Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, an intellectually probing artist who fused sound and spirituality, died Thursday at her home in Appen, Germany. She was 93 years old.

Her death was confirmed by her publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, who called Gubaidulina "the grande dame of new music."

One of the first modern women composers to reach international acclaim, Gubaidulina's singular style was often large in scope, both musically and philosophically, yet intimate in the painterly details she conjured from an orchestra.

In 2021, to mark her 90th birthday, conductor Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig released an album containing three huge symphonic pieces each with deeply metaphysical underpinnings. Gramophone magazine called it "One of the most remarkable musical and spiritual journeys ever conceived, by a composer whose personal modesty would never lead you guess that she commands the forces of the Apocalypse." One of the works on the album, The Wrath of God, opens with a horde of snarling tubas and ends with a wink and a rhythmic nod to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

"I think she's one of the great living legends," Nelsons told NPR in 2022. "When we perform any music, we are looking for what is between the notes and we go, 'What does the music reflect, what character, or what feeling or what state of mind?' With her music, it's very emotionally charged and full of these metaphoric and universal ideas, which immediately affect the audience. It's always so wonderful to see that."

In a 2017 interview with the BBVA Foundation, Gubaidulina talked about the power of music in sweeping terms. "The art of music is consistent with the task of expanding the higher dimension of our lives," she said. A deeply religious artist, she once described her writing process as speaking with God.

Sofia Gubaidulina was born on Oct. 24, 1931, in Christopol, in the rural Tatar region of the Soviet Union, 600 miles east of Moscow. Her family was poor, and she recalled a bleak existence as a child playing in a yard without grass for a 1990 BBC documentary. "Suddenly the child's imagination turned to the sky," she said. "I sat in that bare yard, with a rubbish dump in the middle, nothing else for a child's ideas. I looked up at the sky, and I began to live up there."

She also began to live within the sounds of the piano. When Gubaidulina began music school, a piano was delivered to her home. "In purely acoustic terms it was heavenly," she remembered. "You could sit underneath and hear unusual sounds. You could play directly on the strings, or the keyboard. There were so many possibilities." In her 2017 interview, she admitted "That was the impulse that inspired me to devote my life to music and art. I wanted to shape sound matter."

Gubaidulina's formal studies, in piano and composition, began at the conservatory in the region's capital city of Kazan, where she graduated in 1954. She enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory and in 1959 met the revered composer Dmitri Shostakovich who gave the young Gubaidulina key advice, boosting her confidence. After hearing her perform a piano reduction of the symphony she'd written for her final exam, the elder composer told her, "My wish for you is that you should continue on your own incorrect path." In other words, do not compromise your vision.

Gubaidulina's path proved to be one of trials and triumphs. In 1973, a stranger attempted to strangle her in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. A KGB agent was suspected, and yet Gubaidulina scared off the attacker when she asked him why he was taking so long to kill her. In 1979, her music, along with that of six colleagues, was officially denounced as "noisy mud" by the very Soviet Composers' Union Gubaidulina joined in 1961.

Like Shostakovich, Gubaidulina composed a variety of film scores to earn a living during the Soviet era, including one for the 1973 animated feature, Adventures of Mowgli, based on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Also beginning in the 1970s, Gubaidulina was active as a co-founding member of the improvisation group Astrea, where she could focus on the Asian roots of her family tree. "On my father's side I'm a Tatar and on my mother's side I am Slavic," she told the BBC, adding, "I discovered that playing Eastern instruments allows you to understand more about yourself."

One of the first works to capture the attention of Western audiences was Offertorium, her first violin concerto, premiered by Gidon Kremer in 1981. Based on a theme from Bach's Musical Offering, the musical kernel is meticulously dissected, expanded and completely reconstructed. She wrote two more violin concertos – In Tempus Praesens for Anne-Sophie Mutter in 2007, and Dialogue: I and You for Vadim Repin in 2018.

"In tempus praesens holds a very special place in my heart because it's music of such emotional depth and such incredible compositorial noblesse and skill," Mutter said in a 2010 New York Philharmonic video. She added that the work is extremely demanding for the orchestra, including the percussion section. "We have this incredible gong, when hit you need two percussionists to lean against it, to dim it down. It's as if the Earth is opening up. And this is used several times in the score to finish a musical thought and to signal a new musical idea coming."

Mstislav Rostropovich and conductor Simon Rattle also received pieces from Gubaidulina. Her Symphony in 12 Movements (Stimmen ...Verstummen), for conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky in 1986, harnesses the full potential of a large symphony orchestra in its fleeting moments of sound clusters and chaotic turbulence. Yet it includes a brief, nearly silent passage for a conductor "solo," where hand gestures are diagrammed and, in performance, looks like a cross between semaphore and the lyrical arm motions of Asian dance.

For her music, Gubaidulina took inspiration from a broad range of sources. While Asian and Western philosophy played a large role, she has adapted ancient Egyptian and Persian poetry, and has cited other composers as major influences even though her music stands as completely her own. "My spiritual nourishment came from German culture," she recalled to the BBC. "Goethe, Hegel, Novalis. Bach, Webern, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. There was such a diversity of origins inside me."

Valentina Kholopova, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory who published a biography of the composer in 2020, told NPR in 2022 that the strength of Gubaidulina's music lives in it's all-encompassing objectives. "It is distinguished by the seriousness and the significance of its musical ideas – about the entire world, about all people, about their destiny and history," she said. "And this requires significant amplitude on the part of her compositions."

Gradually Gubaidulina's music became more overtly spiritual. While her paternal grandfather was a mullah who translated the Koran, her parents were dutifully non-religious. When she was five, she visited a woman who displayed an icon of Christ in her home. Gubaidulina said she recognized God at that moment and the experience remained with her. "Somehow music merged naturally with religion," she said, "and sound became sacred to me." In 2000, as a commission to celebrate the millennium, Gubaidulina composed her St. John Passion, a mammoth oratorio for chorus and orchestra which premiered in Stuttgart, Germany.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Gubaidulina made her home in Appen, a rural village near the outskirts of Hamburg, Germany, where the silence of the surrounding woods helped her focus on fulfilling her many commissions.

In 2019, Nelsons invited Gubaidulina to serve as composer in residence at Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra. While her music tended toward the serious, Nelsons said there were sparks of humor not only within the compositions but also in her personality.

"She's very intellectual, but also emotional — and she's balancing with herself," he said. "And then I think that the sense of humor is a very fine line. I mean if you hear double bass and contra-bassoon, it normally associates with humor. But she manages to use those instruments both with the feeling of humor, but also with a very serious and dangerous feeling."

Gubaidulina earned over 40 awards and prizes, including honorary doctorates from Beijing Conservatory, University of Chicago, Yale University and Kyiv Music Academy. Her prizes included the Rome International Composer's Competition in 1974, Japan's Praemium Imperiale in 1998 and Spain's BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge award in 2017.

After winning the latter award, when Gubaidulina was asked in what sense her music might advance the frontiers of knowledge, she said: "The art of music is capable of touching and approaching mysteries and laws existing in the cosmos and in the world."

"In the end, that's what the world of music and the mission of music is," Nelsons said. "To bring us in this world of emotions and a world of fantasy and the world of spirituality and the universe, and that's what she does with her music."

Copyright 2025, NPR

The National Lutheran Choir, with artistic director Jennaya Robison, presents New Day: A Choral Anthem for a New Era, a special featuring Jocelyn Hagen’s acclaimed work Here I Am, performed with chamber orchestra, members of the Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs and Treble Singers, and Grammy-winning soprano and soloist Sarah Brailey. Hagen’s work seeks the feminine, bringing to light the love and power God has bestowed on women throughout history and in our lives today. The piece is paired with movements from Dixit Dominus, by Mariana von Martines, a brilliant, Classical-era composer. Listen now with host Steve Staruch.

March 8 is International Women's Day, and YourClassical MPR and YourClassical Radio are celebrating with an entire day devoted to women in classical music. Every piece on the day's playlist prominently features a woman composer, conductor or soloist.

Our hosts will share the stories of women who overcame monumental prejudice in their own time to the remarkable women of today who are writing exciting new works, leading ensembles and redefining the genre.

Tuesday’s programming is one part of an entire month that our classical programming team is devoting to women in classical music for Women's History Month. Although we are always committed, year-round, to gender diversity on our playlists, we are being extra intentional this month about highlighting the important role women have played in writing and performing classical music.

Later this month, you'll have the chance to hear the voices of women in our department sharing stories of groundbreaking women throughout music history in a series of short features called "Distinguished Rebels: Women Who Made a Difference in Classical Music." And all month long at YourClassical, the Women's History Month stream is running with 75 hours of amazing content on demand.

We hope you can listen, even if only for a few moments, and let us know what you think. I'm confident you'll find the day's music and its presentation lively, engaging and eye-opening.

Composers use their imagination to bring stories to life through music. Join host, Liz Lyon, and producer, Melanie Renate as they explore the beautiful music of flutist and composer Valerie Coleman and hear her ensemble, Imani Winds.

Episode 57 playlist

Valerie Coleman: Silver Rain — When she was young, Valerie would play outside and imagine that sticks were flutes before she practiced and became a flutist and composer.

LISTEN — Valerie Coleman: Silver Rain

Valerie Coleman: Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit — Valerie often brings her heritage into her music. This piece was inspired by an African American spiritual.

LISTEN — Valerie Coleman: Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit

Valerie Coleman: Umoja — Umoja is Kiswahili for the word 'Unity'. This piece is performed by Valerie’s ensemble, Imani Winds.

LISTEN — Valerie Coleman: Umoja

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March is Women's History Month, a time to highlight and honor the achievements of women. There are many women composers, performers and conductors who have shaped the face of classical music, a genre that is constantly evolving and changing. Here are 10 contemporary composers to add to your listening rotation.

Gabriela Lena Frank

Gabriela Lena Frank is a multifaceted composer and pianist who serves as composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She takes a storytelling approach to her music, encouraging listeners to read her program notes to enhance the experience of her work. She has received many accolades and awards, including the 25th anniversary Heinz Award, awarded for her work breaking gender, disability and cultural barriers in the classical music industry. In 2017, she founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in California, with a mission of creativity, arts citizenship and activism.

LISTEN: Gabriela Lena Frank — Canto De Velorio

Jessie Montgomery

New York City native Jessie Montgomery has received recognition for her compositions and a firm place in the millennial generation of American composers. From songs to full orchestral pieces, her work has been commissioned by the Sphinx Organization, the National Symphony and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others. Her work is shaped by her upbringing in a community that allowed for artistic expression with a focus on social justice, as well as her heritage as a Black woman. An active violinist performer and educator, she has performed with Sphinx Virtuosi, Catalyst Quartet and is a founding member of PUBLIquartet.

LISTEN: Jessie Montgomery — Strum

Angélica Negrón

Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón stretches the boundaries of classical music by incorporating electronics, visual effects and nontraditional instruments into her compositions and performances. In addition to fulfilling commissions and performing, she also teaches for the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program, nurturing the next generation of aspiring composers. Her ability to create immersive soundscapes is shown in her film scores, which have been featured in the Tribeca Film Festival.

LISTEN: Angélica Negrón — Pescadores

Hildur Guðnadóttir

Hildur Guðnadóttir made history as the first woman to win an Oscar for original score in almost 20 years, for Joker — and one of three women to achieve this accolade. She also was the first solo female composer to win the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best score. An accomplished cellist who was raised in Iceland in a family of musicians, she also has released solo recordings and toured with bands.

LISTEN: Hildur Guðnadóttir — Bathroom Dance from 'The Joker'

Caroline Shaw

Caroline Shaw is an accomplished composer, musician and producer who made waves after becoming the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 with her Partita for 8 Voices. Her work transcends genres, as she has production credits on albums by Kanye West and NAS alongside commissioned pieces for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other major orchestras. Her work combines the structural integrity of classical forms with the whimsy and playfulness of reinvention that will keep you on your toes.

LISTEN: Caroline Shaw — Plan & Elevation V. The Beech Tree

Sarah Kirkland Snider

Sarah Kirkland Snider's work has led to her being touted as "one of the decade's most gifted up-and-coming modern classical composers" by Pitchfork. Her music invokes storytelling in a confident and sophisticated way, creating imagery that you can't help but see when hearing her pieces. From yMusic to eighth blackbird to the New York Philharmonic, her music has been performed by orchestral and chamber ensembles around the world.

LISTEN: Sarah Kirkland Snider — Nausicaa

Shruthi Rajasekar

Indian-American composer and vocalist Shruthi Rajasekar's work proves her place as a rising star in the classical music world. She has received international acclaim for her compositions that combine her expertise in Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical styles to create work that is complex, yet heartfelt and genuine. From grappling with the concept of community and identity to political commentary on the state of our world, Shruthi's work doesn't shy away from any one topic, instead facing concepts head-on.

LISTEN: Shruthi Rajasekar — Numbers

Chen Yi

Violinist and composer Chen Yi was born in the 1950s in Guangzhou, China, and was the first woman to receive a master's degree in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She has lived in the United States for many years, teaching composition and composing music with a unique blend of Chinese and Western influences. Her music is performed all over the world and she has received many awards in both China and the United States.

LISTEN: Chen Yi — Symphony "Humen 1839" III. Adagio tragico

Anna Meredith

Scottish composer and performer Anna Meredith emerged on the British avant-garde classical music scene in 2008 with her piece froms on the BBC's Last Night of the Proms broadcast. In addition to her work with orchestras (including holding composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) and other classical music ensembles, she also has branched out into electronic music and released studio albums. In 2016, her debut album, Varmints, won the Scottish Album of the Year Award and in 2020 she was on the shortlist for the prestigious Mercury Prize for her second studio album.

LISTEN: Anna Meredith — Nautilus

Mari Esabel Valverde

Award-winning composer and singer Mari Esabel Valverde is a rising star in the American choral scene and is highly sought after by ensembles around the country. One of her greatest achievements was when her piece Our Phoenix premiered in 2016 at the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses Festival. Fluent in Spanish and French and a student of Brazilian Portuguese and Swedish, she also does vocal music translation work. A former voice teacher for high school students, she teaches singing and voice training for transgender voices through TruVoice lessons.

Hear Mari Esabel Valverde's music on her Soundcloud.

Are you looking to add even more contemporary female composers to your listening rotation? Follow our playlist highlighting more music you'll love.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday at 87, will be remembered for her fight for women's rights and her 27-year reign on the U.S. Supreme Court. Her status as a pop-culture icon included a hit documentary, Saturday Night Live skits and even merchandising.

But her profound love of opera also came through in many tributes upon news of her death — as many colleagues, foes and, yes, opera organizations posted on Twitter.

"I saw my first opera when I was 11," the LA Opera quoted Ginsburg as saying in its tweet with a video clip. "I loved the combination of glorious [music] and high drama."

The opera company added, "We hope you rest in peace listening to beautiful music, Justice Ginsberg. #RIPRBG"

Here is that tweet and select others:

Earlier this year, Bader told Sirius XM that her love for opera began in 1944.

"My aunt — who taught English in a middle school in Brooklyn, New York — took me to a high school where there was an abbreviated performance of [Amilcare Ponchielli's] La Gioconda," she said. "I was just blown away by it. I'd never heard such glorious music."

In a follow-up special for Pandora, she spun selections from some of her favorite operas, including Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and La Boheme, Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, and Giuseppe Verdi's La Forza del Destino.

"I tend to be consumed by my work. … I'm thinking about it when I go to sleep," she said. "But when I go to the opera, I leave all the briefs on the shelf and just enjoy the great performances."

She even found herself at the center of her favorite art form in 2015, when American composer Derrick Wang created the comic opera Scalia/Ginsburg to portray the complex relationship between her High Court opposite and close friend Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016.

But her crowning artistic achievement surely came in November 2016, when she took the stage in the Washington National Opera's production of Gaetano Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment. She appeared as the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking comedic role that included some of Ginsburg's own lines.

Anne Midgette of the Washington Post (as colleague Jay Gabler noted then in his review) described the scene:

The audience "roared with love at the curtain call, which she took after all the other performers, dropping, as she did so, a most elegant little curtsy."

Rest in peace, Justice Ginsburg.

"I was like, 'Hey, I'm getting ready to take the leap,' " Jones says. "And she was like, 'Oh, cool. Here's my email -- let's keep in touch.' "

Now, Jones has become the first African American woman to nab an Emmy nomination for original television score. Her road to success on the Apple TV+ series Home began with Waithe deciding to take a chance on her.

At the time, Waithe -- creator of Showtime's The Chi, screenwriter of the film Queen & Slim and the first Black woman to win an Emmy for writing on comedy series -- was developing a semi-autobiographical series about a queer Black woman trying to break into Hollywood. Even though Jones only had a handful of indie credits at the time, Waithe invited her to score the project, which became the show Twenties.

"I love giving someone their first opportunity," Waithe says. "Is there a risk? Sure. But I just think the reward is so much better. Even if that person falls flat on their face, I'd rather have given that person an opportunity, and then they learn from that fall, than not."

Jones was prepared: Having grown up in Jeffersonton, Va., with a Motown-obsessed father, she was already an experienced singer, songwriter and guitarist. "I remember it was The Temptations' 'My Girl' -- that guitar line," she says. "When I was four or five, just hearing that was when I first fell in love with the guitar."

Jones played guitar in her church band as a teenager, then went off to Vassar College to become a chemist -- but the call of music was too strong. She switched her major to composition, and after graduating she formed a band, The Anti-Job, and moved to Los Angeles, where she tried to keep her expenses low.

"I didn't have a car. I still don't have a car," Jones says. "We always tried to make sure we either broke even on tour, or just made a little bit more.We'd also play breweries or wineries, which actually pay really well, but they're just not as cool."

Seeking a little more stability, Jones became an assistant at the studios of film composers like Hans Zimmer. That led to a job as a music coordinator at Lionsgate Television, all of which made Jones believe she had what it took to compose for film and TV.

"It's a given that you're excellent at your craft," she says. "So, 'Are you cool?' is basically the question -- that's not asked, you know, deliberately, but that's what they're trying to figure out."

As it turned out, Jones was cool enough to score for Robin Thede's A Black Lady Sketch Show on HBO, spoofing genres from rom-coms to sitcoms to spy thrillers. That led to working for Ava DuVernay on the OWN program Cherish the Day. Then, finally, came Home, which earned Jones her nomination at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards, airing Sept. 20.

Even though she's only been scoring full-time for less than two years, Jones is already helping others. As a co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, she connects producers and studios with underrepresented composers -- generating even more new energy and talent.

Steve Seel celebrates Women's Equality Day with a program of all female composers this time out. From Valerie Coleman's "For Josephine" honoring Josephine Baker to a work by Dobrinka Tabakova saluting the ordination of women to the Anglican priesthood, it's two hours celebrating the strides that women have made in composing in the last several decades. Steve also features works by Anna Clyne, Elena Ruehr, and many others.

Women's Equality Day commemorates the date on which the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was adopted — Aug. 26, 1920. The amendment says this: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Although American women won the vote 100 years ago, that right did not at first extend to all women, and you'll hear more about that in Bread and Roses. And though the 19th Amendment finally passed in 1920, it was first introduced in 1878, beginning a long struggle. There's music in this special that reflects those early years of the women's movement and music by some of the most powerful, diverse and committed women in classical music across the past 100 years.

The title of the special comes from a quote by Helen Todd, one of the first campaigners for women's suffrage, who explained the goals of the early women's movement this way:

Woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice.

Since winning the right to vote, women have continued to fight for equality in all things. Women in classical music have continued to fight for recognition, education and support from fellow musicians and performing organizations.

In Bread and Roses, you'll hear from conductors Marin Alsop and Joann Falletta and composers Valerie Coleman and Caroline Shaw, sharing their feelings about the limitations that still hold women back, and their advice for women seeking a career in classical music. The music in this program will assure you that women in music have a great deal to say, and many ways to say it.

Playlist

• Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 — Colorado Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop
• Mimi Farina/James Oppenheim: Bread and Roses — The King Singers
• Amy Beach: Romance — Rachel Barton Pine, violin/Matthew Hagle, piano
• Ethel Smyth: March of the Women — Plymouth Music Series/Philip Brunelle
• Florence Price: Symphony No. 1, mvt. 3 — Fort Smith Symphony/John Jeter
• Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King: IX: Alleluia — Laquita Mitchell, soprano/Lucia Bradford/mezzo-soprano/Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra/Malcolm J Merriweather
• Trad. Arr Florence Price: My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord — Marian Anderson, contralto/Franz Rupp, piano
• Missy Mazzoli: Song from the Uproar: I Have Arrived — Abagail Fischer/Mezzo/Now Ensemble
• Jennifer Higdon: Amazing Grace — Serafin String Quartet
• Libby Larsen: Symphony No. 1 "Water Music", Mvt 2 "Hot, Still" — Minnesota Orchestra/Sir Neville Marriner
• Caroline Shaw: Partita: Sarabande — Roomful of Teeth
• Valerie Coleman: Umoja — Imani Winds
• Gabriela Lena Frank: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout — Coqueteos — Chiara String Quartet
• Mimi Farina/James Oppenheim: Bread and Roses — The King Singers

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke performed in Duluth as a part of Matinee Musicale's 2013 season. Listen to her recital featuring works by Poulenc, Ravel, Copland and more.

Program

Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Pei-Yao Wang, piano

• Hugo Wolf: Mörlke-Lieder
• Francis Poulenc: 5 Poems of Max Jacob
• Maurice Ravel: Shéhérazade
• Felix Mendelssohn: Der Mond; Frage: Ist es wahr?; And'res Maienlied
• George Crumb: 3 Early Songs
• Aaron Copland: Old American Songs

Read the original program

Performance Today celebrates Women's History Month by honoring the women who have made a lasting impact on classical music and those who love music. We invited listeners to nominate a living woman who has inspired you. The PT staff reviewed your nominations and made a unanimous decision about the honoree. And the winner is...

Valerie Coleman

Her work as an instrumentalist alone would be enough to win. She's an extraordinary flutist with wide-ranging interests and talents. Coleman is the founder and was a 20-year member of the groundbreaking Imani Winds ensemble. Her unflagging devotion to teaching and mentorship might be enough, as hundreds of up-and-coming musicians are fueled by her generous perspective and inspiration. To add to that, she is now channeling her immense creativity into composition, with works that speak in her own compelling voice. That would be enough. Our choice was clear. We are proud to name Valerie Coleman the Performance Today 2020 Classical Woman of the Year.

Notable Nominees

Rachel Barton Pine

"Rachel Barton Pine should be the Woman of the Year. Her range of musical talent is unsurpassed today from Bach to rock. Her foundation for musical education is unparalleled in its impact on young musicians. No venue is too large or too small for her to perform. I've heard her with large symphonies and in very small venues with perhaps only 50 people in attendance."-Charles Wilt

Aimee Beckmann-Collier

"Dr. Beckmann-Collier, or Dr. ABC, as she's affectionately known, is one of the most intelligent, inspiring, and gracious musicians I have ever met. As the former Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Music at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, she continues to be the most significant teacher I've ever had. I, myself, am a music teacher, and I take every single day in my classroom as a opportunity to be more like her. Aimee is the most inspiring musician, man or woman, I know." - Elizabeth White

Nicola Benedetti

"Nicola Benedetti is not just a captivating musician, but is also an outstanding advocate for classical music across all generations. She has contributed in many ways to music education through lessons, workshops, and YouTube videos. She has also helped many children to become involved in and engage in music. She is incredibly inspiring as a musician, and as a classical music advocate. She sparked my interest as a child, and I'm sure many other musicians have been inspired by her passion too." - Beth McLean

Jennifer Higdon

"I nominate composer Jennifer Higdon. Love everything I have heard from her, in fact when I was first introduced to her by Fred Child, I had to stop what I was doing, get in a prone position on the floor & listen with my whole body." - Dianne Berman

Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr

"American virtuoso clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr feverishly helped create a phenomenally immense new repertoire for a previously ignored chamber group combination: violin, clarinet, and piano for the last 4 decades. She commissioned hundreds of composers and trained most of today's leading clarinetists during her 4 decades as Professor of Clarinet at Michigan State University. In fact, MSU became a famous clarinet destination because of her brilliant pedagogy and mentorship genius."- Michele Gringas

Gail Williams

"Gail Williams is a force to be reckoned with both in the musical platform and in the classroom. As a former colleague of hers at Bienen School of Music, I've seen her students really shine and grow tremendously. Gail is humble yet strong - she voices her opinion when someone needs to speak up especially defending beliefs and/or students. She is the ideal classical woman - strong and caring, outspoken and an amazing teacher/coach, talented with high expectations of all." - Donna Su

Classical Woman of the Year 2019

Read more about previous winner JoAnn Falletta

Sept. 13 marks the 200th anniversary of composer, pianist and musical muse Clara Schumann. Compared with her husband, Robert Schumann, Clara hasn't received the same amount of recognition. Learn more about why she helped shape the face of classical music, and how contemporary artists mirror certain aspects of her life.

Child prodigy

Clara Schumann made her professional debut as a pianist at 9, setting off on a tour across Europe just four years later. Contemporary pianist Martha Argerich shares Schumann's standing as a child prodigy, making her debut at age 8 before starting a lifelong performance career.

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Child Prodigy

Entrepreneur

Along with performing, Clara was an esteemed teacher and composer. She also was a muse to her husband, Robert, premiering and proofing many of his works. Contemporary harpist Yolanda Kondonassis also shows her entrepreneurial spirit through teaching, composing, and starting a nonprofit called Earth at Heart.

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Entrepreneur

Superstar

If anyone could be called a "superstar" in the 19th century, it was Schumann. Hordes of fans would crowd to see her perform, and she would easily sell out concert halls. Beyoncé is an equivalent in terms of stardom — she can sell out stadiums and is the most nominated woman in Grammy history.

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Superstar

Supermom

On top of touring, composing and teaching, Schumann was raising eight children with her husband, Robert. She even became the main breadwinner for the family when an injury prevented him from performing. Soprano Renee Fleming also showcases her supermom capacity, continuing to perform at the Metropolitan Opera during and immediately following her pregnancies.

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Supermom

Musician of the highest order

Why was Schumann so highly regarded? Critics and fans alike noted not only her technique, but her zest and passion for what she was playing. Contemporary pianist Mitsuko Uchida receives similar praise, with her playing having the "mark of a master" well into her 70s.

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Musician of the Highest Order

To learn more about Clara Schumann, listen to Decomposed, our podcast that breaks down the stories that have shaped classical music, hosted by Jade Simmons.

Be careful, I warned them. Don't cry too hard for Clara. I'm not sure she wants your tears!

There we were crafting her story, positioning Clara Schumann as this fierce prototype, possibly even the patron saint of female classical musicians who were more than worthy of the stage, but would have to fight to get there. We lamented how critics often qualified her music as sounding like a woman wrote it. Even audiences gasped just a little louder because it was virtuoso playing … by a girl. You could almost hear us assuming that Clara was intentionally paving the way for other women to follow in her footsteps. But I was saying, not so fast.

I'm going to spill a dirty, little secret here. It's the secret of the "one and only." Clara Schumann was a "one and only" in her day. Not many women graced public stages as a solo artist as she did. Other female musicians definitely didn't have concert lines wrapped around buildings and cakes named after them. Clara was a rarity … and she knew it. And by the time she understood it, I daresay, she banked on it.

In order to stay rare, the space around you has to stay clear of others who look and move like you do. That's why I say we shouldn't cry too hard for Clara and we shouldn't assume she spent her nonpracticing hours protesting, or even dreaming, on behalf of other female performers. To do that might have meant career suicide. What if there were other little girls who were just as good? Or younger? Or more adorable? Or simply better?

And that's the dirty, little secret. As a fellow "one and only" (a black woman in classical music), you figure out at an unfortunately young age that your status as rarity marks you for all sorts of special attention, all sorts of assumptions, for better and for worse. You have to work hard not to revel in being "the only" so that you can advocate for the others that will ultimately end up proving you're not so rare after all.

At first, you're simply practicing your art. Nobody has pointed out to you that it's unexpected for a black girl to embrace Chopin so fiercely, for her to have Schubert's Unfinished Symphony blaring in her headphones. You won't know that until this happens:

"I expected you to play the Ginastera well, but I'm blown away at how sophisticated your Mozart was!"

That's what the critic said after an eclectic and wide-ranging classical recital I had given. I blinked blankly. He was truly saying my blackness made my incredible rhythm a given. But that same blackness made my delivery of the Mozart extraordinary. Somehow I wasn't supposed to be able to do that, he was saying. And since I could, I got extra points, just as Clara got for doing what she did so instinctively, but most impressively, as a girl.

The points kept coming. For winning a Beethoven competition, I was a "credit to my race," a raving audience member wanted me to know. Just for playing the finale of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as a young, black female, he was saying I was practically a savior. As I got older, I had to be careful because one can start to believe it, that your rare status is one worth protecting.

So you can imagine it's a shock when you, as the big fish, leave your little pond and run smack dab into quite a few, in fact, lots of "one and only's." Many of them are even better than you, possibly even credits to the entire human race! If you're not careful, you'll panic at the competition, instead of revel in the camaraderie. And that will become your dirty, little secret. You'll begin to wish it really was only you.

But if you're smart, you'll get excited that finally you're free to have your art judged on the music you're making and not the rarity that is the fact the you're the one making it. Clara experienced that in the end of our episode especially, and I get to experience it now every time I'm on stage.

In Detroit, at the Sphinx Organization's annual SphinxCon, a gathering devoted to strategizing and celebrating diversity in classical music, specifically in U.S. orchestras, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as the keynote speaker in 2019. For years during my early career, I performed constantly in halls where I could count on a few fingers people who looked like me, and most of the time they were not sharing the stage. But at SphinxCon, I performed for the first time in my life for a room full of "one and only's," a room full of musicians of color who shared my story almost verbatim. They were often big fish, coming from little ponds, tirelessly told their blackness made them special in this world of white music. For the first time, I wouldn't have to explain the stories behind my rap 'Black Beethoven' because they would get it as soon as they heard it, every last line. I smiled at them, they beamed back at me, as if to say, we feel you and we're so glad you're here!

In that moment, I had never been happier not to have been the "one and only."

Nicknamed "Classical Music's No. 1 Maverick," Jade Simmons is the host of the Decomposed podcast. She also is a concert artist, bestselling author and a passionate storyteller with a strong understanding of classical music's roots.

Clara Schumann, the subject of the first episode of our new Decomposed podcast, is among the greatest women composers. But here are 20 other women composers you should know, too.

Be sure to check out the Spotify playlist at the bottom for selections from each composer.

1. Gloria Coates (b. 1938)

This Wisconsin-born composer was called "the greatest woman symphonist" by the New York Times. Her minimalist music pushed the boundaries of the classical sound.
Recommended listening: Symphony No. 4 (Chiaroscuro)

2. Emily Lau (b. 1984)

Emily Lau fuses together ancient and new musics to become what BBC radio calls "haunting" and "emotional." Lau also sings and performs several of her own works.
Recommended Listening: Aydudame

3. L. Viola Kinney (1890-1945)

Lady Viola Kinney was a composer, pianist, and teacher in the American South. Her piano work, Mother's Sacrifice, is the only piece of hers that has been published, but has left a mark on piano repertoire ever since.
Recommended Listening: Mother's Sacrifice

4. Julia Perry (1924-1979)

Perry is considered to be one of the most theoretically significant black composers of the 20th century. Her music is both powerful and highly intellectual and was widely performed in Italy during her lifetime.
Recommended Listening: Short Piece for Orchestra

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Julia Perry

5. Teresa Carreno (1853-1917)

Teresa Carreno is best known for her piano works, but has written in several genres. Beyond composing, she also founded, ran, performed in and conducted her own opera company in her home country of Venezuela.
Recommended Listening: String Quartet in B Minor

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Teresa Carreno

6. Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

Shaw is the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for her music. She also performs with Grammy award winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth.
Recommended Listening: So Quietly

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Caroline Shaw

7. Lady Dean Poldowski (1879-1932)

This Polish composer lived in London. She published music under several names including Regine Wieniawski, Lady Irene Dean Paul, and Madame Poldowski among several others. Poldowski music is haunting and strange, many of her more morbid works inspired by the death of her 2 year old son in in 1904.
Recommended Listening: L'Heure Exquise

8. Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989)

Smith Moore studied at historic Fisk University. Her compositions are strongly rooted in the African American Spiritual tradition.
Recommended Piece: I believe this is Jesus

9. Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)

Bonds grew up in Chicago surrounded by some of the best musicians of the time, including Florence Price and Will Marion Cook. Bonds not only composed a large catalogue of works in all genres, but was an incredible performer. She was the first black soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Recommended Listening: Troubled Water

10. Florence Price (1887-1953)

Price was the first black woman to have an orchestral work performed by a major American orchestra.Her compositions expertly weave together folk and classical influences to create a uniquely American sound.
Recommended Listening: Symphony in E Minor

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Florence Price

11. Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

Crawford Seeger is not only a Guggenheim Fellow in composition, but is also one of the most extensive collectors of American Folk music. Seeger's compositions are amazing experiments in counterpoint and effortlessly mix atonality and classical form.
Recommended Listening: Theme and Variations

12. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)

Ethel Smyth is not only one of England's most renowned opera composers, but she also was an avid supporter of the Suffrage movement. Her compositions were often critiqued for sounding too masculine, but Smyth was never deterred and wrote the very first opera by a female composer to be performed at New York City's Metropolitan Opera.
Recommended Listening: Mass in D

LISTEN — Distinguished Rebels: Ethel Smyth

13. Pauline Viardot (1821-1910)

Though you may know Viardot as a singer who originated several of Rossini's most famous roles, Viardot also composed over 100 pieces. She also wrote several technique books and edited critical editions of Schubert art song.
Recommended Listening: Havanaise

14. Marianna Martinez (1744-1812)

Martinez moved to Austria from Spain as a child. She studied music with Haydn and composed several works in the Baroque Style. She inherited a large estate later in life and held musical soirees that were attended by Haydn and Mozart in addition to starting a singing school.
Recommended Listening: Overture in C Major

15. Dawn Avery (Birth Year Unavailable)

Avery is a composer, cellist, and vocalist who focuses on blending contemporary and classical music into a totally unique sound. Much of her work is inspired by her Mohawk heritage.
Recommended Listening: Wakan Tanka (Buffalo)

16. Laura Pettigrew (b. 1954)

This Canadian composer and Flautist has had works premiered by the Toronto Symphony. Her music is Inspired by historical events, people, landscape, mythology and literature.
Recommended Listening: Dance of Life

17. Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958)

Wallen is considered to be the "Renaissance woman of contemporary British music." Not only a respected classical composer, Wallen is also a highly successful singer songwriter. Her work ha appeared alongside that of Bjork and Meredith Monk.
Recommended Listening: Mighty River

18. Jocelyn Morlock (b. 1969)

This Canadian composer has a post modernist style that pushes the boundaries of tonality. She is currently the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Composer in Residence.
Recommended Listening: Aeromancy

19. Ruth Schonthal (1924-2006)

Schonthal was born in Germany but was forced to flee during WWII. Her piano compositions are expressionist in nature and she studied under Paul Hindemith.
Recommended Listening: Fragments From a Woman's Diary

20. Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001)

Derbyshire was a pioneer of electronic music. Her work with BBC's Radiophonic Workshop produced some of the most iconic sounds of the 60s, including the theme song for the television show Doctor Who.
Recommended Listening: Homunculus

 

Siriana Lundgren is a senior at St. Olaf College where she studies Vocal Performance and Women's and Gender Studies. She is passionate about highlighting hidden histories, especially those of marginalized populations. She writes and produces the Da Capo podcast for Music Theory Examples by Women and she also created and currently operates the Music that Built the West, a digital exhibit on American Frontier Music. She recently mapped the life of composer Darius Milhaud and presented on this research at the American Musicological Society Midwest Chapter 2017 Fall Meeting. Additionally, she has investigated Parisian salons of La Belle Époque and Les Années Folles and opera buffa of the early 19th century. She hopes to pursue graduate school in musicology with a focus on frontier music and public feminist musicology. While not researching, Siriana sings opera, and while not singing, she can likely be found watching Star Trek.

In the 1990s, Deborah Borda became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. Now, she's back as president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic. In just a few months, she's already helped the orchestra raise $50 million. She is a true visionary and one of the most successful arts leaders in the country.

By the time she was 10, Sarah Caldwell, a true violin prodigy, was already used to performing in front of a crowd. Forty-two years later, in 1976, she made history when she became the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, leading a production of Verdi's La Traviata, which starred the great Beverly Sills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiUcbQe2byU

Current classical star Rachel Barton Pine has modeled her career and every thing she does after another great violinist: Maud Powell.

Powell, who died in 1920, was the first instrumental recording star of the Victor Talking Machine Co. She became the first female instrumentalist of any instrument for any genre to receive a Grammy lifetime achievement award, but not until 2014.

Legendary producer Quincy Jones recently said he owes everything he is as a musician to his early studies in Paris under Nadia Boulanger.

Boulanger was an influential teacher and the first woman to grace the podium of several major orchestras.

When asked in 1938 how it felt to be the first female conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she responded: "I've been a woman for a little more than 50 years, and I've gotten over my original astonishment."

Trumpeter Mary Bowden is the founder of Seraph Brass, an all-female brass ensemble. Seraph Brass promotes the message that "women have a voice in the brass community," she says. "And even more important is the fact that we are role models to younger musicians."

Amy Beach was the first American woman to succeed as a composer writing large-scale musical works.

The Boston Symphony premiered her Gaelic Symphony, which you can hear in the player above, in 1896.

It was the first large orchestral work composed by a woman to be performed by an American Orchestra.

12th-century composer, theologian, writer and visionary Hildegard von Bingen spent most of her life in an isolated, hilltop monastery. She didn't start writing music until she was 38, and she set her own beautiful verses to music, the only 12th-century composer to do so. Her lush, romantic images of gardens and flowers and jewels stimulate the imagination, even today.

Conductor JoAnn Falletta was appointed music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic in 1993 — the first female conductor to lead a major American ensemble. The Buffalo Philharmonic is now one of the most recorded orchestras in the United States. Falletta is regularly invited to guest conduct orchestras all over the world, and has premiered more than 100 new works.

Fanny Mendelssohn was just as talented as her younger brother. In fact, Felix was the first to admit that she played the piano better than he did. She was also a talented composer, writing about 500 pieces, including the overture you can hear via the player above. She died in her early 40s, but she did live long enough to see a handful of her works appear in print — fulfilling her lifelong dream of being taken seriously as a composer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90N0Dxkd8Yk

Marin Alsop is a trailblazer for women in classical music. And she gets her can-do spirit from her mother:

"She did not tolerate the word can't," Alsop recalls. "So, when I ran into that at an early age — even at 9 years old, when I was told that you know girls can't conduct — she said that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

Jennifer Higdon didn't start composing until she was 21, but that late start hasn't stopped her from becoming one of the world's most in-demand composers. In 2010, she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto, written for Hilary Hahn.  She has also won three Grammy Awards for best contemporary classical composition, for her Percussion Concerto in 2010, Viola Concerto in 2018 and Harp Concerto in 2020. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGGs4xVaewA

Not only was Clara Schumann a devoted mother to eight children, she also was a muse and confidante for her husband, Robert, and her dear friend, Johannes Brahms. She was an incredibly gifted pianist — her husband was jealous of her skills at the keyboard. And she was a composer, too. Clara Schumann was a 19th-century superwoman.