In summer 2021 the Local 4 Music Fund will launch an annual concert series highlighting historically underrepresented female (with a focus on regional) living composers. This concert series will be presented by a diverse group of performers in three concerts June 25th-27th 2021, and is in collaboration with the Cleveland Composers Guild and supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Music Performance Trust Fund, the Bascom Little Fund, and the Sweeney Group. 

 

When the Institute for Composer Diversity analyzed the 2019-20 seasons of 120 American orchestras, it found that just eight percent of all pieces performed were composed by women. of performances of works According to that 2019 study from the Institute for Composer Diversity, just sixteen percent of all pieces performed that year were by living composers. 

 

It is the Music Fund's hope that this concert series serves not only as an occasion for recognition and celebration, but also as an opportunity to remind ourselves of the urgent need to redouble our efforts towards closing the chasm of opportunity and representation that separates women from men. As composer Muhammed Fairouz has stated, 'This is a problem that must be viewed within a wider issue of diversification in concert music. Our performance series and concert halls are training grounds for empathy. The more opportunities for music written by female composers to be performed and allowed to speak to an audience, the harder it is for people to objectify or dehumanize the creators of the works that speak to their hearts.' Changes need to be made, and we feel that the change should begin with us. 

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