abcd webinars
We’ve a large section of recorded webinars covering many aspects of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. If you’re a member and logged in, you can download these to watch free of charge – look for the ‘member download’ button. If you’re not a member, each webinar is just £8 to download.
View the full series here, or choose from the ones below which particularly cover repertoire and programming.
An introduction to diverse choral composers, with Elizabeth de Brito
How many composers can you name that are not white men? This session explores the wide world of choral music from across the globe, taking in composers from each continent. As well as checking out some new favourite pieces, Elizabeth looks at at some resources and tools for equitable programming going forward.Price: £8.00
‘Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers
Diversifying the repertoire for today’s choirs. This webinar introduces the work of Multitude of Voyces, a registered non-profit organisation which supports underrepresented, vulnerable and marginalised communities through the creative use of music and words. There is a brief overview of projects and focus on its anthology series Sacred Music by Women Composers. Price: £8.00
Introduction to DONNE, The Daffodil Perspective and Multitude of Voyces
an abcd Festival session from 2021 introducing the work of three organisations that seek to address gender, and racial, inequality in choral programming and repertoirePrice: £8.00
Useful repertoire databases/listings
- The Institute for Composer Diversity has created a database of choral works by composers from historically excluded groups. This is a very useful tool when beginning to consider different programming choices. Searches can be filtered by voicing, musical genre, instrumentation and by composer criteria (gender, demographic, period etc): https://www.composerdiversity.com/choral-diversity-database
- The Donne Foundation is dedicated to achieving gender equality in the music industry. Their Big List is a database featuring more than 5000 women composers and this can be filtered by country, century and musical genre: The BIG LIST – More than 5000 women composers made visible by Donne, Women in Music. Donne has multiple initiatives: a podcast, research projects, commissions and a fantastic resource of playlists on Apple Music or YouTube: Playlists – Donne, Women in Music Playlists or on CD.
- Created by Marques L A Garrett, Beyond Elijah Rock: Non-Idiomatic Music of Black Composers is a working spreadsheet of repertoire, that can be filtered by voicing, genre and instrumentation : https://www.mlagmusic.com/research/beyond-elijah-rock
- The Great Host project has created a database of sacred choral music and voluntaries by women composers for the entire Church year, with listings for each Sunday and Feast Days: https://greathostcomposers.org/
- The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers is an anthology edited by Marques L. A. Garrett which presents 35 pieces of music written for SATB choir, spanning from the sixteenth century to the present day: The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers – Sheet Music – Marques L. A. Garrett – Oxford University Press (oup.com)
- Multitude of Voyces are a charitable organisation that specialise in supporting underrepresented and marginalised communities through the creative use of music and words. To date, they have created and collated an anthology series Multitude of Voyces: Sacred Music by Women Composers which presents 63 women composers spanning 800 years across three volumes: Sacred Music by Women Composers
- Oxford University Press have published an Orchestral Catalogue and Choral Catalogue for women composers.
- The Minerva Festival aims to elevate the voices of marginalised gender composers who have been overlooked by the eye of history. They have created a composer database which catalogues instrumental and vocal music, as well as sacred choral music: https://www.minervafestival.org/repertoire-suggestions-1
- Alternative Classical have put together an short article highlighting some of the choral music written by female and non-binary composers, suitable for the Advent and Christmas period: Christmas Choral Music by Female & Non-Binary Composers — Alternative Classical (A much larger selection of over 100 pieces of Christmas choral music by female and non-binary composers can be found on their Spotify and YouTube playlists).