Every classical musician is familiar with Robert Schumann, but which ones have gotten the opportunity to learn about Clara, who, at one point, made six times Robert’s income? While the classical canon consists of only European, white men, women’s voices in the classical music community have historically been erased. Since coming to Deerfield, we’ve had the freedom and opportunity to play music composed by women who look like us and we want to share this experience, particularly with girls playing classical music at a young age. We have been working towards this goal with our CSGC grant, which has gone towards the creation and publishing of a music book featuring exclusively women composers.
Our music book will model the format of a Suzuki music learner’s book, with pieces increasing in difficulty as the pages go on. Furthermore, in order to increase the presence of women composers in young musicians’ lives and bring them to life, we will include biographies for each composer, as well as fun facts and other memorable details on the page preceding their piece. So far, we have worked on biographies and sheet music for Fanny Mendelssohn, Cecile Chaminade, Elfrida Andrée, Clara Schumann, etc. We are also planning a Women in Music concert!
We are so excited to share these incredible women’s music with you all!
-Chloe ’25, Daphne ’25, Liv ’25
