BACK STORY: Why and How I Created These Repertoire Lists

The impetus for this web site was sparked by my love for classical music, fascination with history, and a dedication to righting wrongs. 

Toward the end of 2019, I read the phrase “women and black composers of classical music” in a concert program that was later cancelled with the 2020 onset of the pandemic. What women and black composers of classical music ? I exclaimed aloud to myself. Decades of attending symphony and chamber music concerts had introduced me, alas sparingly, to only Clara Schuman and Fanny Mendelssohn, and to zero black composers. I immediately decided to become a serious advocate for overlooked classical music; my first step was intensive research and listening.

I am a researcher and librarian by profession and temperament, so my quickly undertaken information quest soon uncovered the many excellent web sites and blogs, listening links and videos which have been created in the last 25 years by others whose hard work & persistent research had unearthed the long overlooked classical music I then could easily discover. What an astonishing amount of classical music repertoire has remained mostly hidden and unheard.

After many hours of immersive listening, I began culling- plucking pieces from the BIG DATABASE LISTS noted elsewhere on this site; I then distilled, synthesized and re-arranged the works unearthed by the amazing earlier researchers into 15 or more  practical, straightforward  groupings of repertoire lists.

I started out researching and compiling repertoire lists by women composers, eventually broadening my lists to include ALL underrepresented/minority composers; I have recently begun adding South American composers to the repertoire lists.

I continue adding new pieces learned about from various sources: news articles about recently discovered historic pieces or their scores, various recital programs, the listing of upcoming and past concerts from Live Music (https://www.livemusicproject.org ), the BBC Proms and Carnegie Hall, among others.
Finally, to help get these neglected pieces into more ears, I decided to web publish these practical, everything-in-one-place OVERLOOKED CLASSICAL MUSIC REPERTOIRE LISTS.

LOOKING FORWARD

My wish for the future is PLENTIFUL classical music concerts which routinely integrate pieces by women and minority composers (especially from historic eras) into the standard programs featuring works from the established canon.

I hope others will find joy and renewed energy in discovering this music, and share it with friends. I also hope that new listeners will join me in contacting local classical music organizations to encourage programming of their new favorites, and that concert programmers will make room for these pieces as an integral part of every classical music concert or recital, so that classical music lovers everywhere can “Make New Friends and Keep the Old.”