Blogs
- plurielles34 – french-language blog
- Discovering music and history – blog which posts on, among other things, women’s music history by Susanne Wosnitzka
- Blog contributions in the Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv (DDF)
- Contemporary Classical – blog by Thea Derks
Podcasts
- Sound and Music – podcast about women composers, UK
- Donne talks, Podcast by Donne – Women in Music (link works!)
- The Daffodil Perspective – radio show/radio station on women composers, UK, by Elizabeth de Brito
- 333for33 – podcast by Monika Żyła, musicologist and pianist
- A Like for Clara – by trio pontes on Clara Schumann and aspects of her life
- Frauenzimmergesprechspiele – a podcast on historical female composers by the ensemble of the same name
- Hémisphère son – portraits of modern composers
- Artist Lounge Podcast – about women in music management and behind the curtains
- classicalqueer.com
- Listening To Ladies – podcast/interview project by Elisabeth Blair (USA)
- KUSC (English-language radio interviews with Julia Adolphe, Reena Esmail, Veronika Krausas, and Dale Trumbore)
Video collection
- Video portraits of historical women composers – project by Donne – Women in Music (link works!)
- Video portraits and interviews with contemporary women composers – projekt by Donne – Women in Music (link works!)
- YouTube-Channel of the Archiv Frau und Musik
- Video portraits of pioneers of the Archiv Frau und Musik and the women’s music movement
- Mademoiselle (1977) about Nadia Boulanger
- Unterwegs in der Musik – movie documentary about Barbara Heller (2016)
- Komponistinnen (2018) – multiple award winning movie documentary about Emilie Mayer, Lili Boulanger, Fanny Hensel and Mél Bonis
- Marianna von Martines – Die vergessene Komponistin (2019)
- Dora – Flucht in die Musik (2023), multiple award winning movie documentary about Dora Pejačević
- Die geniale Schwester: Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn (NDR/arte 2022) on French here YouTube
- The Girls in the Band (2011) – moving documentary about the “forgotten” women in early Big Bands and Jazz bands
- Rock Chicks (2023) – honors the achievements of female musicians and composers in rock’n’roll
- Die Dirigentin (2018) – movie about conductor Antonia Brico (1902–1989)
- Tár (2022) – about the fictional conductor Lydia Tár on the subject of abuse of power
- Chavela (2017) – documentary about the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas in a male domain (here only 15 minutes, original documentary 1.5 hours long)
- Komponistin und Dirigentin (2018) – ARD-Doku über Konstanzia Gourzi
- Wie wird man Dirigentin? (2024) – arte documentary with/about Alondra de la Parra, Marie Jacquot and Leslie Suganandarajah
- Hildegard von Bingen und die Macht der Frauen (2019) – ARD-Doku
- Vision – aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (2009) – movie with Barbara Sukowa
- Unsung Heroines (2018) – Danielle de Niese on the Lost World of Female Composers (BBC)
- Women Composers for the Guitar (2021) – about and with Annette Kruisbrink
- Sisters with Transistors (2020) – documentary about women composers in electronic music
- Kein Zickenfox (2014) – documentary about the biggest brass band for women in the world
- Women Who Score (2017) – Nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) for Best Music Documentary, WOMEN WHO SCORE celebrates women composers changing the score in Hollywood.
- Mozart’s Sister (2024) – new coming movie, trailer (May 2024)
Playlists
- Spotify playlists of the Archiv Frau und Musik (compiled by Heike Matthiesen)
- Spotify playlist on Australian women composers (compiled by Sal Whitwell)
- Spotify playlists by Keychange international
- Spotify playlist 1200 Years of Women Composers
- Spotify playlist Works by Diverse Women Composers
- Spotify playlists by Daffodil Perspective (including Japanese women composers, Black women composers, and music for wind band)
Interesting facts
- Online exhibition rooted in Iran by composer Ruth Wiesenfeld in cooperation with the Iranian Female Composers Association
- La Boîte à Pépites (record label by elles women composers)
- Componissima
- Venus Blazing – Projekt des Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London/UK
- Keychange/PRS Foundation – worldwide project for a 50:50 quota in music business
- Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls – with e.g. women composers
- Hidden Harmonies – Die weiblichen Noten – works by rarely known works by Austrian women composers with video performances
- GENIE (Gender Equality Networks in Europe) – database with/for projects who support equalization in music
- Women’s Suffrage in Sheet Music – collection of the Library of Congress
- Calender project to birth and death dates of women composers created by Mujeres en la Música
- Didactic Guide How to normalize Women Composers’ Legacy created by Mujeres an la Música
Education
See our project Digitales Bildungspaket: Komponistinnen in den Schulunterricht!
- Expanding the Music Theory Canon with examples by women composers
- Music Theory – music (theory) by women composers
- How to normalize Women Composers’ Legacy – guide by Mujeres en la Música
- Für mehr Gerechtigkeit auf Spielplänen – Seminar booklet of the BDLO Academy, created in cooperation with our Archive 2022 with concrete tips for finding orchestral works by women with an overview of 300 years of orchestral music by women and for programming events
- KeK lesson folder Komponistinnen entdecken (discover women composers) by Cid Fraen an Gender (Luxemburg 2006, in German with a CD)
- Komponistinnen in 30 Porträts by Vera Funk (Helbling publishing) 2024 – from Hildegard von Bingen to Billie Eilish with extensive practical material, competence-oriented tasks and a comprehensive media package on request for German schools. Developed in cooperation with our Frau und Musik archive
Statistics
We frequently receive requests to research statistics. You will therefore find an overview of some statistics collected in recent years for comparison purposes (no claim to completeness!):
- Frauen in Kultur und Medien. Ein Überblick über aktuelle Tendenzen, Entwicklungen und Lösungsvorschläge (Deutscher Kulturrat 2016)
- Analyses of Orchestra Seasons – List & Discussion (Zeitraum 2016–2024, von Tall Coleman)
- Frauenanteil Berufsorchester | Studie zur Saison 2019/2020 in Deutschland (musica femina münchen/Archiv Frau und Musik)
- Genderverteilung der Lehrenden in den Fächern Komposition, Elektroakustische Komposition und Musiktheorie an deutschen Hochschulen (GRID 2020)
- Equality & Diversity in Concert Halls | 100 Orchestras worldwide | Composers included in the 2020-2021 season (Donne – Women in Music 2021)
- Equality & Diversity in Global Repertoire (Donne – Women in Music 2022)
- musicwomen*germany facts & figures 2022
- Bachtrack statistics 2022
- Bachtrack statistics 2023 (appear every year! For comparisons, please also take a look at the even older statistics)
- Statistics of German Musikinformationszentrums (miz)
- Statistics of Deutscher Musikrat
- Research collection (Archiv Frau und Musik)
See also
- “Komponistinnen waren inakzeptabel”. Wie Frauen klassische Musik revolutionieren (Vice, 15. Dezember 2016)
- Spartenbericht Musik 2016 (Statistisches Bundesamt 2017)
- Die klassische Musik hat ein Sexismusproblem (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11. Januar 2017)
- Das Klassik-Jahr 2019 in Zahlen (ORF, 21. Februar 2020)
- Die Klassik wird (ein bisschen) weiblicher und jünger (SRF, 11. Januar 2023)
- Frauen in der Klassik – es tut sich was (BR, 7. März 2024)
- Neue Statistiken zu Frauen in der klassischen Musik (Evangelische Zeitung, 9. Januar 2024)
- Nur 14 Frauen unter den 100 meistbeschäftigten Dirigenten (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 9. Januar 2024)
- Klassische Musik bleibt Männerdomäne (WDR, 9. Januar 2024)
- “2,930 musical examples in the 7 most-used undergraduate music theory textbooks in the U.S.: 1.67 % are by BIPoC composers, 2.15 % are by women” (Expanding the Music Theory Canon)
Recommended reading
For new and advanced readers. We have made sure that older books can also be purchased or ordered antiquarian, second-hand or via union catalogs::
- Eva Rieger: Frau, Musik & Männerherrschaft. Zum Auschluß der Frau aus der deutschen Musikpädagogik, Musikwissenschaft und Musikausübung, 2. Aufl. Kassel 1988, ISBN 978-3-9801326-8 – A contemporary document and the first book to document and scientifically examine the power imbalance in classical music. Also published in Japanese and Korean! Important for comparisons then and now. Available second-hand on many platforms at reasonable prices
- Danielle Roster: Die großen Komponistinnen. Insel-Verlag 1998, ISBN 3458338160 – wonderful immersion in the subject matter with examples of works and a detailed list of brilliant recordings of her works. Available second-hand at low prices on many platforms
- Rebecca Grotjahn, Sabine Voigt (Hg.): Musik und Gender. Grundlagen – Methoden – Perspektiven. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-725-3 – “craft basis” for dealing with research as well
- Beatrix Borchard: Frau versus Künstlerin versus Wissenschaftlerin – Musikerinnen und Musikwissenschaftlerinnen im Deutschland des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Immaculata Amodeo (Hg.): FRAU MACHT WISSENSCHAFT. Wissenschaftlerinnen gestern und heute. Ulrike-Helmer-Verlag 2003, S. 53–65 – great overview of the contribution of women to our cultural and scientific history
- Beatrix Borchard: Frau oder Künstlerin – Musikerinnen im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts. In: Kaden/Kalisch (Hg.): Professionalismus in der Musik: Arbeitstagung in Verbindung mit dem Heinrich-Schütz-Haus. Die blaue Eule 1999, S. 285–292, ISBN 3-89206-875-5
- Freia Hoffmann: Instrument und Körper. Die musizierende Frau in der bürgerlichen Kultur. Insel-Verlag 1991, ISBN 978-3-458-32974-9 – “A book about the woman making music as an object of male perception – but also about the practical resistance that female musicians have put up against the dictates of ‘propriety’ for 200 years”. Available second-hand at low prices on many platforms
- Linda Maria Koldau: Frauen – Musik – Kultur. Ein Handbuch für den deutschen Sprachgebrauch der Frühen Neuzeit. ISBN 9783412245054 – focus on music by women in monasteries (also with secular music performance)
- Eva Weissweiler: Komponistinnen aus 500 Jahren: eine Kulturgeschichte in Biographien und Werkbeispielen. Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt/M. 1981, ISBN 3-596-23714-9 – Contemporary document, first encyclopedia on female composers. Available second-hand at low prices on many platforms
- Eva Weissweiler: Komponistinnen vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. Eine Kultur- und Wirkungsgeschichte in Biografien und Werkbeispielen. dtv 1999, ISBN 3423307269 = New edition of the encyclopedia with updated research. Available second-hand at low prices on many platforms
- Annette Kreutziger-Herr/Melanie Unseld (Hg.): Lexikon Musik und Gender. Kassel 2010, ISBN 9783761820438
- Andrea Schwab: Außergewöhnliche Komponistinnen. Weibliches Komponieren im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Von Maria Theresia Paradis über Josepha Barbara Auenhammer bis Julie von Baroni-Cavalcabò. Hollitzer 2019, ISBN 978-3990125878
- Andrea Schwab: Jüdische Komponistinnen. Zwischen Erfolg und Verfolgung. Hollitzer 2022, ISBN 978-3990128107
- Eva Marx/Gerlinde Haas: 210 österreichische Komponistinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Residenz-Verlag 2001, ISBN 9783701712151
- Nina Noeske/Vera Grund: Gender und Neue Musik. Von den 1950er Jahren bis zur Gegenwart. transcript-Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-4739-6. With a critical eye on sexist practices and discrimination
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson: It’s Our Music Too: The Black Experience in Classical Music. Los Angeles: Middle Passage Press, 2016 (here you will find an extensive collection of literature on BIPoC musicians)
- Mildred Denby Green: Black Women Composers: A Genesis. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983 – old but gold!
- Mari Yoshihara: Musicians From a Different Shore. Asians and Asian Americans in classical music. e-book 2007
- Anke Steinbeck: Jenseits vom Mythos Maestro: Dirigentinnen für das 21. Jahrhundert. Dohr, Köln 2010, ISBN 978-3-936655-74-2
- Katrin Hasselbeck: Jetzt kennen Sie 25 Dirigentinnen! Der langsame Wandel eines männlich dominierten Berufsbildes. Kursbuch-Verlag 2021, ASIN B08WLWG3X7 (nur als E-Book)
- Leah Broad: Quartet. How four women composers changed the musical world. London: faber publishing (hardback 2023/paperback 2024), ISBN 9780571366101