About Listening to Ladies

Listening to Ladies is a podcast which first aired on September 26th, 2016. The episodes feature excerpts from interviews with composers who are women, interwoven with samples of their work. Interviewees include established, emerging and under-recognized composers from the USA, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Iran, Scotland, England, and Australia.

Each interview covers two main themes: the composer's experience of being a woman in this field, and the composer's music & aesthetics.



(LtL was also previously overseeing a concert series which is now proceeding under the umbrella of Compass New Music.)

Why the focus on women composers?

Two brief stats which paint the situation nicely:

In the fall/winter of 2016, the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC featured an opera composed by a woman for the first time since 1903 .

During the 2015-16 season, the top 89 symphony orchestras in the USA dedicated just 2% of their programs to music composed by women.

The classical music composition world falls far behind other art worlds in the area of gender equity. This initiative is one of many steps necessary to move toward that equity.

Recent mentions of this issue in the news:

Forbes 3/22/18: This Musician Is Dedicated to Gender Equity in Her Male-Dominated Field

BBC 2/26/18: BBC Proms to Give Half of New Commissions to Women by 2022

NYTimes 2/9/18: Welcoming a Black Female Composer Into the Canon. Finally.

Huffington Post 1/24/18: Are We Writing Great Female Composers Out of History?

The Washington Post 11/3/17: Female composers are making great strides. The classical music world isn't helping them.

The New Yorker 10/16/17: The Met and the Philharmonic Look Backward

NPR 5/1/17: Don’t Hire Me, Hire a Female Composer Instead

NPR 5/1/17: Women Are Great Composers Too, Why Aren't They Being Heard?

NPR 5/5/17: Looking for Women’s Music at the Symphony? Good Luck!

The Guardian 3/6/17: We Need More Women Composers, And It's Not About Tokenism, It's About Talent

LtL in the MEDIA

The podcast was featured in Ontario-based music magazine WholeNote in a list of the top six podcasts they are listening to this summer: