Diversify Your Repertoire: Select Digital Resources

Giving underrepresented composers a platform to have their music heard, …And We Were Heard connects composers to ensembles which record these works so they can be more fully promoted.

Created by a team of band directors including Dr. Kaitlin Bove, Cliff Croomes, Courtney Snyder Ng, Thomas Gamboa, Mary Kate McNally, and Ogechi Ukazu.

A community of composers and colleagues who strive to support and celebrate the work of women composers through advocacy and education. This visibility is important to herald in equality amongst our industry and bring diverse voices to film, television, video games and multimedia projects. We are proud to host the first ever directory of women film composers allowing filmmakers and decision makers the opportunity to discover new talent.

A Database of ALAANA,* Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Composers

*African/Black, Latinx, Asian/South Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Native American

The Composer Diversity Database allows users to discover over 4000 composers of historically underrepresented genders, racial, ethnic, and cultural heritages, and sexual orientations. You can search by composer name, living or deceased, common large and small ensemble genres, racial, ethnic, or cultural demographics, and by location (city, state, and country).

The Works Diversity Database allows users to search for individual compositions with numerous search filters from among over 1,600 art songs by women as well as over 2,400 works for large and small wind ensembles and over 11,000 orchestral works by underrepresented composers. Filters include various ensemble genres, duration, and grade level, as well as composer demographics and location, and the results include instrumentation (when known) and links for rental & purchase as well as audio & video.

Discover the lost world of women in music. Hear their stories in this website and listen to live interviews with women composers making their mark in the music world, now, today.

The Institute for Composer Diversity works to encourage the discovery, study, and performance of music written by composers from historically excluded groups.

We do this to positively impact three important groups: the audiences and students who will engage with the music, the conductors, performers, and educators who serve to bring that music to those audiences and students, and the composers themselves.

The Kapralova Society is a Canadian non-profit music society, founded in 1998 in Toronto. An affiliate member of the International Alliance for Women in Music, the Society's mission is to promote interest in Kapralova and other women in music through scholarly research, education, and special projects, often in partnership with schools of music, public broadcasters, publishing houses, and other organizations. We encourage and assist recording and publishing of Kapralova's music, and seek to build awareness of women's contributions to musical life through our online resources.

Music by Black Composers (MBC) is dedicated to helping to bring greater diversity to the ranks of classical music performers, composers, and audiences by making the music of Black composers available to everyone. MBC’s Living Composers Directory is designed for those seeking to commission; for performers, conductors, and concert programmers seeking existing music; and for other researchers and scholars of contemporary classical music.

The main focus of this index is on women making various kinds of experimental/avant garde music. Some of these artists may also work within more mainstream forms, but they are included here because of their other work that is more challenging.

Music by Black Composers (MBC) is dedicated to helping to bring greater diversity to the ranks of classical music performers, composers, and audiences by making the music of Black composers available to everyone. MBC’s Living Composers Directory is designed for those seeking to commission; for performers, conductors, and concert programmers seeking existing music; and for other researchers and scholars of contemporary classical music.

New Muses Project is a DEI-centered classical music organization, promoting justice and curiosity through performance, education, and scholarship. We are driven by a radical desire to always keep learning , as well as strong commitments to intersectionality and depth of understanding.

The No Broken Links directories are a starting point for scholars, performers, composers, and teachers to discover solo and chamber repertoire by minority composers for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Saxophone, and Horn. The directories focus specifically on the work of womxn, transgender & gender non-conforming individuals, and/or Black, Indigenous, or persons of color.

Compiled for the early music community by members and friends of EMA and the EMA Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Taskforce.

A resource for pianists, pedagogues, and curious music appreciators to explore.

We celebrate the vast range of orchestral music by women, and encourage orchestras to program it! All around us people are suddenly aware of long-ingrained sexist practices, and questioning their entrenched status. We work to reveal the centuries of music by women, much of it lost to history due to gender bias – and help provide information and resources to make that music available.

This repository of examples by composers of color for use in the theory and aural skills curriculum. The music is categorized by unit, topic, and subtopic. The repository is crowdsourced by music theorists.

This is a database of excerpts and complete musical compositions by women composers. The music is categorized by theoretical concept for use in music education.

Crowdsourced spreadsheet of flute music by Black composers.

This bibliography is from Women of Note website

Extensive bibliography of repertoire for organ.

A Seat at the Piano promotes and advocates for the inclusion, study, and performance of a more equitably representative body of piano works. By creating a resource for musicians, pedagogues, and curious music appreciators, ASAP aims to broaden their knowledge of composers and their works.

The Sphinx Catalog of Latin American Cello Works has been created in order to facilitate the access to information related to the work of Latin American composers centered on the cello. It is the most extensive source of its kind, with more than 2000 entries on the date of its release. It provides information about works where the cello has a prominent role as a solo instrument, soloist with orchestra, in duo with another instrument or electronic media, or in cello ensembles.

As the US deals with the social upheaval of Summer 2020, a group of violists joined together in order to address significant disparities of representation in Western classical music by creating this database as a starting point for scholars, performers, composers, and teachers to discover solo and chamber repertoire for viola by underrepresented composers. We hope to bring to light many treasures that might have gone the way of works by historically marginalized composers, and become ignored or forgotten. It is our wish to amplify voices which have been shelved or swallowed up by a White, Western Euro-centric, male narrative as a result of gender and/or racial and/or cultural identity. Celebrating and normalizing works by underrepresented composers is an important step in re-evaluating what “standard” repertoire is, and promotes a shift towards making the world of art music a more inviting and inclusive environment for all.

A working list of the non-idiomatic choral music of black composers. In no way is it meant to be an exhaustive list. However, it serves to provide a starting point. Regular updates will be made.

The Kassia Database is a resource geared toward aiding singers, instructors of voice, pianists, researchers, and music lovers to discover and celebrate art song by women composers. The database includes songs from the Baroque period through the 21st century, and have been categorized by level, voice type, language, composer, and composer dates. Related information includes range, tessitura, piano accompaniment, vocal line, and links to available scores. The analysis is intended for singers from beginning high school through the collegiate level and professional career. The database leads you to find the unique voices and expansive styles of each individual composer, with the hopes to increase performance and advocation of each woman's often overlooked works.

The Spirituals Database offers searchable access to recorded track information for concert Negro Spiritual settings performed by solo Classical vocalists. The resource contains a selection from a century of historic and contemporary concert spiritual recordings produced on compact discs, long-playing (33 1/3 rpm) albums, 78 rpm records, 45 rpm discs, audio cassettes and streamed audio files, as well as demonstration recordings from musical score collections.

Covering nearly 3,500 pieces, this database includes three separate sheets for women composers, composers of color, and LGBTQIA+ composers, that are sortable by grade level, length, and have links to perusal scores and YouTube videos.

A list of pieces by composers who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and additional gender/sexuality minorities) community and who have written works for band. This is a working document and resource for conductors, educators, performers, and scholars interested in the music of LGBTQ+ band composers.

The Wind Repertory Project™ is a comprehensive database of wind literature, expanded by contributions of band directors/conductors, students, and wind band enthusiasts worldwide. Here you will find detailed information on literature for winds, including program notes, instrumentation, errata, and much more.

The following spreadsheet is a working list of the non-idiomatic choral music of black composers. In no way is it meant to be an exhaustive list. However, it serves to provide a starting point. Regular updates will be made.

An introduction to and survey of repertoire by composers of color and native-born South American composers from Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia from 1600 to 1800, with an emphasis on villancicos, cantatas, and other works for voices and chamber ensemble. Discussion topics include African and native influences, programming ideas, and sourcing of scores and performance materials.

For many reasons—popularity, accessibility, and resources among others—professional orchestras get a lot of attention when it comes to diversity in programming. This page contains data analysis of American orchestras in regard to programming works by composers from underrepresented groups. Only “mainstage” orchestral concerts are incorporated into these analyses and the emphasis is placed on the percentage of the total season rather than the raw number of works. Different works are counted separately and while we will annotate when more than one orchestra performs the same piece, we won’t be counting multiple performances of a work by the same orchestra. Finally, while the data does not include any works by non-binary composers as of yet, we look forward to providing positive data on that front in the future.