Women transforming classical music is a free course aimed at helping individual performers, ensembles and organisations within the classical music industry to diversify their repertoire by including more works by women composers.
The 6-week course invites learners to reflect on their own practice before considering the male-dominated nature of the contemporary classical music industry and how to support positive change by programming more women. It offers practical advice on how to curate diverse programmes, seeking funding, building audience engagement, and getting performers on board.
The course goes into depth on programming works by both historical and contemporary women composers, covering where to find scores and resources, creating performance editions, promoting and working with living women composers, and commissioning new music.
Learners are invited to bring all of their learning together by building their own practical toolkit to help them start to diversify their own repertoire and also to consider how to build inclusive musical practices more broadly.
The course is illustrated throughout by interviews with industry experts who are all leaders in the field of championing the music of women composers.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand the male-dominated nature of the contemporary classical music industry and what can be done to challenge this
- be aware of how to diversify personal repertoire by including more works by women composers, including curating programmes, securing funding and building audience engagement
- understand how to programme more works by historical women composers, including where to find resources and how to prepare performance editions
- be aware of how to promote contemporary women composers, including commissioning new works
- consider how to build inclusive music practices more broadly, including thinking about how to diversify personal repertoire beyond including more works by women composers.
First Published: 04/06/2025
Updated: 04/06/2025