March 12th, 2024 • Music Education
5 Female Musicians in History
Women have contributed to classical music since before the Middle Ages, but only in recent decades have they received the recognition they deserved. In celebration of Women’s History Month, here are five female musicians who have inspired the next generation of women through performance, composition, education and more!
Women’s History Month – Spotify Playlist
Nadia Boulanger (September 16, 1887-October 22, 1979)
Becoming one of the most notable pedagogues of the 20th century, Nadia Boulanger would instruct many famous musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Grażyna Bacewicz, Philip Glass and Quincy Jones. Even though she won awards and received praise for her compositions, she would give up composing following the death of her sister Lili, the first female composer to win the coveted Prix de Rome musical competition. An accomplished conductor, she was the first woman to conduct many major ensembles including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Gabriela Ortiz (December 20, 1964-)
Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz began guitar and piano at nine years old. In addition to the instruction she received from her folk musician parents, she would later go on to study at the National School of Music at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Her musical works combine folk, jazz and avant-garde styles. In addition to winning a variety of competitions, she has won many awards for her work including Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. Ortiz was named the Composer’s Chair for Carnegie Hall’s 2024-2025 season, following in the footsteps of first-ever chair Ellen Taafee Zwilich mentioned later in this blog.
Jennifer Higdon (December 31, 1962-)
Jennifer Higdon began flute at age 15 and started her composing career at the age of 21. She has composed works for choral, operatic, orchestral and chamber ensembles, receiving commissions from The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra and the President’s Own Marine Band. Higdon has won three GRAMMYs and a Pulitzer Prize for her work. Her “Percussion Concerto” was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 2019. As a gay woman, she has become a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ rights within classical music.
Joy Harjo (May 9, 1951-)
Poet, musician and writer Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Her education includes a BA from the University of New Mexico in creative writing and a MFA from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She became the first American Indian to serve as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate. Harjo is an inductee of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the National Native American Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her talents as a singer, saxophonist and flutist are displayed on her award-winning albums.
Ellen Taafee Zwilich (April 30, 1939-)
The composing career of Ellen Taafee Zwilich began at age five when she started piano and began writing her own pieces. By the time she graduated high school, she had also learned to play the violin and trumpet. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University. Zwilich would later earn her doctorate in composition from The Juilliard School, the first woman to do so. With her “Symphony No. 1,” she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983. She was named the first Composer’s Chair of Carnegie Hall and is the current Marie Krafft Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
Sources
- https://www.nadiaboulanger.org/nb/amstudents.html
- https://emf.oicrm.org/nhmf-1913/
- https://www.nycitywoman.com/baton-wielding-women/
- https://www.latitude45arts.com/gabriela-ortiz
- https://www.carnegiehall.org/Events/Highlights/Debs-Composers-Chair/Gabriela-Ortiz
- https://www.sfgmc.org/blog/lgbtq-composers
- https://www.classicalwcrb.org/blog/2022-03-21/jennifer-higdon-and-dreaming-up-musical-worlds?_ga=2.158943100.716866403.1709923818-871850049.1709923818
- http://jenniferhigdon.com/biography.html
- https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/
- https://www.oklahomahof.com/hof/inductees/joy-harjo
- https://www.joyharjo.com/about
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130729204853/http://www.florida-arts.org:80/programs/ahf/displayArtist.cfm?member=37
- https://www.zwilich.com/#about
- https://music.fsu.edu/person/ellen-taffe-zwillich/
