Activism

Do you want to hear more than one or two, or more likely, zero women composers from your favorite orchestra in a given season?  Do you want to help stimulate new interest and enthusiasm in classical music by re-invigorating the repertoire with innovative programming?

Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, together with the Women and Music Project of Brandeis University, is launching an activism campaign for the inclusion of women composers in the repertoire of symphony orchestras.  Considering that a full-time orchestra may program works by 40, 50 (or more) different composers per season, we find the meager representation of women to be woefully inadequate, and not serving audience members and music lovers in the important task of uncovering and recovering unjustly neglected repertoire.

We invite you to join us in our Activism Project

  • Sign in on to our list of participants (below).  We promise not to share your information, and to limit emails to our monthly report.
  • We are crafting petitions to be directed to individual orchestras.  These will take into consideration the orchestra’s specific history in including works by women composers, both historic and contemporary.  Participants will be invited to sign these petitions.
  • We will also facilitate a letter writing campaign to the Artistic Administrators of the orchestras in question.   We will offer model letters designed for each orchestra, to help you make your letter specific, in its criticism and suggestions, and ALSO – where possible – in its praise.
  • We will be offering stimulus grants and other awards to encourage the programming of works by women.  For the 2012-13 seasons we are offering $8000 stimulus money.
  • To encourage youth orchestras to include works by women composers (both historic and modern) in their repertoire, half of the stimulus grants will be reserved for youth orchestras.  It is especially important that young men and women learn of the achievements of women in the realm of classical music.

We value your involvement and participation in our work, and look forward to hearing from you!!

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