Posted March 2, 2026
March Theme | #TakeAStand
For centuries, social norms and institutional barriers limited women’s access to training, publication, and the podium. Many composed prolifically but circulated music privately; others built careers as performers or organizers because formal opportunities were closed to them. The result: a canon that often erased or minimized women’s work.
Over the last several decades scholars, performers, and institutions have begun restoring these voices: reclaiming repertoire, commissioning new works, and rethinking programming so audiences hear a fuller musical history.
This Women’s History Month, we’re centering the composers, conductors, and performers whose creativity and leadership have reshaped classical music.
Composers and Leaders to Know
Antonia Brico
- Who she was: DPO founder, conductor, and educator who fought for professional podium opportunities in the early 20th century.
- Career highlights: Brico trained in Europe, returned to the United States determined to lead orchestras at a time when women were routinely barred from conducting. She founded ensembles, led concerts in major cities, and devoted decades to teaching the next generation of musicians.
- Musical and cultural significance: Brico’s persistence challenged institutional gatekeeping and helped normalize women’s leadership in orchestral life. Her career is a reminder that access to the podium is as much a social and political struggle as a musical one.
Ethel Smyth
- Who she was: Composer, suffragist, and activist whose music and politics were deeply intertwined.
- Career highlights: Smyth wrote operas, choral works, chamber music, and marches; she was also an outspoken participant in the women’s suffrage movement in Britain. Her compositions range from large‑scale dramatic works to intimate songs.
- Musical and cultural significance: Smyth modeled how an artist can fuse aesthetic ambition with political commitment. Her music’s directness and rhetorical force made it a natural vehicle for public causes, and her life challenges the idea that composers must be apolitical observers.
Clara Schumann
- Who she was: Pianist, teacher, and composer whose public career reshaped Romantic performance practice.
- Career highlights: A child prodigy who became one of the 19th century’s most celebrated pianists, Clara balanced touring and teaching with composing piano works, songs, and chamber pieces. She also championed her husband Robert Schumann’s music and edited his legacy.
- Musical and cultural significance: Clara’s artistry blurred the line between performer and composer. Her compositions reveal refined craftsmanship and a deep understanding of pianistic color; her career demonstrates how women negotiated professional life in an era of strict gender roles.
Fanny Mendelssohn
- Who she was: Composer and pianist whose output includes songs, piano pieces, and chamber music.
- Career highlights: Fanny composed prolifically but, like many women of her social class, often circulated music in private salons rather than through public publication. Recent scholarship and performances have recovered much of her work, revealing a composer of striking melodic gift and formal skill.
- Musical and cultural significance: Fanny’s story exposes how social expectations shaped whose music was published and credited. Restoring her repertoire corrects historical oversight and enriches our understanding of early Romantic creativity.
Teresa Carreño
- Who she was: Internationally renowned pianist, conductor, and composer from Venezuela who enjoyed a global performing career.
- Career highlights: Celebrated for dazzling technique and interpretive power, Carreño toured widely, performed with leading orchestras, and composed salon pieces, songs, and works for piano. She also conducted and organized concerts, asserting artistic authority in multiple roles.
- Musical and cultural significance: Carreño’s career shows that women were not only present but central to performance culture worldwide. Her virtuosity and leadership complicate narrow narratives about who shaped concert life in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Spotlight Performances to Watch
- Florence Price — “Andante moderato” (Maestro, 2024)
- Nancy Galbraith — A Festive Violet Pulse (Valor, 2019)
- Jennifer Higdon — Low Brass Concerto (Patchwork Nation, 2025)
- Jessie Montgomery — Starburst (Hidden Treasure, 2023)
- Nancy Ives — Immortal Beloved ft. Denise Dillenbeck, violin (Happily Ever After, 2025)
Take A Stand with Us
If March’s theme moves you, join us in three simple ways:
- Listen actively: Give these works your full attention and notice how musical choices reflect lived experience
- Donate or attend a concert to support diverse programming
- Share a story of your favorite woman composer/piece using #TakeAStand and tag @denverphilorch across socials. Feel free to download one of our Take a Stand badges!
