were more likely to respond in this manner suggesting that men do not seem to notice their place of privilege within the patriarchal society.

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Figure 2. Number of Responses by Theme

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Education appeared to be a factor in the type of response given to the question about why more music composed by men is performed than music composed by women.

Figure 3 displays the number of responses representing each theme by education level.

“Patriarchy and gender roles” is the most commonly cited reason for the disparity, and participants with graduate degrees were more likely to refer to this explanation than those with bachelor’s degrees or lower levels of education. In fact, there were more than twice as many participants with graduate degrees who referred to “patriarchy and gender roles” than there were participants with bachelor’s degrees, and over seven-times more than participants without a bachelor’s degree.

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Figure 3. Number of Responses by Education and Theme

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Discussion

The basic profile of participants studied here is highly educated, some musical experience, more likely to be female and between 60-74 years old. They are likely to have a somewhat strong educational background in music history, and they think that knowing the names of the composers to whom they listen is important. Notably, the largest age-group of participants were in their late teens and 20s between 1965 and 1974

– perhaps one of the most formative times in U.S. history for feminism and feminist ideologies. Female participants in this age group may be especially passionate about social justice issues around gender, therefore more likely than men to complete a questionnaire about women composers. The musicians sampled here think it is extremely important to know the names of the composers whose music they play. Most people can name a multitude of famous composers and can even name at least a few 20th and 21st century composers. Most respondents, however, could not name many women composers, and many did not name even one.

Audience members tend to appreciate classical music concerts for their intrinsic values, i.e., self-enrichment, healing/therapeutic, and artistic/educational (Knight

Foundation, 2002). Audiences particularly value the educational aspect of classical music and most read the program notes carefully (Knight Foundation, 2002). The data in the present study corroborate these findings by suggesting that participants believe that it is important to know the names of the composers to whose music they listen. Although there are those who claim that the music itself is more important than the composer (See

Chapter 3), participants in this study send a clear message that the people who create the 106

art is also important. Music educators teach about “The Three Bs” (Beethoven, Bach and

Brahms), a concept illustrated in Table 11. They adorn their music rooms with posters featuring the important composers in music history. This all points to the importance of recognizing the people of all genders and ethnicities for their contributions to the Western musical canon.

Analysis of the data regarding the ability of participants to recall composers’ names point to a lack of representation of the creative work of women composers in the music education curriculum. Most textbooks and other curricular materials fail to discuss the contributions of women in music history (Artesani, 2012; Bennett, Hennekam,

Macarthur, Hope, & Goh, 2019; Lam, 2018). Additionally, directors of school music ensembles, for whom “repertoire is the curriculum” (Reynolds, 2000), continue to facilitate the patriarchal values by creating music programs that are not representative of the number of women composers whose music is available (Zigman & Costa-Giomi,

2016). Table 11 lists a great number of women composers, many of whom are deserving of having their role in music history recognized. Furthermore, this table is by no means an exhaustive list in that very few of the women who compose primarily for school ensembles are represented at all. Distributors of educational band and orchestra music have hundreds of works composed by dozens of women in their online catalogs. Music directors of both professional and educational music ensembles may have the power to change the balance (or more accurately, imbalance) of power, finally diminishing the influence of patriarchal traditions.

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Historically, patriarchal values have passed through dozens of generations. The effects of such values have been lasting and have contributed to the gender disparity we continue to see today in classical music, particularly in the creative role of composing.

The audience in this study seemed aware of the disparity and had strong beliefs and ideas about the reasons behind this disparity. Patriarchy was the most salient with 81 total responses and over 68 percent of those responses coming from women. Of the many responses, one participant’s open-ended response underscored the weight of past patriarchal attitudes and set gender roles: “Two reasons, 1) centuries of male-dominated societies and culture. 2) childbearing and rearing responsibilities of women during the ages of 20-45 years when men are much freer for development of talents and abilities and productivity!” This statement gets at the crux of how gender roles can inhibit the creative output of generations of women. Men have long been considered the “bread-winners” of the family unit, while women were traditionally expected to spend their post-schooling time in the home, raising a family. The long hours required for child-rearing certainly precludes any time that women might have used for creative and professional pursuits, and despite societal progress in the last half-century, little has changed.

Professional orchestras have famously fallen behind the curve when it comes to societal progress and particularly, gender diversity. In the 1960s, as women were gaining a foothold in the workplace, orchestra search committees still prevented them from joining their ranks. This finally began to change with the adoption of blind auditions

(“All ears: American orchestras,” 1996), which became common practice by the 1990s.

However, even then some orchestras (particularly in Europe) claimed that introducing 108

women would change the sound of the orchestra (Eakin, 2003; Osborne, 1996). Women composers continue to lack representation in professional music, as well as academia

(Hisama, 2001; Kuster, 2013). At one time, academic advisors were known to push female composition students toward “safe” jobs in academia rather than promoting and advancing their female students’ professional compositional careers (Davidson, 1991).

This practice is just one illustration of the gender bias underlying the problem women composers continue to face.

Another participant response pointed to a bias held by both men and women: “1) women are less encouraged to become composers. 2) when they do, they are not considered to be as good, have to work harder to be heard, get their name out, etc.”

(Participant). Armstrong (2008) reported that male and female teachers are both guilty of assuming that the quality of compositions by male students is inherently better than those by females, and it is supported by the Goldberg Paradigm (Goldberg, 1968). Music composed by women must not only be equal in quality to that of men, but of even higher quality to be considered good. Not all music that is performed is good music, but music composed by men sometimes gets a “pass,” meaning that they have tacit permission to compose lesser-quality music and still find opportunities for performance.

“People are not aware of how much great music has been/is being composed by women” (Participant). Women have been composing music throughout the history of

Western music. From Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century German abbess, to 2019

Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid, thousands of women have contributed compositions to the musical arts. Receiving recognition for those contributions, however, 109

has been challenging. Most orchestras in the United States do not perform any works composed by women in any given season (See Chapter 3), and most people cannot name a single female composer. Some music history and theory textbooks have recently begun including a few women in their pages (Baker, 2003), but there is clearly still more emphasis placed on the traditional male masters that have been revered for centuries. As one music historian, composer and blogger wrote, “I believe it is not without the intelligence of chance that Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Beach are in alliteration, forcing us to forever address the ‘Four B’s’” (Greenberg, 2019).

The large number of composers named in each of the four categories (famous composers, 20th and 21st century composers, living composers and women composers) suggests that audience members have a strong sense of music appreciation, and that they know the eminent names of the creators in Western classical music, including many of the eminent women composers in music history. The most prominently listed women in

“famous composers” were Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Hildegard von

Bingen, each with three entries. They appear at numbers 50, 51 and 52, respectively on the list of “famous composers” (See Appendix E). Other composers with three entries are Eric Satie, Georg Philipp Telemann, Dieterich Buxtehude, Ottorino Respighi and

Benjamin Britten. Historical considerations preclude the compositions of most women from being recognized at all, so it is positive that these three names have stood the test of time and are recognized by some concertgoers as being worthy of “famous composer” status.

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Several Pulitzer Prize-winning composers were entered: John Luther Adams, John

Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Caroline Shaw and Aaron Copland, among others. Jennifer

Higdon is the second prize-winner to show up in the “famous composers” category (71st on the list), and the third Pulitzer Prize-winner on the list is also a woman (Caroline

Shaw: 91st). It is unclear why these women are so prominent in the “famous composers” category but are eclipsed by other Pulitzer Prize-winners in the “20th and 21st Century” category, where she is the sixth. Any of the listed “famous composers” could be seen on an orchestra’s masterworks program, but the programming continues to be male dominated (O’Bannon, 2016a).

The masterworks concerts that are held each year by symphony orchestras around the world conform to perceived expectations held by audience members and stakeholders.

People who are charged with planning concert programs, and even classical music radio programming (See Chapter 2) are pressured to program music they know audiences will want to hear (See Chapter 3)). As one participant put it, “Orchestras tend to play

"Classical," Romantic and Baroque music.” Music directors must fill concert hall seats in order to continue their work of performing and promoting great music, and this may lead to “playing it safe” by programming music that audiences know and love to a much higher degree than music that is new and groundbreaking. It is noteworthy that music composed by women nowadays may suffer less from explicit sexism, and more from the fact that it is mostly new music, and therefore struggles to find a place in orchestra concert programs (MacArthur, 2010). Audiences crave familiarity, and music composed

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by women may not have been performed and promoted enough for any composers to become household names.

As another participant stated, “Perhaps they haven't yet become as familiar to us.

I personally am partial to music that I have heard for many years – haven't heard many women” (Participant). This statement is backed up by research (Hamlen & Shuell, 2006;

Schubert, 2007), and could explain why one executive director of a professional symphony orchestra once claimed in frustration that attendance at their “Celebrating

Women in Music” concert was the lowest of any concert in several years (B. Hinrichs, personal communication, March 2, 2018). Until music composed by women becomes more mainstream in orchestra’s concert programs, their names will not gain the name- recognition necessary for their music to be included more often – a vicious cycle of sorts.

Institutions that house and promote classical music, such as professional orchestras and academia were called out by some of the participants (62.5% of whom were women), though not by name: “Seems to be a field dominated by male composers, despite plenty of female performers. Seems like there's some sort of institutional bias against female composers” (Participant). People appear to recognize that someone has the power to make changes, though since there were over three times more responses regarding sexism and bias than there were for familiarity (50 responses for sexism/bias;

15 responses for familiarity), more people put the onus on musical institutions rather than on individuals such as music aficionados within society.

Though responses about perceptions of greater inherent abilities in males were not common, it is notable that at least one respondent acknowledged what has been born-out 112

by research: That people perceive men to be better at certain technical pursuits

(Armstrong, 2008). By responding: “Men [are] perceived as better composers”

(Participant), this person (who was female) acknowledged that implicit, and perhaps explicit bias exists, both in our institutions and among our audiences.

Patriarchal tradition, historical gender roles and sexism all point to the fact that women are often not granted the opportunities they need for success in composition. As one response noted:

From the beginning of [the] Renaissance, women did not receive proper

education, including art and music. Therefore, composing was a hard thing

to do for women. In the modern world, where most of the composers are

men, [it] became a barrier for women to break, thinking composer is a

men's job. This leaves most of the women not even thinking about being a

composer (Participant).

While barriers to education for women have improved, it should be noted that women still do not enter graduate-level composition programs at the same rate as men. In 2016, about 22 percent of the students enrolling in doctoral composition program in the U.S. were women, and only 15 percent of the graduates were women (HEADS, 2017). What barriers exist in higher education that make this disparity possible?

Two other themes: “Gender personalities” and “intrinsic musical value” are relative outliers, with only one and two responses respectively, however it is noteworthy that they both pointed to a somewhat outdated attitude toward the contributions made by women in the world. Both respondents claiming that the intrinsic musical value of music 113

composed by women was either lesser-than, or otherwise different from music composed by men were male. In addition, the one response claiming that women are different than men and “have a harder time self-promoting and risk-taking…” was from a female respondent. She acknowledged that there are innate differences in the way men and women approach the world and that a patriarchal society does not do much to accommodate for those differences.

A final theme that was removed from analysis, “contemporary music problem,” was referred to just seven times, but it implicates the tendency that people have to choose music with which they are already familiar (Schubert, 2007). There is a large volume of contemporary music being composed by women and men, however orchestras only program a small amount of it each season. In 2016, one report claimed that 11.8 percent of all the music performed by the largest U.S. orchestras was composed by composers who were still living, and that 27.6 percent of all concert programs from those orchestras contained at least one piece by a living composer (O’Bannon, 2016b). Orchestras rely on audiences to fill their concert halls, and it is assumed that those audiences will only come out to hear music they know and love.

Conclusions

It is clear that women composers have historically faced, and continue to face, challenges to having their music performed in the most visible venues, as well as in gaining the resources necessary to realize their full potential. Patriarchal structures have placed barriers in front of women in terms of access to, and quality of education, and in terms of access to performance opportunities. In the modern era, when women and men 114

are fighting for gender equality in the workplace and in the arts, how can these structures be torn down, breaking the proverbial “glass ceiling?” To begin dismantling those patriarchal structures, perhaps we must understand how female students learn differently from male students in schools, remove traditionally masculine language from discussions about quality, and commit to promoting great music composed by women in a more gender-equitable way, both in schools and in major concert halls.

Commissions are one way by which school music groups, higher education institutions, and professional organizations alike can help to limit the gender disparity in composition, and can support and encourage more women in the field (Strempel, 2006).

Several funding bodies are leading the way with the establishment of grants and awards for new commissions of orchestral compositions by women (Houle, 2006; Midgette,

2017).

Studies exploring how female students learn differently from male students can help educators to adjust their teaching styles to allow for the males’ more spatially oriented thinking, while providing support for the females’ more literacy-based, linguistic and meaning-seeking ways of thinking – not to treat them equally, but equitably, based on their different strengths (Kommer, 2006). Educators can also commit to promoting gender equity in their curricula, provide role models for every student, and take responsibility for creating momentum (Mabry, 2009) that will continue improving the disparate gender landscape in Western classical music both in and out of the classroom.

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Chapter 5: School Band Directors’ Thoughts and Beliefs Toward Gender Diversity in

the Band Curriculum

Abstract

The present study sought to examine the thoughts and beliefs held by instrumental school music educators about gender-balance in their curricula. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with school music teachers to gather data regarding the unique perspectives and experiences of six school music teachers. Five themes emerged from the interviews:

1) Teacher’s values, 2) curricular considerations, 3) music programming, 4) teacher efficacy outcomes, and 5) acquiring sheet music. Barriers exist in finding and acquiring music composed by women, and demanding performance schedules obligate teachers to maintain the status quo regarding the composers they choose and leave little time and energy for teachers to explore new and progressive programming practices.

Introduction and Literature

The present study aims to explore the beliefs and practices of school music educators in a Midwestern city regarding programming gender diverse curricular materials. While gender inequity is a popular topic in many facets of society at present, it is important to study the actions that are (or are not) taken to promote better equity in music and music education in schools.

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When teachers engage in culturally responsive pedagogies, equitable access to music education can be granted (Kindall-Smith, McKoy, & Mills, 2011). Understanding the perspectives of groups who have been excluded in some way, such as women composers, could provide a different viewpoint to teachers and enable them to connect those perspectives with those of their female students. In the music classroom, culturally responsive teachers begin by learning, understanding and validating each student and their overlapping experiences (Abril, 2013). This method could theoretically be applied to respond to learning differences in gender, and to ensure that curricular materials (e.g., music for performing ensembles) are representative of the students in the class.

Some teachers and students may be unaware of how gender constructs impact learning. In fact, teachers have a wide variety of ideas about gender constructs in regard to students (Roulston & Misawa, 2011). For example, male music teachers tend to use sports metaphors and comparisons in their teaching more often than female music teachers (Roulston & Misawa, 2011). Many students perceive gender characteristics in musical instruments (flute is female; tuba is male), and choose an instrument based in part on that perception (Abeles, 2009; Eros, 2008; Wrape et al., 2016). Aims associated with culturally responsive music education, such as validating students and broadening horizons (Shaw, 2012) could be instrumental in diminishing the impact of such traditional gender constructs. One way in which music teachers can respond to the needs of female students is to ensure that gender-specific role models are highlighted in the music curriculum. Providing access to role models for students is an important way for teachers to help students envision their future selves, and gender specific role models can 117

be even more impactful in helping female students cope with the feeling of “otherness” that is often prevalent in female students (Gould, 1992).

There are aspects of current music programs, however, that may provide few of such models. For example, a number of women compose music for school band, but their music is not programmed as often as that of men in school concerts and curricula

(See Chapter 2). This problem is not exclusive to school programs but to professional ones as well; there are women who compose for professional orchestras and bands, but few of their works reach the mainstage (League of American Orchestras, 2014;

O’Bannon, 2016a). The pressure to fill seats that the administrators of professional orchestras feel often encourages them to program only the most familiar music in their concerts (See Chapter 3). Music educators may feel similar pressure to select familiar repertoire in the face of impending concerts and contest performances. The pressure to perform may encourage music educators to solely focus on performance skills, ignoring aspects of the music that require deep understanding, reflection and creativity – the music education equivalent of “teaching to the test” (Thibeault, 2010). Music contests may invite a similar myopic focus on skills and pedagogy. The pressure on music educators to earn a “superior” rating is related to music teachers’ self-efficacy and occasionally affect educator evaluations, serving as a third-party evaluator for school districts (Hash, 2012).

Additionally, contests sponsored by state music education associations often curate lists of approved music to be performed at adjudicated contests. For example, an analysis of the Texas University Interscholastic League’s Prescribed Music List (PML) showed that less than 2% of the music allowed to be performed by school ensembles was 118

composed by women (Zigman & Costa-Giomi, 2018). The works featured on lists such as the PML are age-appropriate in terms of skills development, but with so few works composed by women, the list may not be an appropriate reflection of larger social issues surrounding gender equity, representation and balance.

Gender characteristics come into play in the music classroom in many ways. For example, female students tend to be less motivated by technology than male students

(García-Gil & Andreu, 2017), suggesting that music educators teaching composition tasks via technology should vary their teaching style or format in ways that speak encourage female students to either use the technology in meaningful way. In one-on- one instrumental music lessons, teachers have found that female students find more success when the teacher is better organized but that organization is less important for the success of male students (Zhukov, 2012). Gender-responsive pedagogies could take into consideration the differences in learning styles and modes between male and female students and consider the impact of such differences on the learning outcomes of their students when it comes to incorporating creative activities in the instrumental music classroom.

Music educators may be cognizant of the impact that their repertoire choice has on students and some teachers display a willingness to promote gender equality in music education (See Chapter 3), but it is unclear whether those experiences contribute to actual changes in the music curricula developed by those teachers. How do teachers view their mission as music educators and how does that impact their teaching? How do teachers approach curricular planning for their performing ensembles, and how do they create, or 119

fail to create gender-balance in their own music curricula? Are there institutional barriers that prevent teachers from acquiring more music that is composed by women?

Method

The purpose of this study was to examine the thoughts and beliefs of instrumental school music educators about gender-balance in their curricula. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data regarding the unique perspectives and experiences of six school music teachers.

Participants

Sampling from a purposefully chosen population of convenience ensured that participants fit the specific criteria and were located within driving distance of the researcher. The target population consisted of instrumental music educators who taught in and around a large Midwestern metropolitan area (N = 46). Each was invited to participate in the study via a recruiting email, and eight responded with interest in participating in the study. Two of the interested music teachers stated that marching band schedules were too heavy for a meeting but were willing to participate at a later time. Six participants (N = 6) scheduled meeting times within a few weeks of the initial recruiting email.

In order to participate in the study, participants had to be instrumental music teachers in public or private schools. Although a wide range of experience was preferred, no participants were excluded based on this criterion. The population was chosen in part due to the close geographic proximity of the participants to the researcher. This convenience allowed for more flexibility in interview scheduling, and for each interview 120

to take place face-to-face in a location that was comfortable and familiar for each participant. Interviews were conducted in a location of the participant’s choice, often being the participant’s classroom, office, or another quiet room in the participant’s school.

The six participants had varied and unique characteristics in terms of teaching experience and background, though only one taught high school band. Olive has been teaching middle-school band for five years, all at the same suburban school. She has a bachelor’s degree in music education and feels that while she is gaining experience and confidence, she relies on guidance and direction from the music teaching colleagues in her school district. Students begin band instruments in fifth grade in her district, so they already have a year of instrumental music experience when they come to her band.

Nora is a middle-school band director in a suburban school with 39 years of teaching experience. She has taught each age group, Kindergarten through 12th grade in both public and private schools. Nora has also taught band, orchestra, and choir in several states.

Rupert has taught beginning and middle-school band for 14 years in the same suburban middle-school. During the interview, Rupert monitored a study-hall made up of music students who were practicing independently around the music room.

Jillian has been teaching middle-school band for over 20 years. Before her interview, she spoke of some of the gender bias she experienced as a young band director. Jillian is also the head of the music department for the suburban school in which she teaches. 121

Carole began teaching 22 years ago and teaches lower, middle and upper grades at an all-girl’s private school. She teaches band and orchestra and spoke about the difficulties of teaching in a private school, where students move in and out of the school more frequently than in most public schools. Carole had recently attended a professional development event that promoted gender-diversity in instrumental music curricula (See

Chapter 6).

Kathy is a high-school band director who had recently re-entered the workforce after completing a master’s degree in music education at a large public university. She taught previously in another state and is the head band director at a suburban high school.

Overall, the participants’ profiles reflected a variety of experiences and opinions.

Participants engaged in semi-structured interviews based on open-ended questioning.

Interviews were transcribed in real-time with a digital dictation tool in conjunction with detailed notetaking.

Data Collection

Using a grounded theory approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 82), I sought to go beyond description of the teachers’ ideas about gender diversity in their curriculum toward developing a theory that would explain how some teachers approach, or fail to approach, issues of social justice and gender diversity in their curricula. Their description of the process of choosing music, including barriers to acquiring materials were important to this central question.

A one-on-one semi-structured interview design grounded in a phenomenological interviewing method (Roulston, 2010, p. 16) was conducted with each participant with a 122

predetermined set of interview questions which often lead to probing and follow-up questions. Participants were each asked a pre-determined set of questions about their values, music programming habits and practices, and thoughts regarding programming music composed by women (See Appendix H). The researcher also asked follow-up questions as were appropriate under the guidelines of semi-structured interview protocols

(Roulston, 2010, p. 15). While all participants were asked the same set of predetermined questions, each interview was unique in that probing and follow-up questions prompted additional discussion that was sometimes tangential, but often helped me to understand the participants’ individual lived experiences and ideas. This method yielded a rich and varied perspective to each of the topics addressed.

Analysis

Edited interview transcripts were analyzed for emergent themes, allowing me to categorize the data into “thematic representations” (Roulston, 2010, p. 154). The object of this analysis technique is to report data through description, analysis, and interpretation

(Roulston, 2010, p. 154). The constant comparative method of coding raw interview data helped me to develop categories that were representative of the experiences of several, or in some instances, all of the participants by comparing experiences between participants again and again (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 105). I integrated categories into a common narrative that described the lived experiences, thoughts and beliefs of each participant.

Raw data went through a rigorous data reduction process (Roulston, 2010, p. 150) that included coding and recoding, resulting in the emergence of six themes. I developed an initial codebook during initial analysis which was revised through re-analysis resulting in 123

a revised final codebook (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 267). The resulting six emergent themes adequately described the beliefs, thoughts and opinions of the interview participants, and linked their ideas in ways that contributed to the overall narrative to address the research questions.

Validity and Reliability

Interview questions were checked by multiple individuals outside the study, looking for possible bias and for question validity. Detailed notes were taken throughout the interviews for comparison with the digitally-dictation transcript, and participants were sent a copy of the transcript from their interview for member-checking (Roulston, 2010, p. 87). Each participant made appropriate corrections or clarifications, ensuring that their ideas and statements were truly representative of their own beliefs and experiences. A graduate student studying music education served as a second coder, ensuring reliability in the final codebook.

Results and Discussion

The interviews focused on topics related to values, repertoire, programming, teaching composition and composers. Six main themes emerged throughout the inductive analysis process: 1) Teacher’s Values, 2) Curricular Considerations, 3) Music

Programming, 4) Teacher-Efficacy Outcomes, 5) Acquiring Sheet Music, and 6) Gender

Issues. Each theme reflects statements that are related to that idea in some way. An explanation of the themes allows for deeper understanding of how the themes emerged:

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• Teacher’s Values: Statements that reflected values held by teachers about

teaching, students or social issues, such as diversity, the “band experience,”

student empowerment, normalization, inclusiveness, and lifelong learning.

• Curricular Considerations: Statements about or relating to curriculum, including

skills, standards, creativity, and structure and balance within the curriculum.

• Music Programming: Statements made about choosing and programming music

for school ensembles such as school needs, performances, programming diversity,

student input, existing music library, ensemble ability, and music quality.

• Teacher Efficacy Outcomes: Statements made about teacher competency and the

outcomes related to issues around competency such as content knowledge,

perceived weaknesses, socially conscientious planning, finding/using resources,

professional experience and professional development.

• Acquiring Sheet Music: Statements regarding how teachers acquire music,

including barriers preventing teachers from acquiring appropriate music.

Table 14 displays the number of times each theme occurred. Some statements could be classified under multiple themes, belying the complexity of the discussion of gender and social justice in music education. These statements were ultimately classified under the theme that best fit the statement. The current discussion is focused on the most salient statements under each major theme made by participants.

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Table 14

Number of Occurrences of Themes Theme Occurrences Teacher’s Values 61 Curricular Considerations 56 Music Programming 54 Teacher-Efficacy Outcomes 39 Acquiring Sheet Music 26 Gender Issues 25

During the interview, teachers spoke most often about issues involving their values in the classroom, including social issues, empowering student, and providing unique experiences for students. They also referred often to the decisions they make and challenges they encountered when developing curriculum and planning programming in their music programs. “Acquiring music” and “gender issues” were not discussed as often as other themes, yet statements coded under these themes are of interest to the present study.

Gender Issues

In an effort to treat all of her students equally and with respect, Olive used gender-neutral language when speaking to her students: “The way that I address them -- it's always at the top of my mind and anytime that I received a call or email from parents,

I am careful to treat them with respect.” She also discussed using this gender-neutral language along with Individual Education Plans (IEP) and 504 plans as a matter of compliance and making students feel comfortable, acknowledging that, “it's a lot to think about but I feel like it's our obligation.” Gender neutral language can be applied in many 126

ways. When referring to specific jobs, for example, one might use “police officer” rather than “policeman,” or “policewoman.” Another example is the use of the pronouns “they” or “them” in place of “he” or “she,” or in Sweden, the word “hen” (a complement to the

Swedish words for he [han] and she [hon]) which is gaining popularity (Sendén, Bäck, &

Lindqvist, 2015). Though “composer” is not a gender-specific word itself, the act of changing one’s approach to language and gender could impact the way people view gender in certain roles in society (Sendén et al., 2015). Adopting a gender-neutral linguistic approach is one way by which teachers could diminish some of the gender barriers that females face in the classroom.

Musical instruments have been gendered for decades; male students tend to gravitate toward instruments like trombone, tuba or percussion, while female students may be drawn to instruments like flute, violin or clarinet (Abeles, 2009; Eros, 2008;

Wrape et al., 2016). In addition to the use of gendered language in the music classroom, the teachers also referred to gendered roles that are still prevalent in music programs. For example, Nora referred to the gendering of certain instruments in the band as well as leadership roles within marching bands, and how that has changed over time:

…when I was in school growing up, [field commanders] were boys. Now

that has changed, and I encourage girl participation on instruments that

maybe others may not think about. So, I have several boys playing flute

now, several are playing clarinet, several girls that play trumpet.

Rupert made similar comments about the gendering of instruments, and how that has changed from the stereotypes of past decades (Abeles, 2009). He said, 127

…we don’t want all our girls in class thinking, ‘Oh I can only play flute

and clarinet.’ I’ve got gals playing trumpets and trombones and tubas;

I’ve got guys on flutes and oboes and clarinets… it’s all about what you

present to them.

Both Rupert and Nora were committed to breaking the stereotypes about instruments and gender, and proudly spoke about the success of their efforts to promote a gender-neutral view of musical instruments. Over her 39-year career, Nora has witnessed social change and how those changes have affected band participation. When Nora began teaching, the gender balance in elementary school bands had already been shifting from a 21% female participation in the 1960s to 31% female participation in the 1980s (Zervoudakes &

Tanur, 1994). However, the same study reported that female student participation fell in high schools and college bands over the same time period. Perhaps keeping female students engaged in the transitions to middle school, high school, and college could be another key factor in bolstering the numbers of women who go on to become composers.

As a music teacher at an all-girls private school, empowering students is Carole’s main mission in teaching about gender roles. “We talked about empowering them to change the future and to be leaders and to be good leaders, you can't just be a female leader – you have to be a good female leader or a good female composer.” Carole may have been referring to the stereotype that women must be better than men to succeed in the world. Research suggests that female leaders do display different behaviors than male leaders, and that female leaders in male-dominated workplaces tend to present themselves modestly and in a self-effacing style (Gipson, Pfaff, Mendelsohn, Catenacci, 128

& Burke, 2017). Another researcher found, however that women in leadership roles earned high ratings in transformational leadership (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van

Engen, 2003), which may be a key to instituting social change in the music classroom.

Participants seemed to agree that they play a role in diminishing the effects of age-old gender stereotypes in music. They acknowledged their own roles as the providers in the classroom, with power and responsibility to make change that ensures every student finds equal success and has equal access to all aspects of instrumental music education. Overall, the teachers believed that through empowerment of female students and changing the language used in the classroom, teachers can begin to help male and female students form a different concept of their roles as musicians, reshaping the world of classical music for the future.

Curricular Considerations

The most common response to questions about composition in the band curriculum was that it was not done. Participants felt the stresses of covering specific aspects of the curriculum – perhaps those that lead directly to performances – that there is little time for non-performance activities. “I have such a limited time to teach the material that I do not teach composition,” Nora lamented. Rupert did not teach composition in his band classes either. He said that it was on his “bucket list of things to do – to teach in class.” When asked whether he saw the need to consider gender when planning for compositional activities, he postulated that he did not think that girls would respond to the task of composing differently from boys unless he responded differently to their work or their process: “Only if the way it was presented would, you know, would do 129

anything, or the way I responded to a boy and a girl in class if that makes sense.” Rupert acknowledged that the biggest factor may be in the way he addresses student work, and that he would have to be particularly thoughtful about gender differences when he gave formative feedback.

Olive knew that “creating” is a state (ODE, 2012) and national music standard

(https://nafme.org/my-classroom/standards/) that must be met, but was unsure about how to fit the standard into a middle school band rehearsal: “I’m still kind of seeing if I can flex composing and creating more into the standard concert band class with sheet music and performance targets.” She did, however, have ideas for including creativity in the band curriculum, showing that it is important to her: “What I want to do…is add that sort of compositional component in there as a menu option for the students – they can choose…if they don't want to replicate something they can create.” Creative roles (along with leadership roles) have historically belonged to men, particularly in music (Bennett,

2008; Doubleday, 2008; Piirto, 1991). However, through differentiated instruction that allows students to choose how they will be creative, teachers could address individual differences including those associated with gender characteristics, such as the tendency for female students to take on secondary creative roles when forced to compete with male students for resources (Armstrong, 2008). Furthermore, Olive said that each of her students,

…have access to a device to compose with and in my class, each student

has an equal time and opportunity to complete those compositional

nuggets I add into class time. Some students work extra from the class- 130

assigned time, but I have not noted or noticed a correlation between or

comparing girls and boys.

By providing various ways and choices for students to demonstrate creativity in band, as well as ensuring that students do not have to compete for resources, Olive’s female students may be on more equal footing with her male students. Olive encouraged a more equitable pathway for her female students to be creative through the common classroom technique of differentiated teaching (Savage, 2018), and providing learning pathways that allow for student differences in learning style and ability.

Improvisation is another standard that is sometimes overlooked by music teachers who are focused on performance outcomes. Jillian claimed that being a female role model probably helped female students in her class move past some barriers in creativity, such as improvisation. She said that she taught improvisation, but not composition in her curriculum: “I don't know if I would be doing anything differently except for I'm a girl because if I'm doing it in front of them and they're doing it they just don't have that barrier. I don't I know I wouldn't have done it at that age.” Jillian’s experiences as a student musician attempting to create improvised music in front of males clearly shaped her ideas on providing a gender-appropriate role model for her female students who may face the same struggles in creating music that she did.

Teaching creativity, either through composition or improvisation in a band format is a major challenge, according to participants. The Ohio Department of Education

(ODE) (2012) Music Standards, for example, state that students should be able to

“improvise, compose and arrange music” beginning as early as first-grade. However, 131

when teachers are pressed to produce a polished band performance for parents and community, or for adjudication at a regional or state contests, learning standards that are outside the realm of concert performance skills become a secondary concern. Olive remarked about this challenge, saying that she is “…still trying to find that balance and continuing to provide creative outlets for them [her students].”

Teaching fundamental skills are a key part of the curriculum for most instrumental music teachers; Kathy claimed to spend about 40% of her rehearsal time,

“modeling… and evaluating fundamental skills.” Olive listed teaching of fundamental skills among the top items that contributed to her curriculum. She echoed other participants when she said, “First and foremost, I always think about what skill is not known to them and a skill that we need to really work on and develop -- a skill that they don't know yet so it's brand new to them.” Nora, who had a great deal more teaching experience than Olive described her mission of teaching fundamental skills with more foresight and connection to the state standards: “I have to know where my group stands musically now and then I have to grow them and I have to look at the state standards and see what they say about that growth and where they should be at the end of the grade level…” The pressures of impending public performances, standards, and state contests can sometimes compel teachers to balance their priorities in ways that perhaps relegate learning standards that would actively promote gender equity into lower-priority roles.

For example, the ODE Music Standards require that eighth-grade students, “Discuss how current developments in music reflect society in reference to the local community and larger world” (ODE, 2012) Though participants spoke about at length about preparing 132

students for performances and building skills, none of them mentioned ways in which this standard was addressed in their classrooms.

Teacher Efficacy Outcomes

“It doesn’t matter what your skin color or your gender or it doesn’t matter what your religion is – if you are there you are mine. It’s my job to make you safe and that’s my role is to live it,” said Jillian, a veteran music teacher. This statement underscores the ownership and custody that many teachers take of their students and their students’ learning. Perhaps Jillian considers it her duty to ensure that each of her students get what they need to reach their full potential in music. Music teachers have strengths and weaknesses, and their self-efficacy can be an important factor in their effectiveness and impact on students (Biasutti & Concina, 2018).

Jillian would like to incorporate more music composed by women into her curriculum but lack the resources. According to Jillian, “We’re trying to search for those things and it’s not like I’m not putting in an effort... I think that that it has been built in. It has been dominated by white males and I’m trying really hard.” Jillian’s comment suggests that patriarchal traditions have created an environment where white male composers have been able to succeed more easily than other composers, thus saturating the market with their music. Combined with the complex layers of considerations music educators must navigate while choosing music to program, a lack of resources could be a frustrating roadblock for a teacher like Jillian. For example, the search engines used by the websites of most music publishers and distributors are not designed to separate results by gender or ethnicity of the composers. It takes up valuable time to wade through the 133

catalogs and websites of major music distributors and publishers in search of lesser- known composers. If Jillian knew where to search for music composed by women with the same ease as she can any other band music, she may be able to accomplish her programming goals more readily.

Time is one of Carole’s biggest problems. She spoke about how her school puts a great deal of pressure on her and her band to perform for school and public events.

Carole said, “It’s all a big part of our rapid-fire schedule and it feels like it gets in the way of innovation and progress.” Carole’s students must spend much of their time learning music for performances at so many events that she feels that she cannot teach the skills and concepts necessary for her students to become well-rounded musicians. “Innovation and progress” refers to furthering fundamental musical skills and concepts, but also to social innovation and progress – empowerment of her all-female classes by recognizing the roles women in music have played in the past, and how her students could enact change in their own futures. Kathy also showed frustration with the heavy performance schedule imposed on her high school band, which gets in the way of teaching important non-performance music standards. She said,

Right now we are… a week and a half from the end of marching band

season, so I’m starting to pull things for solo and ensemble, putting a

basketball pep band together, preparing to do a combined orchestra and

choir and band piece on a Veteran’s Day ceremony, we have two holiday

concerts in December, [on] both of which each band is supposed to play

their own thing and we’re doing a holiday sing-along with the choir with 134

the younger group, and a Hallelujah Chorus with the choir and orchestra

with the older group and we also need to, before we leave for holiday

break, pull out contest music that we’re going to play at contest in March.

So we haven’t talked about Bach.

With such a rigorous schedule, it is not surprising that learning notes and rhythms can take precedence over other musical and social concepts. When does a teacher like Kathy have the time to explore creativity, discuss historical aspects in music or consider social issues in Western music such as gender inequity? Scheduling performances is under the purview of the music teacher, who should be able to balance performances with educational instruction, but perhaps school and community expectations constrain the teacher’s ability to control that balance, leading to students playing a great deal of music but learning little about it (Thibeault, 2010).

Balancing music performance skill standards with other music standards can only be accomplished if teachers have the knowledge and resources that would enable them to identify appropriate music composed by women. Nora described difficulty in choosing age-appropriate music that was composed by women for her ensembles “…because I don’t know of any [women] that are [composing] for the middle school or at the high school level.” Carole also did not know about music composed by women that is appropriate for her ensembles, but she embraced the challenge: “I’m just getting into this repertoire -- these new composers that I didn’t know were out there so that’s exciting for me.” Carole was specifically speaking about three composers whom she had met at a workshop featuring women composers: Jennifer Jolley, Lisa Galvin, and Nicole Piunno. 135

Carole left the workshop with an understanding of the importance of promoting music composed by women, and with a set of resources that could help her identify and acquire music that is age-appropriate for her ensemble, educationally robust, and also composed by women.

The workshop Carole attended was intended to raise awareness about biases in music programming, discuss causes and consequences of those biases and to explore ways to address such biases with resources and discussion. Three well-known women composers attended and discussed their own lived experiences and provided their perspectives as success stories. A university wind ensemble also performed a reading session of music composed by the three attending composers, as well as several other notable women composers whose music is readily available and appropriate for several age-groups.

Rupert was familiar with one of the composers from the workshop and had gone the extra step of providing a face to go with the name that students see in the top right- hand corner of their sheet music. Rupert said, “We use composer Nicole Piunno all the time in our class and we’ve had her in to talk to our class, and all the girls in the room go

‘you wrote this?’ instead of just some old man with a beard, or whatever.” Rupert’s comment revealed his appreciation of the impact a gender-specific role model can have

(Gould, 1992). Female students can gain a new perspective, seeing a woman who has found success as a professional composer. Concurrently, male students may benefit from the same experience as it challenges traditional gender stereotypes, enriching students understanding of the importance of gender equity. Jillian had not provided the same 136

opportunity to her students as Rupert, but she remained hopeful that she would be able to provide a more gender balanced curriculum in the near future. She said, “I’d like for my students at least while they’re in middle school to at some point play something by a female composer.”

For music teachers to facilitate access to the role models needed for their students to emulate and revere, teachers may need to plan their concert programs in a more socially conscientious manner. Rupert had a whole-world view of the potential of his students to enact social change in the future. He said, “…the mission statement is simply you know, to create a group of individuals who can change the world… And what about those kids that maybe music isn’t their focus after age 18? What have they gotten from me? Learning how to live life.” Rupert’s sense of self-efficacy was clearly strong; he understood his role as a teacher to develop young minds and he was confident in his ability to do so through music.

In summary, teachers understand how their strengths and weaknesses in implementing creativity, navigating performance schedules, and programming music in a socially conscientious manner can impact students’ music educations. Participants discussed several ways in which they hoped to improve as teachers, from scaling back the number performances in order to address more music standards to learning about new resources for finding music composed by women for their ensembles. Students have much to gain as teachers confront areas in their expertise that could be improved, but some barriers are out of the control of teachers. One such barrier is the acquisition of sheet music for works composed by women. 137

Acquiring Sheet Music

Programming new music often means that music teachers must purchase a copy of the sheet music. Schools usually have music libraries that are replete with a mix of classic repertoire and trendy pieces that have been popular at various times in the school’s history. An easy way to program concerts that is also inexpensive for schools is to rely solely on that music library, particularly if it is extensive in size. Olive, a relatively new teacher (five years), relied on her music library, and seemed unsure about how to choose new music for purchase. She said, “[I] struggle with that brand-new music. I’ve attempted to order at least one new piece [each year].” It may be that Olive feels safer turning to music that a previous teacher has deemed worthy of purchase than to establish her own criteria for choosing new music. It is likely that nearly all of the mus ic in her music library was composed by men. Perhaps as her experience and confidence grow, Olive will begin to assert her own voice by purchasing new music for her ensembles that matches her own values more closely.

Rupert’s voice was clear and his values were strong; he had his own opinions about programming, but proclaimed that he sought the opinions of his colleagues as well.

Music distributors promote new music they hope to sell, but Rupert said that he relied

“way more on colleagues and way less on [local music distributor]…I will say, you know, ‘have you tried this person?’ or ‘don’t try that person’ or ‘I just heard about this person.’ … way more by word of mouth.”

Carole expressed a similar sentiment, saying that, “I was only using what’s being sent to me by publishers [because] I didn’t really know anything else existed, and then in 138

a conversation with a [local] band director – he brought up ‘oh have you heard this this composer?’” Distributors and publishers naturally promote the music of composers who are likely to bring in the most money. Fame and familiarity sell copies, and distributors know that, so they are not as likely to commit energy and capital on promoting the music of a less established composer, which could describe many women composers in the band world. Having a network of trusted colleagues, some of whom are seeking out (or stumbling upon) new composers and new music of educational and artistic merit may be a key to diversifying the musical landscape, which has been dominated by male composers for ages. Jillian described going to her local music distributor: “Programming their (women-composers’) music for performance a little harder for me because of availability. If I go to [local music distributor]… and pick up 20 pieces, there’s a very good chance that nearly all of those are going to be written by men.”

The self-publishing practices of some composers create challenges for music teachers. Self-published music is not included in catalogues and promotional materials sent to teachers by publishing companies, so teachers need to search for them more purposefully. As Jillian pointed out: “somehow I have to know where to find it (a specific composer) and that still is a limitation for me time-wise.” Rupert seconded the statement, saying that, “If you are self-publishing, your name isn’t out there unless someone says, ‘look up that person.’” Seeking out the music of unpromoted composers, including women composers is one barrier facing music teachers with limited time for such activities.

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Another barrier to performing the music by women composers is the ordering process itself. Many public and private schools use a purchase-order (PO) system to streamline the purchasing of equipment, supplies materials. Teachers must devise a yearly budget, sometimes midway through the previous school year, estimating their needs for the next school year, and asking their district for funds to pay for those needs.

A common tactic for music teachers is to ask for a certain sum of money to be used to purchase sheet music. Once that sum is approved, the PO number designated for that purchase is given to one music distributor to hold in an account. The teacher then purchases music throughout the year from that distributor, and each time the PO account is charged until the funds are depleted. If a music teacher wishes to purchase music directly from a self-published composer, she must request a specific purchase order from a new vendor (the composer) when she submits her budget sometime during the previous school year. This requires effort and time on part of the teacher and as a result, teachers often simply order music from well-established vendors (distributors and publishing houses). So, although Large music distributors offer the path of least resistance to music teachers, they also limit the variety of composers available to music teachers. Nora illustrated this point when she said,

So that’s where I get most of my music. If I can, I order it through [local

music distributor] because my purchase orders are made out to them.

Now if I got somebody who I really love their music then I would, at the

beginning of the year, have to request a part of this PO before that and I

could get that. 140

Rupert also echoed Nora’s position, adding that self-publishing composers add complexity to the issue: “…you have to go to this composer’s website, and order from them directly. Self-publishing makes things a thousand times harder so that’s a huge barrier… I can open a PO number at [local music distributor] and use it to order all year.”

In summary, the ease of the PO system with large distributors and current self-publishing practices of contemporary composers may contribute to the dearth of performances of music composed by women.

Composers

Several of the participants mentioned performing the music of specific composers throughout their interviews. Table 15 lists those composers along with their gender and the number of times they were mentioned. Each participant understood that the main topic of the interview was women composers, but twice as many male composers were named than female composers. Furthermore, three of the five women composers mentioned have deep connections with local teachers: Lisa Galvin and Nicole Piunno live near the area of the study and work with local teachers regularly and Jennifer Jolley spent several years locally and had recently been on a panel of women composers at a workshop for local music teachers. Ann McGinty has been a staple in educational band music for several decades and is one of the few women composers whose name is often recognized by music teachers.

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Table 15

Composers Discussed Number of Composer Gender Occurrences Lisa Galvin Female 6 Nicole Piunno Female 4 James Swearingen Male 3 Robert Sheldon Male 3 Brian Balmages Male 2 Ann McGinty Female 2 Larry Clark Male 1 John Edmondson Male 1 Randall Standridge Male 1 John Phillip Sousa Male 1 Yo Goto Male 1 Unknown Female Female 1 Jennifer Jolley Female 1 Frank Erickson Male 1 Francis McBeth Male 1

Music Programming

In band, “repertoire is the curriculum” (Reynolds, 2000). Music educators look to their repertoire to fulfill different types of requirements: musical/artistic, curricular/skills- based, and entertainment. Olive expressed this idea when asked how much music she programmed for performance, versus strictly for education: “Everything I program is for performance. We perform everything we play.” For some participants, concerts are a showcase for their ensembles; skills and concepts learned over the past grading period are on display for the public. At Rupert’s school,

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Every quarter there is a concert and it’s what we learned this quarter. So,

if I’m trying to teach eighth notes, or if I’m trying to teach a certain range

I want the band to get to, or if I’m trying to teach whatever concept that

might be – key of concert a-flat. I use that as a basis [for programming].

Carole conveyed a similar sentiment, adding that she is committed to promoting more music composed by women to her students, but that this goal took on a secondary role:

“…it needs to be something that I am going to be building my curriculum around or is extending the curriculum that I already have planned for my kids. Being a female composer, that’s just the icing on the cake.” Carole added: “So I am making a conscious choice… to look into my bank of female composers and see if I can pull anything

[composed by a woman], so I can have… as many women composers represented on my program as possible.” Music teachers appear to consider programming for their school ensembles in layers, with development of musical skills being the foremost concern.

However, Carole (a music teacher at an all-girl’s private school) was the only participant who included providing female role models into the curriculum, even if it was secondary to skill building and concept learning.

In addition to programming music based on the skills and concepts being taught, participants made a point to mention the quality of the music they choose to program.

According to Rupert, “Number one, is it has to be good music. It can’t be just saying ‘hey everyone here’s a female composer.’” Carole concurred with Rupert’s sentiment. She spoke about working closely with composer Lisa Galvin on her piece, “Blaze the Trail,”

(C. L. Barnhouse Co.): “It’s a great piece of music – this is the Lisa Galvin – We’re also 143

doing ‘Dance the Joy Alive’ (C. L. Barnhouse Co.), so it has to be a high-quality piece of music.” Rupert’s and Carole’s comments have been echoed in other conversations about promoting music that is composed by women. For example, an administrator working for a professional orchestra who was interviewed stated that it is important for the music that is programmed for public performance to be high quality, regardless of the name or gender of the composer (See Chapter 3). There are several sources intended to help teachers determine the criteria for quality of a piece of music (Cardany & Cummings,

2009; Kirchhoff, 2010; Reynolds, 2000; Towner, 2011), including the Teaching Music

Through Performance series of books and recordings (GIA Publications, Inc.), which actively promotes thoughtful programming practices and provides curated lists of high- quality music for band, orchestra, choir, jazz ensemble and young ensembles

(https://www.giamusic.com/store/teaching-music-through-performance-band). However, social issues, such as underrepresented groups are seldom, if ever, raised in such sources.

While considerations for programming music for school ensemble performance appear to center around curricular aspects and high-quality music, music teachers must also consider their ensembles’ ability level and instrumentation.

During our conversation, almost as a side-note, Rupert added, “Of course, we’re talking about the cultural aspects, but number one at this level: I can’t give kids something they don’t know how to play.” This statement may allude to the idea that teachers who choose music based solely on the composer may program music above their ensemble’s ability level. Rupert provides a reminder that students will not learn about and gain appreciation for music if it is out of their technical grasp (Reynolds, 2000). In 144

addition to considerations of ensemble ability, music teachers must also be concerned with instrumentation. Carole’s students move in and out of her private all-girls’ school, which creates a challenge in music programming and planning. Carole spends quite a bit of time, “…just looking at that group and who’s sitting in the chairs and no one’s guaranteed to be here the next year because we’re a private school – things happen, you know?” In addition to the multiple layers of considerations involved in music programming, such as teaching skills, musicality and using high-quality materials, these teachers must also be mindful of the ability level within each section of the band, as well as any gaps in instrumentation. Programming music for educational music ensembles begins to appear more and more complex as the discussion continues. Teachers face these complexities daily and acknowledge that they cannot address each facet of those complexities at once.

Summary

The participants of the present study each described a multi-faceted and complex view of the gender disparities observed in curricular materials used in school instrumental music ensembles. The six themes which emerged from the analysis of semi-structured interviews contribute to an understanding of how music teachers choose and access the music that is used in their curricula.

Expectations imposed by the school and the community are one driving factor that was discussed. Performance at the expense of the music education of the students (Reynolds,

2000; Thibeault, 2010) may preclude teachers from exploring the full range of composition styles, composers and role models that teachers would like their students to know. While

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teachers primarily seek compositions that offer specific concept- and skill-building, the race to the next performance often prevents students from exploring the creativity, artistry, and diversity that is offered by a broader and deeper study of compositions and composers.

Music teachers are in a position to expose students to diversity and depth through teaching models originally designed for culturally responsive pedagogy (Abril, 2013; Shaw,

2012). By identifying and overcoming barriers such as the purchase-order system, performance heavy curricula and overcoming their own weaknesses in teaching about creativity, teachers can facilitate access to more female role models to their students. This access could encourage more female students to access their own creative side.

The present study aimed to explore the beliefs and practices of school music educators in a Midwestern city regarding programming gender diverse curricular materials. It is important to acknowledge that the sample was small and selective: Five of the six participants were middle school band directors. The narrow focus on the experiences of teachers of this age group – students who are just beginning their musical journeys – allowed for a perspective of the educational landscape at a formative period in student’s lives. If social change regarding the composers whom these students will know and revere is to occur, this determinative time period may be important. Middle school aged musicians will begin to develop habits and ideas that they will carry with them into the future. Music teachers should be aware of how they model their own values to their students through their curricular and music programming choices, so that students have access to music that reflects themselves and their own experiences.

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Chapter 6: Music Directors as Leaders for Social Change

Abstract

The present implementation study sought to explore school music directors’ beliefs about their roles as leaders for transformative social change and to describe their current and past curricular repertoire in detail in order to determine how gender inequity was addressed in their music ensembles. The directors participated in a workshop where they learned about resources for incorporating more music composed by women into their ensemble programs, attended a reading session of music by female composers, and discussed issues and barriers that exist to finding and obtaining such music. Participants reported their past and present programming practices, described their perceptions of their roles as transformative leaders, and explained their beliefs regarding the current gender disparity in music composition. Findings suggest that teachers perceive themselves as transformative leaders, and programmed more music composed by women after the workshop then they did previously. However, more resources may be needed by beginning band directors to help them discover ability level appropriate music composed by women.

Introduction and Literature

Music directors, including those who teach and conduct public school ensembles, are in the privileged position to become leaders in the development of conversations

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regarding social issues with their students, their school community, and the audiences reached by their ensembles. Furthermore, they can become the agents of change towards a more inclusive curriculum through their individual and collective actions. Music educators hold positions of leadership that enable them to enact many changes within their areas of influence (Talalienė & Šečkuvienė, 2015). They serve as leaders in a myriad of ways: They lead ensembles in rehearsals and concerts, lead their students towards clear learning goals, reach and educate audiences that attend their students’ concerts; some lead other music or visual-and-performing-arts teachers in their school or district as well in their roles as department or area head, and hold leadership positions in state, regional or national associations that promote music or arts education. Arguably, music teachers have a large influence on the cultural education of their small towns, or neighborhoods (Hunt, 2009). Are teachers aware of their capacity for leadership in the arts and culture?

Music educators are becoming more cognizant of their impact on students’ musical and nonmusical lives. They value their ability to provide equitable classroom environments and curricula to their students (Kindall-Smith et al., 2011); they attend conferences and workshops that feature professional development sessions offering a variety of ways in which teachers can improve their skills, classrooms, and music programs. State conventions and conferences, for example, provide an opportunity for school ensemble directors to learn about new repertoire, meet composers, and stay at the forefront of the current movements within the music education world. In 2020, the Texas

Music Educators Association (TMEA) annual convention, the largest of the music 148

education state conventions, attracted 10,911 active music teachers to take part in professional development and networking activities

(https://www.tmea.org/conventions/attendance-history). It is unclear, however, the extent to which professional development experiences had by teachers participating in these and other contexts contribute to actual changes in their music curricula. The current implementation study provided teachers with an opportunity for professional development and follow up on their curricular practices afterwards.

What are the mechanisms that promote leadership and that can enable teachers to change the culture of gender imbalance that has permeated their curricula for ages? Three themes emerge from the literature on leadership and leadership theory that are directly related to leadership in education: (a) critical reflection (Arevalo et al., 2017; Furman,

2012; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Shields, 2017; Middlehurst, 2008; Starratt, 1991) (b) action or praxis (Brown, 2004; Capper, Theoharis, & Sebastian, 2006; Furman, 2012;

Heslin & Keating, 2017; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Middlehurst, 2008), and (c) rational discourse (Henderson, 1997; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Middlehurst, 2008; Shields,

2017). The literature posits that the development of leadership in the field of education must address all three in order to prepare educators to assume a transformative leadership role within their schools and their profession. For example, Kesson and Henderson

(2010) propose a disciplined approach to leadership training that starts in a contemplative and self-reflective stance, is grounded in curricula and inquiry, and culminates in a theoretically informed approach to deliberation and decision-making. Similarly, in the field of music education, Brown (2004) puts forward the idea that leadership training that 149

combines critical reflection, rational discourse, and policy praxis increases awareness, acknowledgement, and action within the field of music education (Brown, 2004).

The present study is based in the theoretical model that purports the significance of the three themes in the development of transformative leadership in education. As such, the intervention provided to participants had components leading to reflection and awareness of a problem of interest (gender inequalities in the music curriculum), praxis through the observation and experience of transformative action, and the rationalization of their commitment to increasing cultural dialogue and transforming curricula in their communities.

Transformative leadership in education that occurs in the classroom, as well as on the stage and the seats of the school auditorium, is important because,

There is a need to examine critically the cultural assumptions and

premises, myths and mental models, stereotypes, value bases, rhetoric and

language of ‘leadership’ so that the behaviours [sic], actions, networks,

relationships, systems and interactions that achieve successful outcomes

are not ‘disappeared’ from the record because they are not categorised

[sic] or recognised [sic] as ‘real leadership’ (Middlehurst, 2008).

There is extensive research supporting the leadership role that teachers assume among their students, colleagues, and the community particularly on issues of social justice.

Transformative leadership has the power to affect social justice by ending the implicit messages sent through the actions of the status quo (Shields, 2017) such as music curricula and concert programming that is gender or race biased. Shields (2017) believes 150

that the goal of transformative leadership is both to critique underlying social, cultural, and economic norms, and also to offer promise – to find ways to equalize opportunities and to ensure high quality education.

Issues of gender bias and gender representation fall within the realm of social justice which calls for reflection as well as action in order to enact social change. This

“leadership as praxis” (Furman, 2012) is inherent among music educators, who organize and lead the ensemble members, prompting collaboration and navigating the multiple roles and power structures within the ensemble, and who are continually listening and accommodating rehearsals to negotiate artistic strategies and interpretation to serve a performance goal (Bush, 2011). Such is the training and profession of music directors that they seem ideal candidates to assume leadership roles in front of their ensembles, in their schools, and in their communities to address problems of social justice (Allsup &

Shieh, 2012).

The present implementation study aimed to develop a leadership workshop for music educators focusing on social change through inclusive curricular choices.

Additionally, it sought to explore the beliefs, past and current practices of school music teachers in a Midwestern city regarding programming curricular materials that are gender diverse.

Method

Music educators in a Midwestern state were invited to attend a day-long leadership workshop organized by a university in a medium size Midwestern city. A database containing 1,025 music education alumni contacts maintained by the school of 151

music of a large Midwestern university was utilized to advertise the workshop.

Additionally, paper postcards were distributed at the state’s music education conference, and information was spread through word-of-mouth by the university’s school of music faculty and staff. Demographic data were not collected for the database, however the gender of 640 potential participants could be guessed from their first names; the remaining 385 either had no first name listed, or had a gender-neutral first name, such as

Dana or Alex. Four hundred-eleven potential participants had traditionally male first names, and 229 had traditionally female first names. There was not adequate information in the contact database to determine the grade levels taught by all of the potential participants.

Thirty-four educators expressed interest in the workshop and registered on-line.

They each received a confirmation email asking them to complete an online survey about their beliefs and practices regarding gender diversity in music curriculum planning, as well as about their perception of themselves as transformative leaders. Twenty-five participants completed the survey (i.e., Survey 1). Data regarding their past programming practices were collected to determine how many pieces of music were selected for their performing ensembles in the past year, and how many of those were composed by women.

A total of 25 participants attended the workshop and completed a workshop evaluation form. Approximately five months after attending the workshop (one month prior to the beginning of the new school year), they were contacted again to complete a second survey similar to Survey 1 (i.e., Survey 2). It is important to note that the study 152

design was not experimental; no control group was used and there was no intention to compare data collected between or within the groups. Eighteen responses were received with three corresponding to participants who had also completed Survey 1; six participants failed to complete the survey section related to leadership skills.

Workshop

A day-long leadership workshop entitled Leadership from the Podium: Music

Directors as Leaders for Social Change was developed for the present study to empower current and future school music directors to become leaders in their schools and communities by raising awareness about inclusion and representation in current music culture and by providing them with tools to initiate social change. The topic of inclusion and representation in art culture is vast and complex and cannot be fully addressed in a single workshop. The intervention focused on one specific problem: disparities in gender representation in the school music repertoire.

The goals of the workshop were (a) to raise participants’ awareness about current biases in music programming, including gender biases; (b) to analyze the causes and consequences of such biases from a historical, cultural, socio-philosophical, and pragmatic perspectives; (c) to discuss ways to address such biases as music directors; (d) to assume responsibility for current practices associated with the selection and dissemination of repertoire in their school ensembles and audiences; (e) to allow participants to witness success stories in the delivery of a more inclusive repertoire; (f) to provide participants with tools and resources to become agents of change in the cultural dialogue in their school communities; (g) to facilitate the creation of a network of 153

committed music leaders in the schools that provides support and opportunities for leadership development.

A variety of activities were planned for the day to achieve the stated goals in a climate conducive to reflection, learning, experimentation, dialogue, and commitment to action. There were research presentations on current gender biases in music programming as well as transformative leadership, panel presentations by women composers about their music and experiences as composers, a music reading session to familiarize participants with repertoire composed by women that is school appropriate and discussion sessions about current and ideal repertoire selection practices in the schools and teacher training programs.

Additionally, the workshop included exposure to models of inclusive music programming: The University Wind Symphony performed The Eyes of the World Are

Upon You, by Jennifer Jolley, a powerful work inspired by the 50th anniversary of the

University of Texas Tower shooting. There were also opportunities for the participants to network and socialize. An important component of the workshop was to disseminate relevant materials and resources accessible to music directors. Such materials included music guides to the repertoire read, performed and/or discussed at the workshop.

In summary, the activities developed during the workshop proposed ways to transform the curriculum through repertoire choices and stressed the power that music directors have in transforming music culture towards a more inclusive society. The activities also provided examples of transformative actions to serve as models of inclusive curriculum (i.e., the University Wind Symphony performance), gave a voice to 154

those often excluded from the music stage (i.e., presentations by three women composers), and included the reading of band repertoire composed by women to increase familiarity and facilitate musical and pedagogical analysis of the repertoire.

Measures

Survey 1. Participants completed a survey designed to gather data regarding their teaching experience, teaching level (elementary, middle or high school), music classes taught (general music, band, orchestra, choir or other) and their music programming practices (See Appendix J). The programming-related questions were used to determine how many pieces of music are usually programmed in a given year, and how many of those pieces are usually composed by women. Participants provided names of women composers and pieces they have programmed and rated their ability to find and acquire music composed by women for their ensembles. The survey also included a section designed to gather data about the participants’ perceived effectiveness as transformative leaders in their schools and within the music education profession. An open-ended question was used to gather information about participants’ thoughts and beliefs regarding the reasons why music composed by women is performed disproportionately less often than music composed by men. Music programming-related question items underwent a rigorous editing process by the researchers to maintain high standards of validity.

The survey included a transformative leadership section. This section was based on the framework of the Leadership Practice Inventory - Delta (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner,

2006), and gathered data about the beliefs and practices held by music educators 155

regarding their roles as leaders of their ensembles and in their profession. The LPI consisted of 30 questions, each of which fit into one of five sub-categories. Researchers decided that one sub-category did not fit the purpose of the present study, so question items pertaining to that sub-category were removed. The four sub-categories included in the final survey were: 1) Challenging the Process, 2) Inspiring a Shared Vision, 3)

Enabling Others to Act, and 4) Modeling the Way. Six questions in each category were designed to determine the participant’s perception of their transformative leadership abilities and potential (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). The modified survey instrument was vetted by two independent researchers in music who deemed it effective in determining the leadership qualities of the music teachers.

Survey 2. Results of Survey 1 led the researchers to revise some of the demographic questions included in Survey 2 (See Appendix K). Additionally, questions regarding programming practices were expanded to explore the intentions and decisions of workshop participants regarding repertoire and curriculum. In Survey 2, participants provided information about their teaching experience by grade level and ensemble type

(i.e., band and/or orchestra) and about their music programming practices in three time periods: (a) Over the last five years, (b) during the current (2018-2019) school year, and

(c) projected programming for the upcoming school year (2019-2020). For analysis purposes, these time periods provided data from the recent past, the present, and the foreseeable future so that comparisons could be made between grade levels and over time in band, orchestra and choir programming practices. The LPI portion of the questionnaire remained the same in both surveys. 156

Results

Survey 1

Table 16 shows the number of participants who taught each school age group and what ensembles they directed. Most of the participants were school band and orchestra directors, however two participants taught other subjects, such as choir or jazz band.

Another small sample were college music students (n = 6) and college faculty (n = 1) who were interested in the subject matter being discussed but did not contribute any data regarding programming practices. A majority of the participants taught band and most of them taught middle school band. Five out of the 25 participants were male. The numbers of teachers in Table 16 do not add up to the number of participants because some participants taught multiple grade levels, such as middle- and high-school band or orchestra.

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Table 16

Demographic Data from Survey 1 Participants Band Orchestra Choir Other Elementary School 5 2 0 0 Middle School 10 2 1 *1 High School 2 1 0 0 *Note: One participant taught middle school jazz band only.

Programming practices. Based on participants’ self-reports, the share of pieces composed by women that participants programmed in an average year was 11.7%. The

18 participants (non-college students or faculty) who provided programming data estimated a collective total of 433 programmed works in any given year, and an estimated

37 of those were composed by women. Thus, the average number of pieces programmed per participant in any given year was 24, and only two of those pieces were composed by women. Thirteen of the 18 participants who were teachers reported that they thought that their programming practices were not appropriately diverse in terms of composers.

However, several participants added comments that they attempted to provide musical diversity by varying the genres they programmed.

Participants were asked if they knew where to find music composed by women; the average self-rating was 5.5 (out of 10). Most responses were between 4 and 6, however seven participants rated their knowledge of how to find music composed by women at 3 or less. Four participants rated their knowledge of finding music composed by women as 10, however those same participants each responded that their programming practices were not appropriately diverse. The average rating for

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participants’ ability to acquire music composed by women was 7.6, and 16 of the responses were 8 or higher. Two participants reported that they neither know how to find music composed by women (rated 1 or 0), nor were they confident in their ability to acquire such music if they did find it (rated 3).

Participants named a total of 23 women composers whom they programmed for their school ensembles in the past (See Table 17). It is noteworthy that 11 of the composers were named by the choir director and not the band directors and that most of the composition of these 11 composers are for choir compositions. Table 17 lists the women composers whose music had been programmed by workshop participants. Ann

McGinty was mentioned by three different participants – she is a well-known composer whose music is readily available through any major music distributor. Lisa Galvin lives where the implementation study took place and works closely with several of the local school ensembles. She was also a panelist at the workshop and some of her music was featured in the reading session.

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Table 17

Women Composers Programed by Workshop Participants Last Name First Name Freq. Specialization McGinty Ann 3 Band Galvin Lisa 3 Band Mier Shirley 2 Band Shapiro Alex 2 Band Giroux Julie 1 Band Allen Virginia 1 Band Larsen Libby 1 Band Archer Kimberly 1 Band Blackshaw Jodie 1 Band Artman Ruth 1 Chorus Eilers Joyce 1 Chorus Albrecht Sally 1 Chorus Lightfoot Mary Lynn 1 Chorus Gray Cynthia 1 Chorus Miller Cristi Cary 1 Chorus Snyder Audrey 1 Chorus Crocker Emily 1 Chorus Spevacek Linda 1 Chorus Gray Ruth Morris 1 Chorus Poorman Sonya 1 Chorus Bacewicz Grazyna 1 Orchestra Newbold Soon He 1 Orchestra Mullins Shirley 1 Orchestra

Survey 2

Participants represented a wide range of teaching experience and many taught several grade levels; most of them taught middle school. Table 18 shows a breakdown of the participants’ teaching experience by grade level. The sum of the numbers in the table do not equal the number of participants because some participants reported teaching

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multiple grade levels, such as middle- and high-school. Teachers with less than 10 years of experience made up two-thirds of the participants. In fact, most respondents had taught less than five years and only three teachers had done so more than 20 years.

Table 18

Grade Levels Taught and Number of Years Teaching Experience by Survey 2 Participants Number of Teachers 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 Over 20 School Level years years years years years Elementary 2 2 1 0 4 Middle School 7 2 1 1 2 High School 6 3 1 1 2 *Total Experience 6 4 2 0 3 *Note: One participant did not respond.

Programming Practices. Participants were asked to report the number of works composed by women they had programmed in the last five years. Table 19 shows a breakdown of responses according to education level and ensemble type. Both band and orchestra directors programmed works composed by women, however elementary school band directors appeared to either have difficulty finding music composed by women, or perhaps were following the status quo – choosing curricular materials that were tried-and- true, and familiar to the teacher, which are most likely to be composed by men.

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Table 19

Music Composed by Women Programmed in the Last Five Years Number of Teachers Pieces Composed School Level Ensemble Reporting by Women Elem. School Band 1 1 Orchestra 2 9 Middle School Band 7 14 Orchestra 1 10 High School Band 6 13 Orchestra 1 12 Note: Numbers of reporting teachers do not correspond with number of participants; some participants taught multiple school levels or ensembles.

Teachers also reported the number of pieces they programmed and the number of those that were composed by women the year preceding the workshop. Table 20 shows music programmed in 2018-2019 school year. Though both band and orchestra directors programmed pieces composed by women, orchestra directors programmed more, overall.

The reason for this imbalance is unclear from the data, but it could be due to a prolific composer who has become particularly popular among school string orchestras: Soon

Hee Newbold (b. 1974). Her music spans grade levels 1-5, offering pieces for every age level (https://www.fjhmusic.com/composer/snewbold.htm).

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Table 20

2018-2019 Programming Practices of School Instrumental Music Directors Number of Percentage of Number of Number of Pieces Pieces Teachers Pieces Composed Composed School Level Reporting Ensemble Programmed by Women by Women Elementary School 6 Band 51 4 7.80 4 Orchestra 39 6 15.30 Middle School 7 Band 94 9 9.50

163 1 Orchestra 9 3 33.30 High School 8 Band 103 7 6.80 1 Orchestra 20 5 25.00 Note: Numbers of reporting teachers do not correspond with numbers of participants; some participants taught multiple school levels or ensembles.

Participants programmed a total of 316 pieces of music in the 2018-2019 school year, 34 of which were composed by women. Overall, only 10.8% of the music they programmed in the 2018-2019 school year was composed by women. For the upcoming school year (2019-2020), teachers had already programmed 104 total pieces of music for their ensembles, 19 of which were composed by women (See Table 21). The percentage of pieces composed by women that were programmed for the upcoming school year was

18.2%. Overall, school music teachers programmed 7.4% more music composed by women for the upcoming year than they did for the current year. Although the small sample size makes generalization of this result somewhat problematic, it suggests that more study of programming habits would be worthwhile. Notably, orchestra directors reported programming more music composed by women for the upcoming year than did band directors; this trend had been identified for the current year programming practices of the two groups as well. Participants named six different women composers whom they had programmed for their ensembles (See Table 22). Four of these composers specialize in music for band, and two for orchestra. Lisa Galvin, a local composer and panelist at the workshop, was the most named composer with three mentions.

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Table 21

Current Year Programming Practices of School Instrumental Music Directors Number of Number of Number of Pieces Teachers Pieces Composed Percentage of Pieces School Level Reporting Ensemble Programmed by Women Composed by Women Elementary School 1 Band 2 0 0.0 1 Orchestra 28 3 10.7 Middle School 5 Band 32 5 15.6

165 1 Orchestra 4 3 75.0 High School 6 Band 35 5 14.2 1 Orchestra 3 3 100.0 Note: Numbers of reporting teachers do not correspond with numbers of participants; some participants taught multiple school levels or ensembles.

Table 22

Women Composers Programed by Participants Last Name First Name Freq. Specialization Galvin Lisa 3 Band McGinty Anne 1 Band Mier Shirley 1 Band Shapiro Alex 1 Band Newbold Soon He 1 Orchestra Mullins Shirley 1 Orchestra

Modified Leadership Practices Inventory - Delta

The modified Leadership Practices Inventory-Delta (LPI) was used to gather data about music teachers’ perceptions regarding their role as transformative leaders. The 25 participants in Survey 1 self-reported high mean scores (out of 60 total points) in each sub-category (See Table 23). The average self-rating across all of the questions was 8.19

(out of 10), indicating that teachers understand and acknowledge their leadership roles, and generally perceive themselves to be strong leaders. A similar average score was found for the 13 music teachers who completed the LPI following the workshop (Survey

2, M = 8.34). This further supports the idea that teachers acknowledge their leadership role in the classroom. Table 23 displays the modified LPI median scores for each sub- category from both survey questionnaires. Differences in the subcategory scores between the two surveys were few and small.

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Table 23

Combined LPI Mean Scores LPI-Survey 1 LPI-Survey 2 Mean Score Sub-Category (SD) (SD) Difference Challenging the Process 47.68 (8.72) 46.25 (7.01) -1.43 Inspiring a Shared Vision 48.73 (7.17) 49.92 (6.20) 1.19 Enabling Others to Act 49.83 (5.95) 51.75 (3.87) 1.92 Modeling the Way 49.83 (6.05) 51.00 (4.13) 1.17 LPI Mean Total Score 196.57 (22.77) 198.92 (15.76) 2.35

Workshop Evaluation

Participants were asked to complete an evaluation form at the conclusion of the workshop assessing the professional development activities offered throughout the day

(See Appendix L). Likert scales (1 = “not enjoyable or useful,” 5 = “very enjoyable and useful”) were used to determine the degree to which participants valued each activity.

Mean scores for each of the four main activities were consistently high, indicating participants valued the offerings: Research presentation (M = 4.72, SD = .472), reading session (M = 4.93, SD = .288), panel discussion (M = 4.90, SD = .282), and wrap- up/summary (M = 4.82, SD = .419). All 25 participants responded in the form that the event was worthwhile and that they planned to use resources and knowledge gained from this event in the coming school year. Some participants left comments regarding the efficacy of the workshop that supported the- findings of the evaluation. One participant said, “I would love events like this to continue,” and another echoed: “Great sessions, great contacts.” The reading session, which was rated very highly (M = 4.93, SD =.288)

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was noted in the comments: “The reading session – the opportunity to hear music live – was so beneficial.”

Open Ended Questions

Responses to the open-ended question about programming practices were analyzed for emergent themes (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 181) using an open-coding technique (Corbin & Strauss, 2015, p. 216). Data were coded and recoded translating data into concepts, applying codes appropriate themes and reorganizing into subthemes.

Themes were applied and discarded as appropriate throughout analysis until a list of intervening conditions and consequences surfaced (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) making it possible to adequately describe the phenomenon of gender imbalance in music teachers’ programming practices as revealed by the participants’ responses to the questionnaire.

Seven themes emerged from the analysis of the answers to the open-ended question: Why do you think music composed by women is performed disproportionately less often than music composed by men? The themes were:

• Publishing and Lists: Responses regarding issues around availability of music,

music publishing, as well as music lists curated by state music educator’s

associations and music distributors.

• Patriarchy and Status Quo: Responses pointing to maintenance of the status quo,

or toward specific issues caused by, or related to historical or continued

patriarchal traditions.

• Fewer Women: Responses alluding to the simple imbalance in the number of

female composers compared with male composers in existence.

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• Awareness: Responses indicating the lack of awareness of music composed by

women.

• Lack of Opportunities: Responses specifying difficulties in promoting music

composed by women or having their compositions performed.

• Bias: Responses about the unequal treatment of women and compositions by

women.

• Familiarity: Responses suggesting that music directors do not program unfamiliar

music as often as familiar music.

Three additional themes only received one response each, but the responses are worth discussing:

• Gender Characteristics: Alluding to differences that are inherent between genders.

• New Music Problem: Explained that learning new music takes too much time for

music teachers, and that there may be no existing recordings for reference.

• “Otherness:” Described the possible danger of alienating colleagues and

audiences by highlighting the music of a particular group over others.

Table 24 displays the number of times a response that corresponded to each theme was recorded, as well as the percentage of participants that wrote a response corresponding to each theme.

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Table 24

Frequency and Percentage of Responses in Emergent Themes Number of % of Theme Responses Participants Publishing/Lists 13 52 Patriarchy/Status Quo 6 25 Fewer Women 6 24 Awareness 5 20 Lack of Opportunities 4 16 Bias 3 12 Familiarity 2 8 Gender Characteristics 1 4 New Music Problem 1 4 "Otherness" 1 4

Discussion

The workshop developed for this study encouraged current and future music teachers to acknowledge their roles as leaders and facilitated connections to women composers and to new repertoire that could help teachers improve gender equity in their own ensembles’ curricula. Teachers valued the opportunity to discuss their leadership roles as agents of social change and discover new repertoire as indicated by their assessment of the workshop. They also showed a commitment to changing their programming practices: The results suggested changes in their programming practices from the current school year to the upcoming school year.

Overall, school music teachers programmed 7.4% more music composed by women in the upcoming school year (2019-2020) than they did in the previous school year. Because only a portion of the reporting participants attended the workshop, it is

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difficult to say if the increase is due to the effects of the workshop itself, or due to the focus on repertoire composed by women that was implied through the surveys. Perhaps increased awareness of social responsibility played an additional role.

Teachers who promote a more gender balanced curriculum may be taking important steps toward improving their classrooms and curricula through transformative leadership. The workshop that participants attended was focused around three important elements for successful transformation, (a) critical reflection (Arevalo et al., 2017;

Furman, 2012; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Shields, 2017; Middlehurst, 2008; Starratt,

1991) (b) action or praxis (Brown, 2004; Capper, Theoharis, & Sebastian, 2006; Furman,

2012; Heslin & Keating, 2017; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Middlehurst, 2008), and (c) rational discourse (Henderson, 1997; Kesson & Henderson, 2010; Middlehurst, 2008;

Shields, 2017). By reflecting on past practices, using new resources and taking action to improve those practices, and by engaging in discussions with experts and colleagues, these participants had an opportunity to reframe some of their teaching practices to reflect more transformative leadership practices through repertoire programming. They valued the resources provided to shape a music repertoire that is inclusive, highlights diverse role models and highlights the creative and artistic accomplishments of a larger portion of the population.

Participants provided a view of their current programming practices in terms of gender equity by reporting the number of compositions they programmed for their ensembles as well as how many of those compositions were composed by women.

Results suggest that band directors programmed more music composed by women than

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did orchestra directors over the previous five years but that orchestra directors, on average, programmed more compositions by women than did band directors in the current and following year. Does this change imply a recent trend in orchestra repertoire programming? This may be a welcomed change as much of the existing literature on gender disparity in music composition revolves around professional orchestras (See

Chapter 2). Perhaps the visible attention given to orchestras has placed the issue of gender equity nearer the forefront of the minds of orchestra directors. It is useful to explore the thoughts and ideas that participants had about the gender disparity in music compositions for school ensembles. The open-ended question of the survey allowed them to elaborate on those thoughts and ideas.

The four most salient themes emerging from their responses provide insight into their beliefs and programming habits regarding gender balance. Music publishing, availability of music and the use of state-curated approved music lists were the most cited themes describing the reason for the pervasive gender disparity in school instrumental music ensembles. For example, one participant wrote: “When I am looking at any kind of composer's event, listing of compositions, I am always so discouraged that there

MIGHT [sic] be one woman in that list.” The lack of representation of compositions by women is illustrated here, along with the frustration of the participant. An example of such a list is the Texas University Interscholastic Leagues (UIL) Prescribed Music List

(PML). Music teachers in Texas must choose music that is approved by the UIL and listed on the PML for adjudicated performance events for their bands, orchestras, choirs, and guitar ensembles. Less than two percent of the music on the PML is composed by

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women (Zigman & Costa-Giomi, 2018). Composers are included or excluded from lists like the PML based on familiarity and popularity in addition to the quality of the composition. As more music composed by women becomes popular, perhaps publishers and state organizations will begin to include a greater number in their catalogs. Or perhaps transformative leaders within publishing companies and music education organizations will “model the way” and “enable others to act” in diversifying the compositional offerings they promote.

Another participant acknowledged the difficulty women have historically had in getting their work published at all: “Women have not been composing (or rather, being published) for nearly as long as men have, so there are fewer options to choose from.” A third participant alluded to the business (i.e., marketing) aspect of the publishing industry: “Marketing, the volume of pieces written by men vs those of women is disproportionate, thus it can be more difficult to come across a piece written by a female.” Many responses overlapped, implicating the complexity of the issue being discussed. This participant connected the publishing industry with the influence of traditional patriarchal ideals: “On a systemic level, people in a place of power and authority such that they can readily choose or influence the kinds of music that gets funded, supported, performed, shared, preserved through the years, etc. were generally wealthier, white men.” The historically patriarchal society in which Western music has developed and thrived is an important factor that was mentioned often in this study, as well as in previous research (See Chapter 2) (Baker, 2003; Gould, 2003)

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The patriarchal history of Western music passed its ideals from Europe to

America and seems to have thrived in the relatively young format of the American Wind

Band (Sullivan, 2008). As one participant said, “I believe the history of the American

Wind Band has prevented women from becoming equal status to male composers due to bias and a disproportionate amount of power amongst older men.” Wind bands gained prominence in the United States between the first and second World Wars (Sullivan,

2008), and the popularity of bands conducted by John Philip Sousa and Patrick Gilmore, among others, led to the need for a body of repertoire that was appropriate for that format. Transcriptions of orchestral compositions were created (Clappé, 1921, p. iii), sustaining the popularity of many of the most familiar (and male) composers of the past.

Additionally, the U.S. military was a leading force in the development and promotion of wind bands, due in part to Sousa and Gilmore, which has faced challenges fully incorporating women into their ranks (Hersey & Sullivan, 2009). Since professional bands were mostly run by the military, few women had opportunities to be involved in bands at the highest levels, neither being able to play, conduct, or compose.

Some participants responded that there are fewer women composers, therefore music composed by women is heard less frequently. For example, a participant stated this as a fact: “There is a disproportionate number of men vs. women composers and conductors.” Indeed, existing data reveal that this statement is not unfounded; the study described in Chapter 4 found that the audience at a symphony orchestra concert could collectively name 170 different living composers including 32 (18.8%) women.

Additionally, the League of American Orchestras’ 2013 Orchestra Repertory Report

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showed that 1.3% of the music performed by its member orchestras was composed by women. Further support this finding, O’Bannon (2016) reported that 1.8% of the works performed by the largest American orchestras in 2015 were composed by women. While the data are clear that a disproportionately small number of musical works composed by women are performed compared with those by men, it is unclear if the proportion of works performed is equal to the proportion of works available and worthy of performance. A guest composer in the workshop alluded to this idea saying that male composers “have permission” to compose lower quality music, thus producing a greater number of compositions than women (Jolley, 2018). She went on to say that music composed by women is held to a higher standard, thus reducing the number of their works that are accepted by publishers or that are purchased by conductors and music teachers. Further research could address the proportions of existing music composed by women compared with that of men more in depth among professional orchestras, as well as school music ensembles.

Summary and Reflections

The present study sought to examine the effects of a professional development workshop and to explore school music directors’ beliefs about their roles as leaders for transformative social change and to describe their current and past curricular repertoire in detail in order to determine how gender inequity was addressed in their music ensembles.

Data provided by participants described a changing landscape of curricular repertoire planning. The share of works composed by women that were programmed after the workshop had increased, particularly in high school bands. Notably, school orchestra

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directors programmed the largest number of pieces composed by women, which is stark contrast to the professional orchestra world (See Chapter 2). Elementary band directors programmed the smallest number of pieces composed by women, indicating that they may need more resources that would help them to discover compositions by women that are appropriate to that age group. Resources might include lists of women composers and composers from other underrepresented groups that are distributed by publishers, or additional search filters available on the websites of major music distributors. Online fora and social media may also offer resources to those teachers who are interested and willing to ask their colleagues.

The institutions and structures that teachers work within and around may be difficult to challenge. For example, the school purchase order (PO) system used by teachers to acquire sheet music favors the use of a single big music distribution company, rather than buying music from small publishers or directly from composers. Working around the PO system to get sheet music that teachers may want is time consuming and can be frustrating (See Chapter 5). While most participants in the present study were confident that they could acquire music composed by women, two participants knew of neither the resources, nor were they confident that institutional structures would allow them to acquire such music. Teachers who work in schools without access to resources and flexible ordering procedures are at a disadvantage regarding their efficacy as leaders of their students and in their career field.

Teachers’ roles as transformative leaders make them important figures in the lives of students. Professional development activities such as the one outlined here may be an

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important part of teachers’ journey to realizing their transformative leadership potential.

Participants indicated that they believe themselves to be good leaders, overall, and that they can be influential in initiating social change. When armed with resources that enable them to choose from a more gender-diverse group repertoire, teachers can make more thoughtful and deliberate programming choices in terms of gender balance and equity. Teachers’ programming choices could have an impact on social issues surrounding gender for students, and for other teachers in the field.

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Chapter 7: Conclusions

To answer questions about gender balance in instrumental music curricula, one must seek to understand the various complexities that comprise the problem. Issues about representation intersect with gender in a myriad of ways; leadership, traditional gender roles, feminism, social progressiveness, market forces and patriarchy are just a few of the factors that converge to embody this multi-faceted problem. Five studies were conducted to tease out details of some of these facets to explore their intersectionality so that one can begin to see how each aspect of the problem interplay.

The Problem

Many musicians and music educators understand that there are fewer performances of music composed by women than of music composed by men. None of the participants in the preceding studies including music teachers, conductors, audience members or orchestra administrators disagreed with the findings that most of the professional and educational music performed is composed by men. However, the degree to which this is true is important to understand. Collection and presentation of the actual numbers of performances of music composed by both men and women allow the reader to get a sense of the breadth of the gender disparity discussed here. It is present in reports published by professional orchestras and independent researchers (Chapter 2), in reports

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of teachers’ programming practices (Chapter 5), and in audience members’ beliefs and opinions (Chapter 4).

Comparisons between the overall number of women composers and the number of living composers represented in the programs of professional orchestras over the course of twelve years revealed that one facet of the problem women composers face is the same problem faced by all living composers (See Chapter 2). Orchestras program conservatively – the same 18th, 19th and early 20th century (usually male) composers are programmed frequently while the music of living composers are programmed infrequently (O’Bannon, 2016b). Yet, the pervasive gender bias favoring the music created by men is noticeable even among contemporary composers.

Additionally, Patriarchal attitudes and traditions persist, such as the Western musical tradition of the top-down models and structures in which an artistic director, teacher or mentor imparts knowledge and understanding to musicians and students

(Gould, 2011). Music educators surveyed in Chapter 5 had each been taught in this top- down way, for example. Unless the cycle of patriarchy can be broken, they are likely to pass some of those ideals on to their own students. However, when Jillian, one of the music educators interviewed (Chapter 5), recalled gender bias against her as a new band director 22 years ago, she spoke about her determination in empowering her current female students: “I want her voice to mean just as much as anybody else's… I need to treat her as a human being and that's all she needs from me.”

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Social Responsibility

Those who make programming decisions, such as music educators, orchestra administrators, and music directors can promote underrepresented composers in the repertoire. They may assume this social responsibility as part of their work. For example, John, an administrator for a professional orchestra (See Chapter 3), spoke of working to normalize the programming of new music for his orchestra when interviewed as part of the present investigation. How can this be achieved? Promoting music composed by women with a “women’s music” themed concert is one way to ensure the matter of gender gets center stage. However, highlighting the gender disparity in composition sometimes has the effect of separating women composers further from the mainstream, as it has done at times for women conductors (Bartleet, 2008). Many women composers, in fact, prefer that their music be programmed without calling attention to their gender (See Chapter 3). Curating music programs with a diversity of composers may be a more appropriate way to achieve gender equity in school and professional ensembles and professional. Perhaps teachers and music directors could work toward the normalization of gender diversity in concert programming, rather than continuing to follow the status quo, programming and reprogramming the same works by the same composers in perpetuity.

Interrupting the status quo in favor of better representation of women composers in professional and educational music ensembles could improve the reputations of organizations that are willing to take on such a challenge (Bear, Rahman, & Post, 2010).

Music teachers and orchestra administrators desire progressive change in programming 180

(See Chapters 5 and 2, respectively) and there is evidence suggesting that financial sponsors of large orchestras reward unconventional programming (Pome, Tamburri, &

Munn, 2011). It appears that music directors of both professional and school music ensembles might see positive benefits of unconventional programming, by including more music composed by newer, living composers, and by women composers.

Barriers

Orchestra administrators and artistic directors are somewhat constrained by the imperative to sell as many tickets as possible in order to financially maintain their orchestras. Research suggests that higher ticket sales may lead to more innovative programming, relying less on the standard repertoire (Pome et al., 2011). It could be possible that only the largest orchestras, with the highest levels of funding from ticket sales have the flexibility to program more unfamiliar music composed by underrepresented groups such as women. Smaller orchestras, which may have smaller audiences and fewer patrons, may feel the pressures of programming familiar music that appeals to a wider audience in order to fill more seats in the concert hall. Similar pressures on program managers at classical music radio stations compel them to program the music that is most familiar more often than less familiar works (See Chapter 2). One considerable difference between live performances and radio play is that audiences attending a concert are less likely to leave if they hear music with which they are not familiar – radio audiences can easily change the station or stop listening if they choose.

A Knight Foundation study (2002) reported that up to 28% of potential classical music consumers listen to it on the radio either daily or several times per week. This audience 181

carries appreciable power of choice regarding music programming, and radio station program managers are likely to pay close attention to which composers and pieces are getting the highest ratings.

John and Patrick, orchestra artistic directors (See Chapter 3), both spoke about the pressure to satisfy stakeholders, including audiences, sponsors and musicians, and implied that this pressure is bound to familiarity in music programming. Patrick said,

“Straying [from the traditional masterworks] risks financial loss, and a bad situation for the organization. Our main goals are to present music to the community and employ musicians.” Names like Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Tchaikovsky dominate programs in the programs of live orchestra performances as well as on the radio airwaves

(Knight Foundation, 2002) (See Appendix D). These composers and other 18th to 20th century male composers are the most recognizable names in the Western music canon and that name recognition drives programming in the consumer market. These financial and market forces contribute to maintenance of the status quo by decision makers in orchestras, which instigates an institutional conservatism; repertoire is chosen based on the fear of not selling enough tickets or getting high enough ratings to justify the existence of the ensemble or radio station. Advocacy groups such as the IAWM and the

Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy provide funding to make up for lost ticket sales, but perhaps more of this funding should be utilized for promoting progressive programming practices, such as programming a greater representation of women composers and composers of color, that could provide audiences more access to music by a greater diversity of composers. 182

Classical music audiences are highly educated and quite knowledgeable about classical music (See Chapter 4) (Bradley, 2017; Knight Foundation, 2002). Audience members’ current beliefs about the gender disparity in classical music composition describe a landscape dominated by patriarchal traditions and institutional sexism (See

Chapter 4). Such patriarchal traditions are reflected in the adherence to traditional gender roles. For example, starting a family may make it difficult for women to gain access to post-graduate education, or to enter creative fields that require an abundance of time such as music composition. Women who break through barriers set in place by patriarchal norms often possess high levels of “grit” (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), or the combination of perseverance and passion that allows some people to succeed in the face of adversity, as did Wilma (See Chapter 3). By only allowing women with the most

“grit” to access classical music institutions, the institutions continue to suppress the work of women who could be successful with certain levels of support; arguably men have had access to such support for centuries in the form of a community that provided for role models, like-minded peers, and public recognition. In 1938, education philosopher John

Dewey wrote that the primary purpose of education is to teach people to live immediately within their current environment (Dewey, 1938). In the current society, in which women can vote, earn a living, lead a Fortune 500 company, and conduct a major orchestra, inhibiting access to a career in composition to those women who do not have enough

“grit” appears to be a step into the past.

Female music students can gain equitable access to music careers when they have greater access to female role models (Gould, 1992). Jillian, one of the music teachers 183

interviewed, (See Chapter 5) was deeply concerned with providing strong female role models in creative fields. As a music teacher in an all-girls private school, her passion for facilitating access to role models was evident. However, barriers inherent in the infrastructure of public and private schools may make it difficult for Jillian to accomplish her goal of programming an equitable representation of women composers.

Barriers specific to music education impede social progress regarding the promotion and performance of music composed by women as well. For example, in

Chapter 5, music teachers described how the common expectation for school ensembles to perform music with high levels of musical skill and maturity sometimes took precedence over learning in music classrooms. Although musical skill and maturity are a large part of a high-quality music education, they are sometimes treated as the only part.

Scholars have described this problem, sometimes comparing it to “teaching to the test”

(Reynolds, 2000; Thibeault, 2010); important music standards regarding composition, improvisation, aesthetic experiences, context, and interdisciplinary connections can be downplayed, or even ignored. Though music teachers in Chapter 5 claimed to rely on state and national music education standards, they often focused on standards that directly applied to improving musical skills for concerts and contests at the expense of developing compositional skills amongst their students.

Music teachers also spoke about barriers to ordering music for their school ensembles (See Chapter 5). Schools that use the purchase-order (PO) system often rely on large music distributors as a one-stop-shop for all their sheet music needs. Music distribution companies provide a simple way for educators to search for, listen to, and 184

purchase sheet music for their ensembles with a PO through the internet, over the phone, or in their stores. The downside is that distributors choose which publishers and composers they will carry based upon the familiarity of the pieces and the composers.

Familiarity is tied, in this instance, to the distributors perceived likelihood of selling music by composers whose names are recognizable. As more composers choose to self- publish, or distribute their own music via their own websites, teachers must either choose to spend extra time seeking out these new composers, or maintain the status quo, thus ignoring a body of new repertoire that could enrich students’ musical lives, and promote lesser-known composers, including many women composers.

Progress

Amidst the barriers encountered by women composers and those working towards a more inclusive and equitable repertoire in professional and school instrumental ensembles, more women composers have gained notoriety in the last 30 years than in the past. For example, more women have won the Pulitzer Prize in Music since the 2010s than in the entire history of the prize (See Chapter 2). WOSU Classical Radio had 43 different 21st century women composers listed in their MusicMaster database – more than the number of women composers from the Medieval, Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods combined (See Chapter 2). Music teachers report working with composers like

Lisa Galvin, Nicole Piunno, Julie Giroux and others on commissions for their school ensembles (See Chapter 5). And women composers are starting to make it into the lists of the most-performed living composers in orchestra concert halls in the United States

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(e.g., Joan Tower, see Chapter 2). Women composers are clearly gaining a foothold on the main stage, the airwaves and in school auditoriums.

Advocacy groups such as the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy and the IAWM have likely played a large role in promoting music composed by women to the current levels of recognition. Individual advocates also work tirelessly to promote a more gender balanced landscape of classical music performance. John and Patrick, interviewed in the present investigation as members of the professional orchestral world both have championed the music of Caroline Shaw, Joan Tower, Peggy Stewart Coolidge, Amy

Beach and others by incorporating their music into the repertoire of their orchestras (See

Chapter 3). Jillian, Rupert and Nora, music teachers interviewed in their roles as school ensemble directors (See Chapter 5) each aspired to ensure that their female music students had role models, and opportunities to create music. They also challenged the gender stereotypes that accompany musical instruments by convincing students to not allow themselves to be typecast into certain instruments based on their gender. While advocacy groups can work to improve the gender balance on a large scale, these participants illustrate the impact that their individual actions can have on innumerable small scales.

Advocacy can only be effective in promoting music composed by women if resources exist and are readily available for music directors and teachers. Professional development activities, such as workshops, seminars, and clinics can provide teachers with the resources they need to gain access to new music and can connect teachers with special services that can help them accomplish professional and educational goals. The 186

workshop described in Chapter 6, for example, facilitated a discussion between teachers and women composers on the need for a more gender balanced curriculum. Resources were provided, including a list of music composed by women that was performed that day and internet resources describing where music teachers can find more music composed by women. Teachers appreciated the opportunity to learn about these new composers and their music and they reported that they did indeed program more music composed by women after expressing interest in the workshop. Currently, the websites of large music distribution companies are not a particularly helpful resource for teachers seeking music composed by women. Though music of many women composers is available through these distributors, the websites do not offer a filter by which teachers can search for that music unless they already know the names of the composers, or the names of the pieces for which they are searching.

A number of websites allow for the user to set filters that narrow the search to composers by gender, ethnicity or home locale. The Institute for Composer Diversity

(www.composerdiversity.com) maintains a database of composers which can be searched by composers’ gender (including nonbinary), demographics, or location/residence, as well as by musical genre and medium (i.e., orchestra, band, chamber, solo, etc..). Users may add composers to the database using a form which undergoes an approval process.

Users are provided with links to individual composers’ websites, or to information about their publishers. The website also provides a set of recommended “best practices” for music programming, which recommends that a concert season consist of “25-35% works by living composers; 15-25% works by women composers; and 15-25% works by 187

composers from underrepresented racial, ethnic, or cultural heritages”

(www.composerdiversity.com/programming).

Composer Jodie Blackshaw maintains a list of female band composers featuring music from grade levels 1-4 (www.jodieblackshaw.com/female-band-composers).

Blackshaw has also started a program entitled: ColourFULL Music

(www.colourfullmusic.com), which promotes diverse concert band programming practices. The website features fully formed concert programs created by music teachers for several educational levels that are inclusive of composers of several genders and ethnicities.

Resources such as these websites, used in conjunction with funding provided by advocacy groups such as the IAWM and Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy could promote more performances of music composed by women for school ensembles and professional orchestras. Providing resources and funding for music directors and teachers who take programming risks could help musical organizations address social responsibility as they work toward more equitable access to the field of music composition for women and other underrepresented groups.

Limitations of the Investigation

The rationale behind the combination of these five studies was to answer questions about the complexities surrounding issues of gender equity and representation in school music programming. These complexities, however, are too varied and vast for exploration to be exhausted in the scope of these studies. For example, the voices of professional conductors, who are considered authorities in music programming, were not 188

heard. Additionally, only one women composer was interviewed (See Chapter 3), and although she regularly had works performed in multiple musical formats, her main occupation was in academia, teaching theory, orchestration and applied music lessons rather than composition. The perspectives of women who make their living primarily as composers were reviewed in previous studies (e.g., the panel discussion portion of the workshop in Chapter 6) but not explored in the present investigation.

Furthermore, a wider variety of music educator perspectives may have revealed deeper insights into aspects of the interplay between gender equity and music programming. Music educators at each education level experience different challenges based on the difficulty of the music available and the composers who specialize in composing for each level of difficulty. A sample that included a more balanced representation of beginning band, middle school band and high school band directors could illuminate some of the specific challenges and successes at varying age groups.

Students within each of the age groups (beginning, middle school, and high school band) were not studied in this investigation. Their perspectives and experiences could enhance the understanding of the impact of teachers’ actions as well as the impact of the classical music institutions that were explored in Chapters 1, 2, and 4. Gaining access to populations that include minors can be challenging and was discounted for use in the time frame allotted for this suite of studies.

Future Research

Continuing research is required to fully explore the complexities of gender equity in school music curricula. For example, an analysis of several of the largest state- 189

approved music lists could more accurately illustrate the disparity between musical works for school ensembles that are composed by women compared those by men. Analysis of how lists change over time could determine if any trends are present, and to what degree.

Additionally, a study of how teachers from other states use state lists for programming in terms of gender could prove insightful in illuminating the importance and influence of the largest state-approved music lists.

Furthermore, it is unclear what impacts gender equity and gender balance in curricular materials have on students. Results from student focus groups and one-on-one interviews could provide insights into the perspective of the population of people who may be affected most by decisions made regarding gender equity in curricular materials.

Longitudinal studies involving female music students seeking post-secondary education could enhance the understanding of how women navigate traditional gender roles through their late teens and twenties, when societal pressures could influence life-decisions regarding career versus family.

Concluding Remarks

As patriarchal traditions are dismantled and gender norms are questioned, music educators can choose to be on the frontlines, designing music curricula that reflect modern social ideals while preserving musical traditions. Today’s composers continue to break new artistic and creative ground while they address inclusiveness, equity and representation. The eminent music educator and scholar Elizabeth Gould (1992) may have said it best: “By virtue of its foundation in humanism, music education is obligated

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to go beyond being a mirror of what society is and reflect, instead, what society is striving to become.”

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Appendix A. Women Composers Featured in the MusicMaster Database

Table 25

Women Composers Featured in MusicMaster as of April, 2017 Composer Era Tot. Tracks # Pieces Anon 2137 Hildegard of Bingen Medieval 165 93 Beach, Amy 20th Cent 154 78 Chaminade, Cecile Romantic 134 83 Schumann, Clara Romantic 90 48 Mendelssohn, Fanny Romantic 75 45 Boulanger, Lili 20th Cent 62 25 Zaimont, Judith Lang Contemp 55 23 Clarke, Rebecca 20th Cent 51 22 Tower, Joan Contemp 46 33 Story, Liz Contemp 42 39 Grondahl, Agathe Backer Romantic 33 20 Larsen, Libby Contemp 31 27 Gubaidulina, Sofia 20th Cent 26 25 Seeger, Ruth Crawford 20th Cent 25 22 Strozzi, Barbara Baroque 24 21 Zwillich, Ellen Taaffe Contemp 24 23 Dudley, Anne Contemp 23 23 Higdon, Jennifer Contemp 23 16 Price, Florence 20th Cent 23 14 Montero, Gabriela Contemp 21 20 Trimble, Joan 20th Cent 21 16 Harbach, Barbara 20th Cent 20 10 Smyth, Ethel 20th Cent 19 14 Suesse, Dana 20th Cent 18 16 Aufderheide, May 20th Cent 17 5 Bacewicz, Grazyna 20th Cent 16 15 Pavlova, Alla Contemp 14 12 Poston, Elizabeth 20th Cent 14 3

Continued

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Table 25 Continued

Frank, Gabriela Lena Contemp 13 6 le Beau, Luise Adolpha Romantic 13 9 Lombardini, Maddalena Laura Classical 13 8 Kats-Chernin, Elena Contemp 12 10 Beamish, Sally Contemp 11 10 Brouwer, Margaret 20th Cent 11 11 Brusa, Elisabetta 20th Cent 11 11 Karaindrou, Eleni 20th/film 11 10 Saariaho, Kaija Contemp 11 10 Diemer, Emma Lou 20th Cent 10 10 Vleck, Amelia van Romantic 10 8 Schroeder-Sheker, Therese Contemp 9 9 Boulanger, Nadia 20th Cent 8 7 Martinez, Marianne Classical 8 6 Pook, Jocelyn Contemp 8 7 Sirmen, Maddalena Classical 8 7 Southam, Ann 20th Cent 8 8 Walker, Gwyneth Contemp 8 7 Bonds, Margaret 20th Cent 7 4 Carlos, Wendy 20th Cent 7 6 Carwithen, Doreen 20th Cent/film 7 7 Higbie, Barbara Contemp 7 6 Rogers, Clara Kathleen Romantic 7 5 Bond, Victoria 20th Cent 6 6 Fujiwara, Korine Contemp 6 4 Holmes, Augusta Romantic 6 6 Kuyper, Elizabeth Romantic 6 3 McMichael, Catherine Contemp 6 5 Newman, Maria Contemp 6 4 Williams, Grace 20th Cent 6 5 Assad, Clarice Contemp 5 5 Garrop, Stacy Contemp 5 4 McTee, Cindy Contemp 5 2 Wilhelmine of Prussia Baroque 5 5 Warren, Elinor Remick 20th Cent 5 5 Carreno, Teresa Romantic 4 3 Eckhardt-Gramatte, Sophie-Carmen 20th Cent 4 3 Mayer, Emilie Romantic 4 1

Continued

211

Table 25 Continued

Venezia, Anna Bon di Classical 4 2 White, Maude Valerie Romantic 4 3 Woods, Sylvia Contemp 4 4 Brandon, Jenni Contemp 3 1 Cozzolani, Chiara Margarita Baroque 3 3 Harrison, Pamela 20th Cent 3 2 Parker, Alice 20th Cent 3 3 Presti, Ida 20th Cent 3 2 Respighi, Elsa 20th Cent 3 1 Shepherd, Adaline 20th Cent 3 1 Sorrell, Jeannette Contemp 3 2 Tann, Hilary Contemp 3 3 Wertsch, Nancy Contemp 3 2 Albert, Adrienne Contemp 2 1 Bagdasarianz, Ursula 20th Cent 2 2 Glanville-Hicks, Peggy 20th Cent 2 2 Grandval, Marie Romantic 2 1 Kakabadse, Lydia Contemp 2 2 Keal, Minna 20th Cent 2 1 Mahler, Alma Romantic/20th 2 2 Panufnik, Roxanna Contemp 2 2 Paradis, Maria Theresia von Classical 2 1 Risher, Anna Priscilla 20th Cent 2 2 Rossi, Camilla de Baroque 2 1 Silverman, Tracy Contemp 2 2 Szymanowska, Maria Agata Classical 2 2 Andree, Elfrida Romantic 2 1 Adamopoulos, Athena Contemp 1 1 Albritton, Anne Contemp 1 1 Barnes, Ethel 20th Cent 1 1 Bray, Charlotte Contemp 1 1 Buckley, Linda Contemp 1 1 Carillo, Isolina 20th Cent 1 1 Clyne, Anna Contemp 1 1 Dring, Madeline 20th Cent 1 1 Dvorakova-Sukova, Otilie 20th Cent 1 1 Ferrenc, Louise Romantic 1 1 Hall, Juliana Contemp 1 1

Continued

212

Table 25 Continued

Herholdt, Lydia Contemp 1 1 Lebrun, Francesca Classical 1 1 Magi, Ester 20th Cent 1 1 Merryman, Marjorie Contemp 1 1 Moreira, Diana Contemp 1 1 Parke, Maria Hester Classical 1 1 Sazer, Irene Contemp 1 1 Stitt, Georgia Contemp 1 1 Viardot-Garcia, Pauline Romantic 1 1 Wells, Katherine Gladney 20th Cent 1 1 Wieniawski, Irene Regina Romantic 1 1 Yarnell, Carolyn Contemp 1 1

213

Appendix B. Conductors in MusicMaster who Recorded Works Composed by Women

Table 26

Conductors in MusicMaster Who Recorded Works Composed by Women Tot. Conductor Ensemble Tracks Pieces Trevor, Kirk Slovak Radio Symphony 13 5 Revzen, Joel Scottish Chamber Orchestra 12 3 Dudley, Anne Various Ensembles 11 11 Mastrangelo, Fabio Ukraine Natl Symphony Orchestra 11 11 Peres, Marcel Ensemble Organum 11 11 Summerly, Jeremy Oxford Camerata 11 11 Falletta, JoAnn Women's Phil 9 4 Revzen, Joel London Symphony 9 4 Alsop, Marin Colorado Symphony 8 3 Fennell, Frederick American Symphony 8 6 Keene, Dennis Voices of Ascension 8 8 Alsop, Marin Colorado Symphony 7 7 Baton, Patrick Tchaikovsky Symphony 7 2 Nemeth, Pal Savaria Baroque Orchestra 7 7 Parker, Alice Melodious Accord 7 7 Stringer, Mark Luxembourg Phil 7 7 Guerrero, Giancarlo Nashville Symphony 6 3 Patterson, Elizabeth Gloriae Dei Cantores 6 4 Schermerhorn, Kenneth Nashville Symphony 6 2 Friedman, Samuel Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic 5 5 Lukas, Viktor Lukas Consort 5 5 Slatkin, Leonard Saint Louis Symphony 5 5 Spano, Robert Atlanta Symphony 5 5 Tortelier, Yan Pascal BBC Philharmonic 5 5

Continued Table 26 Continued

214

Wood, James New London Chm Ch 5 5 Kawalla, Szymon Polish Radio and TV Symphony 5 5 Dunner, Leslie B. New Black Music Repertory Ens. 4 2 Freeman, Paul Czech Nat’t. Symphony 4 1 Gardiner, John Elliot London Symphony 4 4 Hickox, Richard London Symphony 4 4 Hsu, Apo Women's Philharmonic 4 4 Jarvi, Neeme Detroit Symphony 4 3 Markevitch, Igor Lamoureux Orchestra 4 4 Rosenberg, Richard Hot Springs Music Fest Symphony 4 2 Slatkin, Leonard Detroit Symphony 4 1 Sorrell, Jeanneate Appollo's Fire 4 3 Blankenburg, Elke Mascha Clara Schumann Orchestra 3 2 Brunelle, Philip Plymouth Music Series Orchestra 3 3 Buchanan, Joan Capital Hill Choral Society 3 3 Chalkiadakis, Lefteris Orchestra 3 3 Gregorian, Leon Michigan State Univ Symphony 3 3 Krimets, Konstantin Internat’l Symph. Orch. "Globalis" 3 2 Mehta, Zubin New York Philharmonic 3 3 Myrat, Alexandros Hellenic Radio Television Orchestra 3 3 St. Paul Chamber Orchestra & Minn. Revzen, Joel Orchestra 3 1 Rudner, Ola Swedish Chamber Orchestra 3 3 Sedares, James Louisville Orchestra 3 3 Warland, Dale Dale Warland Singers 3 3 Bragado-Darman, Max Louisville Orchestra 2 2 Cordes, Manfred Weser Renaissance 2 1 Fiedler, Arthur Boston Pops 2 2 Fischer, Adam Orchestra La Scintilla 2 2 Gergiev, Valery Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and Choir 2 2 Gundlach, Willi Dortmund Univ Chamber Choir 2 2 Handley, Vernon BBC Welsh Symphony 2 2 Jones, Barbara Stow Fest Orchestra and Choir 2 2 Kosloff, Doris N/A 2 2 Krueger, Karl Royal Philharmonic 2 1

Continued Table 26 Continued

215

Litton, James American Boys Choir 2 2 Martinez, Odaline De La BBC Philharmonic 2 2 May, Michael Michael May Fest. Choir 2 2 Page, Christopher Gothic Voices 2 2 Penny, Andrew Royal Ballet Sinfonia 2 1 Reffkin, David American Ragtime Ensemble 2 2 Rosenbaum, Harold New York Virtuoso Singers 2 1 Rozhdestvensky, Gennady USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony 2 1 Serebrier, Jose Royal Philharmonic 2 1 Silverstein, Joseph Louisville Orchestra 2 2 Svarovsky, Leos Czech Radio Symphony 2 2 Thomas, John Hugh BBC Welsh Choir 2 2 Toms, Mikel Brno Philharmonic 2 1 Weisberg, Arthur Ensemble 21 2 2 Ziva, Vladmir Tchaikovsky Symphony 2 2 Bartle, Jean Ashworth Toronto Symphony 1 1 Bernardi, Mario CBC Vancouver Orchestra 1 1 Broadbent, Peter Joyful Company Singers 1 1 Brough, Harvey Jocelyn Pook Ensemble 1 1 Brown, Emily Freeman Bowling Green Philharmonic 1 1 Bruffy, Charles Kansas City Chorale 1 1 Burkh, Dennis Janacek Philharmonic 1 1 Challily, Riccardo Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra 1 1 Childress, Heider His Majesty's Clerkes 1 1 Corporon, Eugene North Texas Wind Symphony 1 1 Davies, Dennis Russell Brooklyn Philharmonic 1 1 DePriest, James Malmo Symphony 1 1 Dohnanayi, Christoph von Cleveland Orchestra 1 1 Duczmal, Agnieszka Amadeus Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Dutoit, Charles Boston Symphony 1 1 Gallagher, James OSU Men's Glee Club 1 1 Galway, James Royal Philharmonic 1 1 Gamley, Douglas London Philharmonic 1 1 Geraldi, Kevin Minerva Chamber Ensemble 1 1

Continued Table 26 Continued

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Gerviev, Valery London Symphony 1 1 Gibson, Alexander Scottish Natl Orchestra 1 1 Gimse, Oyvind Trondheim Symphony 1 1 Goodman, Roy Manitoba Chm Orchestra 1 1 Goodwin, Paul English Chm Orchestra 1 1 Groves, Charles London Symphony 1 1 Guest, George St John's College Choir 1 1 Gupton, Damon Sphinx Virtuosi 1 1 Hickox, Richard City of London Sinfonia 1 1 Hoy, Patricia N. Arizona Univ. Wind Symphony 1 1 Hunt, Fionnula Irish Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Jacobsen, Eric The Knights 1 1 Kirk, Trevor Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic 1 1 Kirk, Trevor Slovak Radio Symphony 1 1 Klee, Bernhard Hanover Radio Philharmonic 1 1 Kontogeorgiou, Antonis Choir of Captive Trojan Women 1 1 Kosloff, Doris Czech Radio Symphony 1 1 Krimets, Konstantin Russian Philharmonic 1 1 Kulesha, Gary Composers' Orchestra 1 1 Kunzel, Erich Cincinnati Pops 1 1 Lajovic, Uros Berlin Radio Symphony 1 1 Llewelyn, Brynmore London Symphony 1 1 Lockhart, Keith Utah Symphony 1 1 London, Edwin Cleveland Chm Symphony 1 1 Maazel, Lorin Pittsburgh Symphony 1 1 Marriner, Neville Acad. St Martin Orchestra and Choir 1 1 Marriner, Neville Minnesota Orchestra 1 1 Masur, Kurt New York Philharmonic 1 1 Mayer, Uri Hanover Radio Philharmonic 1 1 Mehta, Zubin American Soviet Youth Orchestra 1 1 Menk, Nancy St Mary's College Women's Choir 1 1 Milnes, Eric New York Baroque 1 1 Morrow, James Univ of Texas Chamber Singers 1 1 Mynbaev, Timur Collegium Musicum Ensemble 1 1

Continued

Table 26 Continued

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German Symphony, Berlin, Berlin Nagano, Kent Radio Choir 1 1 Oramo, Sakari Finnish Radio Symphony 1 1 Panula, Jorma Tampere Philharmonic 1 1 Parameswaran, Vinay Curtis 20/21 Ensemble 1 1 Petrenko, Vasily Royal Liverpool Philharmonic 1 1 Pittman, Richard Boston Musica Viva 1 1 Plasson, Michel City of Toulouse Orchestra 1 1 Preito, Carlos Miguel YOA Orchestra of the Americas 1 1 Price, David Columbus Gay Men's Choir 1 1 Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Richards, James Bremen 1 1 Rombach-Kendall, Eric Univ of New Mexico Wind Symphony 1 1 Russell, John Morris Cinicnnati Pops 1 1 Russell, Timothy ProMusica Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Rutter, John Cambridge Singers 1 1 Salonen, Esa-Pekka Avanti! Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Salonen, Esa-Pekka BBC Symphony 1 1 Salonen, Esa-Pekka Finnish Radio Symphony 1 1 Schiff, Heinrich German Chm Philharmonic 1 1 Schmeller, James Ethel Smyth Ensemble 1 1 Sedares, James London Symphony 1 1 Seelig, Timothy Turtle Creek Chorale 1 1 Shasberger, Michael Amadeus Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Shulman, Daniel Da Capo Chamber Players 1 1 Silverstein, Joseph Bamberg Symphony 1 1 Simon, Geoffrey London Trumpet Orchestra 1 1 Slatkin, Leonard Nashville Symphony 1 1 Slatkin, Leonard St. Louis Symphony 1 1 Smith, Lawrence Leighton Louisville Orchestra 1 1 Smith, Lawrence Leighton Louisville Orchestra 1 1 Stanienda, Jan Polish Chamber Orchestra 1 1 Sutherland, Gavin Royal Ballet Sinfonia 1 1

Continued

Table 26 Continued

218

Swann, Frederick Crystal Cathedral Choir 1 1 Chicago College of Perf Arts Chamber Thakar, Markand Orchestra 1 1 Thomas, Karen P. Seattle Pro Musica 1 1 Valek, Vladmir Czech Radio Symphony 1 1 Vedernikov, Alexander Russian Philharmonic 1 1 Walker, Garry BBC Symphony 1 1 Wallace, John Wallace Collection 1 1 Wilson, Ransom New York Concert Singers 1 1 Yoo, Scott Metamorphosen 1 1 Zeisler, Dennis Virginia Wind Symphony 1 1 Zinman, David Baltimore Symphony 1 1 Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe N/A 1 1

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Appendix C. Semi-Structured Interview Questions: Experts in the Field

Women Composers Interviews – 30 minutes each

Interviewee #1 (Wilma): Pianist; Music Ed. Prof.; Advocate • As an advocate, how has, if at all, the landscape for women composer changed over the last 15 years? • What do you think about professional organizations, like the International Alliance for Women in Music? o What contributions do they make? • Women in graduate programs have traditionally been counseled to stay in academia, rather than to pursue composition full-time. What’s your opinion about this? Ostrander, L. W. (2010). Women composers’ motivation and productivity: an update. IAWM Journal International Alliance for Women in Music, 16, 21-23. • How can post-secondary music education programs support women composers?

Interviewee #2 (Joan): Composer; Chair, Dept of Music at a State University • Statistics have shown that women tend to drop out of graduate composition programs at a higher rate than men. Why do you think that this is so? • Women in graduate programs have traditionally been counseled to stay in academia, rather than to pursue composition full-time. What’s your opinion about this? Ostrander, L. W. (2010). Women composers’ motivation and productivity: an update. IAWM Journal International Alliance for Women in Music, 16, 21-23. • How do you think music composed by women is faring as compared to the music of other living composers? • How can post-secondary music education programs support women composers? • What do you think about professional organizations, like the International Alliance for Women in Music? o What contributions do they make?

Interviewee # 3 (John): Executive Director of a symphony orchestra in the Northeast U.S. • Who has the largest influence over programming in your organization? • What are some of the factors that influence programming for you? 220

• What are your thoughts about including living composers’ music in a Masterworks series? • Tell me your thoughts on how well, or poorly, women composers are represented in the concert repertoire of your organization. • Tell me about the decision-making process to program the “Celebrating Women” concert in 2017. • What was the decision-making process involved in programming the piece by Peggy Stewart Coolidge in 2016?

Interviewee #4 (Patrick): Vice President of Operations and Artistic Planning, a symphony orchestra in the Midwestern U.S. • Who has the largest influence over programming in your organization? o Tell me about the process of choosing themes for concerts and/or the season. • What are some of the factors that influence programming for you? • What are your thoughts about including living composers’ music in a Masterworks series? • Tell me your thoughts on how well, or poorly, women composers are represented in the concert repertoire of your organization.

Common Questions (Asked of all participants) • What do you think are some of the barriers women composers may face in 2017 to getting their work programmed? • What do you think about the term “woman composer?”

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Appendix D. Survey of a Classical Music Audience

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Appendix E. All Famous Composers Named by Audience Members

Table 27

All Famous Composers Named by Participants Composer Gender Frequency Beethoven, L. v. Male 161 Mozart, W. A. Male 150 Bach, J. S. Male 144 Mahler, Gustav Male 111 Brahms, Johannes Male 110 Tchaikovsky, P. I. Male 99 Chopin, Frederick Male 60 Wagner, Richard Male 57 Schubert, Franz Male 56 Haydn, Joseph Male 50 Handel, W. F. Male 46 *Schumann ? 35 Debussy, Claude Male 33 Liszt, Franz Male 31 Rachmaninoff, Sergei Male 31 Stravinsky, Igor Male 31 Shostakovich, Dmitri Male 30 Vivaldi, Antonio Male 28 *Mendelssohn ? 27 Dvorak, Antonin Male 26 Verdi, Giuseppe Male 22 Copland, Aaron Male 21 Prokofiev, Sergei Male 20 Grieg, Edvard Male 19 Strauss Male 18 Sibelius, Johan Male 16 Ravel, Maurice Male 15 Berlioz, Hector Male 14 Puccini, Giacomo Male 14 Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolai Male 14 Rossini, Gioachino Male 13

Continue 226

Table 27 Continued

Bizet, Georges Male 10 Bernstein, Leonard Male 10 Bartok, Bela Male 8 Monteverdi, Claudio Male 8 Holst, Gustav Male 6 Elgar, Edward Male 6 Gershwin, George Male 6 Bruckner, Anton Male 6 Mussorgsky, Modest Male 6 Ives, Charles Male 5 Williams, John Male 5 Smetena, Bedrich Male 5 Strauss Male 5 Vaughan Williams, R. Male 5 Bach, J. C. Male 4 Paganini, Niccolo Male 4 Saint-Saens, Camille Male 4 Satie, Eric Male 3 Schumann, Clara Female 3 Mendelssohn, Fanny Female 3 Von Bingen, Hildegard Female 3 Telemann, G. P. Male 3 Buxtehude, Dieterich Male 3 Respighi, Ottorino Male 3 Britten, Benjamin Male 3 Shuman, William Male 2 Donizetti, Gaetano Male 2 Salieri, Antonio Male 2 Bach, W. F. Male 2 Berg, Alban Male 2 Pachelbel, Johann Male 2 Schoenberg, Arnold Male 2 Fuare, Gabriel Male 2 Pergolesi, Giovanni Male 2 Bellini, Vincenzo Male 2

Continue

227

Table 27 Continued

Webber, Andrew Lloyd Male 2 Weber, Anton Male 2 Stills, William Grant Male 3 Tower, Joan Female 2 Higdon, Jennifer Female 2 Perotin Male 2 Luther, Martin Male 2 Bruch, Max Male 2 Des Prez, Josquin Male 2 Borodin, Alexander Male 2 Hindemith, Paul Male 1 Franck, Cesar Male 1 Offenbach, Jacques Male 1 Larsen, Libby Female 1 Bach, C. P. E. Male 1 Scarlatti, Domenico Male 1 Saariaho, Kaija Female 1 Lully, J. B. Male 1 Rameau, J. P. Male 1 Auerbach, Lera Female 1 Boulanger, Lili Female 1 di Paolo, Andrea Male 1 Carter, Elliott Male 1 Maw, Nicholas Male 1 Young, Albert Victor Male 1 Shaw, Caroline Female 1 Riley, Terry Male 1 Glass, Phillip Male 1 Wilson Female 1 Schnittke, Alfred Male 2 Paart, Arvo Male 1 Meatloaf Male 1 Hanson, Howard Male 1 Boccherini, Luigi Male 1 Schumann, Robert Male 1

Continued

228

Table 27 Continued

Collins, Anthony Male 1 Billings, William Male 1 Gluck, C. W. Male 1 Massenet, Jules Male 1 Albinoni, Tomaso Male 1 Zemlinsky, Alexander Male 1 Beach, Amy Female 1 Correia, Andreia Female 1 Bach, J. C. F. Male 1 Martin, Frank Male 1 Muller, August Male 1 Berlin, Irving Male 1 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Male 1 Gabrieli, Giovanni Male 1 Howells, Herbert Male 1 Machaut, Guillaume Male 1 Purcell, Henry Male 1 Scriabin, Alexander Male 1 Strauss, J. Male 1 Strauss, Jr. Male 1 Vittoria, Tomas Luis de Male 1 Webern, Anton Male 1 Wienavski, Henryk Male 1 Clementi, Muzio Male 1 Morricone, Enzio Male 1 Barber, Samuel Male 1 Bocelli, Andrea Male 1 Rickets, Ted Male 1 Lalo, Edouard Male 1 Mahler, Alma Female 1 **Unknown 15 Note: All names listed by participants are included *Note: Unclear whether male or female was intended, but likely male **Note: Unknown = illegible writing, or no known composer of that name

229

Appendix F. All 20th and 21st Century Composers Named by Audience Members

Table 28

All 20th and 21st Century Composers Named by Participants Composer Gender Frequency Copland, Aaron Male 75 Stravinsky, Igor Male 70 Shostakovich, Dmitri Male 65 Bernstein, Leonard Male 62 Gershwin, George Male 43 Mahler, Gustav Male 42 Prokofiev, Sergei Male 33 Glass, Phillip Male 32 Williams, John Male 29 Bartok, Bela Male 24 Rachmaninoff, Sergey Male 24 Ades, Thomas Male 22 Schoenberg, Arnold Male 19 Debussy, Claude Male 19 Britten, Benjamin Male 18 Adams, John Male 18 Sibelius, Johan Male 17 Dvorak, Antonin Male 15 Vaughan Williams, R. Male 14 Ives, Charles Male 13 Ravel, Maurice Male 13 Holst, Gustav Male 12 Berg, Alban Male 12 Hindemith, Paul Male 12 Cage, John Male 12 Webern, Anton Male 11

Continue

230

Table 28 Continued

Janacek, Leos Male 11 Rimsky-Korsakov, Niccolai Male 8 Barber, Samuel Male 8 Elgar, Edward Male 7 Strauss, Richard Male 7 Reich, Steve Male 6 Joplin, Scott Male 6 Webber, Andrew Lloyd Male 6 Tchaikovsky, P. I. Male 6 Weber, C. M. Male 5 Saint-Saens, Camille Male 5 Paart, Arvo Male 5 Poulenc, Francis Male 5 Wagner, Richard Male 4 Bates, Mason Male 4 Hanson, Howard Male 4 Satie, Eric Male 4 Grieg, Edvard Male 4 Messiaen, Olivier Eugene Male 4 Beach, Amy Female 4 Whitacre, Eric Male 3 Gorecki, Henryk Male 3 Weil, Kurt Male 3 Schuller, Gunther Male 3 *Schumann ? 3 Schmittke, Alfred Male 3 Hovannes, Alan Male 3 Penderecki, Krzysztof Male 3 Varese, Edgard Male 3 Zimmer, Hans Male 3 Verdi, Giuseppe Male 3 Khatchaturian, Aram Male 3 Fujiwara, Korine Female 3 Previn, Andre Male 2 Piazzola, Astor Male 2

Continue

231

Table 28 Continued

Kodaly, Zoltan Male 2 Mackey, John Male 2 Maslanka, D Male 2 Hogan, Moses Male 2 Higdon, Jennifer Female 2 Korngold, Erich Male 2 Faure, Gabriel Male 2 Berlin, Irving Male 2 Rutter, John Male 2 Thompson, Virgil Male 2 Carter, Elliott Male 2 Sousa, J. P. Male 2 Swearingen, James Male 2 Mackey, John Male 2 Boulanger, Lily Female 2 De Pue, William Male 2 Ligeti, Gyorgy Male 2 Stockhausen, Karlheinz Male 2 Orff, Carl Male 2 Riley, Terry Male 2 Milhaud, Darius Male 2 Menotti, Giancarlo Male 2 Bacharach, Burt Male 2 Wadsworth, Zachary Male 2 Joel, Billy Male 2 Puccini, Giacomo Male 2 Smetena, Bedrich Male 2 Neilsen, Harry Male 2 Mussorgsky, Modest Male 2 Rodrigo, Joaquin Male 2 Respighi, Ottorino Male 2 Ellington, Duke Male 2 Anderson, Leroy Male 1 Corigliano, John Male 1 Borodin, Alexander Male 1

Continue

232

Table 28 Continued

Husa, Karel Male 1 Dello Joio, Norman Male 1 Revueltas, Silvestre Male 1 Babbit, Milton Male 1 Shchedrin, Rodion Male 1 Warlock, Peter Male 1 Jarrett, Keith Male 1 Burge, Rusty Male 1 Mancini, Henry Male 1 Bernstein, Elmer Male 1 Liszt, Franz Male 1 Schubert, Franz Male 1 Chopin, Frederick Male 1 Bruckner, Anton Male 1 Ginastera, Alberto Male 1 Moravec, Paul Male 1 Heggie, Jake Male 1 Dallapiccola, Luigi Male 1 Walker, George Male 1 Martin, Frank Male 1 Maw, Nicholas Male 1 Bloch, Ernest Male 1 Finzi, G. Male 1 Boulez, Pierre Male 1 Ran, Shulamit Female 1 Lalo, Edouard Male 1 Elliot, Richard Male 1 Cohan, George M. Male 1 Schroeder, Ted Male 1 Jobim, A.C. Male 1 Honegger, Arthur Male 1 Alexander, Jason Male 1 Tchaikovsky, P. I. Male 1 Rogers, Richard Male 1 Hammerstein, Oscar Male 1

Continued

233

Table 28 Continued

Shimomura, Yoko Female 1 Musser, Will Male 1 Gerard, Lisa Female 1 Part, Arvo Male 1 Taverner, John Male 1 McDonel, Jennifer Female 1 Adamo, Mark Male 1 Shaw, Caroline Female 1 MacMillan, James Male 1 Dukas, Paul Male 1 Pryor, Richard Male 1 Schwartz, Paul Male 1 Kernham, Linda Female 1 Khatchaturian, A Male 1 Scriabin, Alexander Male 1 Bizet, Georges Male 1 Novarro, Michele Male 1 Stokowski, Leopold Male 1 Puckett, Joel Male 1 Courtney, Craig Male 1 Vivaldi, Antonio Male 1 Larsen, Libby Female 1 *Mendelssohn ? 1 Stills, William Grant Male 1 Weir, Judith Female 1 Torkiey, Michael Male 1 Hopson, Hal Male 1 Welcher, Dan Male 1 Ricketts, Ted Male 1 Suzuki, Kotoka Female 1 Rodriguez Male 1 Stills, William Grant Male 1 Abe, Keiko Female 1 Adams, John Luther Male 1 Aho, Kalevi Male 1

Continued

234

Table 28 Continued

Balmages, Brian Male 1 Bober, Melody Female 1 Boulanger, Lili Female 1 Ciani, Suzanne Female 1 Czerny, Carl Male 1 Ewazen, Eric Male 1 Gorecki, Henryk Male 1 Hancock, Stuart Male 1 Howells, Herbert Male 1 Ireland, John Male 1 Kancheli, Giya Male 1 Lieberman, Lowell Male 1 Mussorgsky, Modest Male 1 Ogren, Jayce Male 1 Pintscher, Matthias Male 1 Rubinstein, Arthur Male 1 Saariaho, Kaija Female 1 Daugherty, Michael Male 1 Markowski, Michael Male 1 Shore, Howard Male 1 Sowerby, Leo Male 1 Stout, Gordon Male 1 Telemann, G. P. Male 1 Wieniawski, Henryk Male 1 Schuloff, E. Male 1 O'Connor, Mark Male 1 Jones, Quincy Male 1 Hazo, Samuel Male 1 Porter, Cole Male 1 Miranda, Lin Manuel Male 1 Shuman, William Male 1 Collins, Chris Male 1 Beck, John Ness Male 1 Williams, Carol Female 1 Young, Lamont Male 1

Continued

235

Table 28 Continued

Tower, Joan Female 1 Wilson, Richard Male 1 Weatherbee, Charles Male 1 Sowash, Rick Male 1 Moncayo, Jose Pablo Male 1 Coofre Male 1 **Unknown 14 Note: All names listed by participants are included *Note: Unclear whether male or female was intended, but likely male **Note: Unknown = illegible writing, or no known composer of that name

236

Appendix G. All Living Composers Named by Audience Members

Table 29

All Living Composers Named by Participants Composer Gender Frequency Ades, Thomas Male 49 Glass, Phillip Male 38 Williams, John Male 37 Adams, John Male 28 Paart, Arvo Male 13 Whitacre, Eric Male 9 Higdon, Jennifer Female 8 Bates, Mason Male 6 Mackey, John Male 6 Reich, Steve Male 6 Rutter, John Male 6 Fujiwara, C. Female 5 Larsen, Libby Female 5 Shaw, Caroline Female 5 Cage, John Male 4 Corigliano, John Male 4 Webber, Andrew Lloyd Male 4 Zimmer, Hans Male 4 Adams, John Luther Male 3 Crumb, George Male 3 Ewazen, Eric Male 3 Heggie, Jake Male 3 Lieberman, Lovell Male 3 MacMillan, James Male 3 Pintscher, Matthias Male 3 Salonen, Essa-Pekka Male 3 Swearingen, James Male 3

Continued 237

Table 29 Continued

Tower, Joan Female 3 Aho, Kalevi Male 2 Beach, Amy* Female 2 Bernstein, Leonard Male 2 Copland, Aaron Male 2 De Pue, William Male 2 Fiday, Michael Male 2 Gorecki, Henri Male 2 Hoffman, Joel Male 2 Ives, Charles Male 2 Jolley, Jennifer Female 2 Kernahm, Linda Female 2 Lang, David Male 2 Lomax, Matthew Male 2 McCartney, Paul Male 2 Merkowitz, Jennifer Female 2 Muhly, Nico Male 2 Riley, Terry Male 2 Stankovic, V. Female 2 Taverner, John Male 2 Torkey, Michael Male 2 Torres, Michael Rene Male 2 Weatherbee, Charles Male 2 Abe, Keiko Female 1 Badelt, Klaus Male 1 Baker, David Male 1 Balmages, Brian Male 1 Barnett, Carol Female 1 Benner, Al Male 1 Berlin, Iriving Male 1 Bober, Melody Female 1 Bocelli, Andrea Male 1 Bock, Jerry Male 1 Bolcomb, William Male 1 Boulez, Pierre Male 1

Continued

238

Table 29 Continued

Brodbeck, Joshua Male 1 Broenig, Ben Male 1 Broughton, Bruce Male 1 Burge, Rusty Male 1 Caracciolo, Stephen Male 1 Casey, Jeri Female 1 Ciani, Suzanne Female 1 Colgrass, Michael Male 1 Constantinedes, Dinos Male 1 Courtney, Craig Male 1 Daugherty, Michael Male 1 De Meij, Johan Male 1 Deemer, Rob Male 1 Denisov, Edison Male 1 Djawadi, Ramin Male 1 D'Orio, Dominick Male 1 Doyle, P. Male 1 Dun, Tan Female 1 Elfman, Danny Male 1 Ferneghough, Brian Male 1 Freund, Don Male 1 Garrett, David Male 1 Gerard, Lisa Female 1 Gershwin Male 1 Giachino, Michael Male 1 Glejo, Ola Male 1 Golijov, Osvaldo Male 1 Gordon, Michael Male 1 Greenberg, Robert Male 1 Grofe, Ferde Male 1 Hanson, Howard Male 1 Hartke, Stephen Male 1 Hazo, Samuel Male 1 Helmuth, Mora Female 1 Hovaness, Alan Male 1

Continued

239

Table 29 Continued

Jackson, Gabriel Male 1 Jalbert, Pierce Male 1 Joel, Billy Male 1 Jones, Jesse Male 1 Kancheli, Giya Male 1 Kasparek, Martha Female 1 Keenan, Maynard James Male 1 Nasser Male 1 Lai, Sheung-Ping Female 1 Laitman, Lori Female 1 Linn, Jennifer Female 1 Madsen, Trygve Male 1 Mapp, Douglas Male 1 Marionelli, Dario Male 1 Markowski, Michael Male 1 Mazolli, Missy Female 1 McClure, Rob Male 1 McMishek, Kathy Female 1 Meatloaf Male 1 Messianan, O. Male 1 Miranda, Lin Manuel Male 1 Montague, Stephen Male 1 Montero, Gabriela Female 1 Moroder, Giorgio Male 1 Morricone, Enzio Male 1 Muczynski, Robert Male 1 Newman, Thomas Male 1 O'Connor, Mark Male 1 Ogren, Jayce Male 1 Panufnik, Andrzej Male 1 Penderecki, Krzysztof Male 1 Porter, Cole Male 1 Previn, Andre Male 1 Price, Kyle Male 1 Pryor, Richard Male 1

Continued

240

Table 29 Continued

Puckett, Joel Male 1 Rautavaara, E. Male 1 Reed, Jacob Male 1 Reynolds, Roger Male 1 Reznor, Trent Male 1 Richter, Max Male 1 Ritter, Sam Male 1 Roig-Francoli, Miguel Male 1 Rosaro, Ney Male 1 Schickele, Peter Male 1 Schnitke, Al Male 1 Schroeder, Hermann Male 1 Sessions, Roger Male 1 Shelley, Frances Female 1 Shimomura, Yoko Female 1 Shore, Howard Male 1 Silverman, Tracy Female 1 Slatkin, L Male 1 Sowash, Rick Male 1 Spears, Gregory Male 1 Stewart, Daniel Male 1 Stoa, Luis de Male 1 Sunami, Christopher Male 1 Tao, Conrad Male 1 Ticheli, Frank Male 1 Ung, Chinary Male 1 Vaughan Williams Male 1 Wadsworth, Steven Male 1 Walker, Gwyneth Female 1 Weir, Judith Female 1 Wilson, Richard Male 1 Winteregs, Steven Male 1 Wolfe, Julia Female 1 Wright, Maurice Male 1

Continued 241

Table 29 Continued

Stout, Chris Male 0 **Unknown 7 Note: All names listed by participants are included *Note: Unclear whether male or female was intended, but likley male **Note: Unknown = illegible writing, or no known composer of that name

242

Appendix H. All Women Composers Named by Audience Members

Table 30

All Women Composers Named by Participants Composer Frequency Schumann, Clara 46 Beach, Amy 20 Mendelssohn, Fanny 15 Bingen, Hildegard von 13 Higdon, Jennifer 10 Boulanger, Lili 7 Shaw, Caroline 7 Tower, Joan 7 Boulanger, Nadia 6 Fujiwara, Corinne 6 Saariaho, Kaija 6 Larsen, Libby 5 Chaminade, Cecile 4 Gubaidulina, Sofia 4 Jolley, Jennifer 4 Mahler, Alma 4 Yi, Chen 4 Boulanger 3 de la Guerre, Elisabeth Jacquet 3 Merkowitz, Jennifer 3 Bach, Anna Magdalena 2 de Dia, Comtessa 2 Gerard, Lisa 2 Helmuth, Mara 2 Hensel, Fanny 2 Kernohan, Linda 2 McMichaud, Kathy 2

Continued 243

Table 30 Continued

Oliveros, Pauline 2 Price, Florence 2 Stankovic, Vera 2 Viardot, Pauline 2 Wolfe, Julia 2 Abe, Keiko 1 Achmatova, Ana 1 Ades*, Thomas 1 Baker, Elizabeth 1 Bober, Melody 1 Bolz, Harriet 1 Bonds, Margaret 1 Bor, Modesta 1 Careno, Theresa 1 Casey, Jeri 1 Ciani, Suzanne 1 Clark, Rebecca 1 Crawford, Ruth 1 Crosby, Fanny 1 Eskin, Virginia 1 Frank, Gabriela Lena 1 Gambarini, Elisabeth 1 Glass, Diamoala 1 Goetze, Mary 1 Hoover, K. 1 Izarra, Adina 1 Jones, Diane 1 Kim 1 Lehmann, Liza 1 Lilliois, Elainie 1 Linn, Jennifer 1 Lockhart, Beatrice 1 Mazzoli, Missy 1 Minder, Irene Jeanneret 1 Mitchell, Janice 1

Continued

244

Table 30 Continued

Monk, M. 1 Montero, G 1 Mozart, Nanerl 1 Nguyen, Le 1 Ocasio-Cortez* 1 Ono, Yoko 1 Paradies, Marie von 1 Parker, Alice 1 Portman, Rachel 1 Ran, Shulamit 1 Rhabee, Dianne 1 Roe, Joan 1 Sampson, Jamie Leigh 1 Schedel, Ma 1 Schwartz, Julia 1 Shimomura, Yoko 1 Shrude, M. 1 Smyth, Ethel 1 Strozzi, Barbara 1 Subrmanian, L 1 Talieterre, 1 Taluh, Ali 1 Thomas, Augusta Read 1 Ustvolskaya, Galina 1 Walln, Errollyn 1 Weir, Judith 1 Williams, Carol 1 Yun, Du 1 Zhang 1 Zwilich, Ellen Taafe 1 **Unknown 4 Note: All names listed by participants are included Note: * = Not a female composer Note: **Unknown = illegible writing, or no known composer of that name

245

Appendix I. Teacher Interview Questions

1. Please tell me about your personal vision for your music program and your mission as an educator.

2. Please tell me about your role as an agent of social change as an educator. Tell me your thoughts about supporting equity, diversity and inclusion in the music classroom.

3. Programming music for performances is a very important aspect of your job as a music educator. What do you take into consideration when choosing music for your ensembles?

4. Please describe the process that you use to choose music for performance.

5. Are there any institutional barriers that prevents you from getting the music you want? For example, ordering or payment policies put in place by the school?

6. Have you ever programmed a piece of music composed by a woman for your ensembles?

• Why did you choose that/those piece(s)?

7. Do you teach a composition class, unit or lesson in your curriculum? If so, do you feel that girls and boys respond differently to the task of composing?

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Appendix J. Music Directors as Leaders for Change Survey 1

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Appendix K. Music Directors as Leaders for Change Survey 2

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Appendix L. Workshop Assessment Questionnaire

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