Category: resources

  • WPA News Digest: May 20, 2024

    WPA News Digest: May 20, 2024

    The petition to release Cara Kizer from her NDA imposed by the New York Philharmonic continues to accrue signatures. In addition, the open letter to the New York Philharmonic from the Composers Collective continues to raise awareness about the petition. The ongoing legal obstacles that prevent Kizer from speaking openly about her experiences help maintain…

  • Celebrating Vivian Fine

    Celebrating Vivian Fine

    Today, Sept. 28, 2023, is the 110th birthday of Vivian Fine.  This blog was originally published on March 20, 2011, titled Remembering Vivian Fine. Sunday, March 20th (2011), marked the 11th anniversary of the death of Vivian Fine (1913-2000) and the loss of a truly great American composer. Fine was a prolific composer who completed…

  • We Hold On To Women’s Music History By A Thin, Fraying Thread

    We Hold On To Women’s Music History By A Thin, Fraying Thread

    By Mary Purpura Previously we posted Mary Purpura’s moving account of the work of The Women’s Philharmonic. Today we continue her consideration of  the obstacles that remain to bringing women’s compositions into the mainstream.  These essays are drawn from Mary’s 2016 M.A. Thesis The Women’s Philharmonic: Its History and Legacy I began to fully grasp…

  • Vivian Perlis Remembered

    Vivian Perlis Remembered

    By Jennifer DeLapp-Birkett, Ph.D., musicology, [email protected] When Vivian Perlis died last month, the music world lost a respected scholar, a pioneering oral historian, an advocate for American composers and a strong supporter of women in classical music and jazz. Among her greatest achievements is the nationally recognized Oral History of American Music at Yale University…