News and music to start your week!

Contemporary Musical Theatre interviews composer Georgia Stitt. The focus is the organization Maestra Music which Stitt founded “to give support, visibility, and community to the women who make the music in the musical theater industry.”

Read Five Questions to composer Katherine Balch from I Care if you Listen.  Balch has also written about the support she received from her mentor, Dr. Kati Agócs and the importance of having female mentors and role models.

Pianist Magazine has a list of 10 Women 21st century Composers that you should know, including Errollyn Wallen (pictured above), Gabriela Lena Frank, Melanie Spanswick, Caroline Shaw, Kaija Saariaho, Sarah Nicolls, Jennifer Higdon, Elena Kats-Chernin, Unsuk Chin, and Jai Chai.

The San Francisco Classical Voice has cataloged all of the women conductors in the San Francisco Opera and Symphony History! For the Opera, the list begins with Maestro Sarah Jobin, who (in 1999) was the first recipient of the JoAnn Falletta Award, given by The Women’s Philharmonic in recognition of a young female conductor of outstanding promise. A 2009 interview with Jobin is here.

We are thrilled to read the Boston Globe’s story about the welcoming ensemble that was founded include musicians with mental illness.

Be sure to let us know your news and what we have missed!   [email protected]