Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The formation of the classical music “canon”—a collection of pieces that has been deemed to have higher value than others—has happened throughout a history that favored white, male composers of European descent. This has resulted in the exclusion of many composers of other identities from serious study, including the works of women. Through a close examination of historical trends and social behaviors within classical music, we have found that women were active and flourished as musicians in the 18th century, but that they are very rarely studied. We have developed a new online resource called :HerClassical: which highlights these women and their music through creative video recordings both on historical and modern instruments, new editions of their works (some of which had not been published since the 18th century), and historical insights into their lives. By creating these new, free resources, this music has become far more accessible to keyboardists and keyboard teachers, which has resulted in many students studying and engaging in works by women composers for the first time. In our Creative Practice Showcase, we will demonstrate our initiative and its success so far, with the hope that it will inspire the creation of similar models in other fields. Through the development of accessible online resources, we can create lasting social change in the arts.