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Music Teachers' Association of California®
Alameda County East Branch
"The mission of MTAC is to pursue excellence in music education and advance the music teaching profession through innovative programs that foster artistic growth and achievement."
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Mission statement
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The East Alameda Music Teachers Association is committed to creating and supporting an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Board, President, and Teachers of our branch support a culture of inclusion through their educational practices, repertoire, and opportunities provided through the branch. The AEMTAC listens respectfully to all voices, different viewpoints, thoughts, and ideas and believes a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment establishes excellence in educating musicians and accomplishing the MTAC mission and vision. EAMTAC remains committed to strengthening our understanding of equity and diversity by listening to our community’s needs and providing diverse repertoire and diversity training for staff, faculty, and board. EAMTAC recognizes its responsibility in helping to create a healthy community by providing training, performance opportunities, educational resources, and financial opportunities for all our students, including the Blankenship Program for low-income families. ​
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Resouces
** From the branch lecture **
Expand the Repertoire: an Introduction to Women Who Composed
The Blanch Lecture Sept. 2021
Topic: "Expand the Repertoire: an Introduction to Women Who Composed"
Lecturer: Sharon Su, Pianist
(bio) https://www.sharonsu.com/bio/
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Description: A brief introduction to the lives of five historical women composers—Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Cécile Chaminade, Louise Farrenc, and Florence Price, luminous talents whose stories illuminate our understanding of what it takes to make music. In addition to telling the stories of their lives, I will recommend works that can be incorporated into repertoire at various levels of piano playing. I will also discuss the unique challenges I faced in the process of adding music by women to my own repertoire.
** External Resources **
Institute for Composer Diversity
Desserts
The Composer Diversity Database allows users to discover almost 4000 composers from underrepresented groups. You can search by composer name, living or deceased, specifically for women or non-binary composers, common large and small ensemble genres, racial, ethnic, or cultural demographics, and by location (city, state, and country).
The Works Diversity Database, featuring wind band and orchestral catalogs created by Christian Michael Folk and the Kassia Art Song catalog compiled by Logan Contreras, allows users to search for individual compositions with numerous search filters from among over 1,600 art songs by women as well as almost 1,400 works for large and small wind ensembles and over 11,000 orchestral works by underrepresented composers. Filters include various ensemble genres, duration, and grade level, as well as composer demographics and location, and the results include instrumentation (when known) and links for rental & purchase as well as audio & video.The extensive Bibliographic Resources, compiled by Dr. Kendra Leonard, provides scholars with valuable lists of books and articles about women and non-binary composers, composers from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, and LGBTQIAA2+ composers.
... And We Were Heard gives underrepresented composers a platform to have their music heard. Composers that submit works to … And We Were Heard are matched with top-notch
wind bands and engage in collaborative recording sessions. The resulting audio tracks are hosted on the site along with innovative ideas of how to support diverse voices in music.
This webpage houses public domain scores by composers of color. Analytical notes are being made available, while a Google Sheet summarizes music theory topics that can be taught using the repertoire. As a quick and manageable first step towards anti-racist music theory pedagogy, many of the scores on this site are readily adaptable to the classroom environment.
This collection has many contemporary scores, which often reflects a more diverse field of composers than historical music in the canon.
An exceptionally interesting website that organizes concepts of music theory that are often studied. The concepts link to scores, audio files, and downloadable PDF files. There is also a pop-up page for each concept that cross-references other music theory concepts that are in the piece. All the examples of music theory concepts are from music written by women.
The Kassia Database is a resource geared toward aiding singers, instructors of voice, pianists, researchers, and music lovers to discover and celebrate art song by women composers. The database includes songs from the Baroque period through the 21st century, and have been categorized by level, voice type, language, composer, and composer dates. Related information includes range, tessitura, piano accompaniment, vocal line, and links to available scores. The analysis is intended for singers from beginning high school through the collegiate level and professional career. The database leads you to find the unique voices and expansive styles of each individual composer, with the hopes to increase performance and advocation of each woman's often overlooked works.
The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) is an international membership organization of women and men dedicated to fostering and encouraging the activities of women in music, particularly in the areas of musical activity such as composing, performing, and research in which gender discrimination is an historic and ongoing concern. IAWM members engage in efforts to increase the programming of music by female composers, to combat discrimination against female musicians, including as symphony orchestra members, and to include accounts of the contributions of women musicians in university music curricula and textbooks.
The Center for Black Music Research's mission is to illuminate the significant role that black music plays in world culture by ...
* serving as a nexus for all who value black music,
* promoting scholarly thought and knowledge about black music, and
* providing a safe haven for the materials and information that document the black music experience across Africa and the diaspora.
Online encyclopedia of African American music.
The Wind Repertory Project is a comprehensive database of wind literature, expanded by contributions of band directors/conductors, students, and wind band enthusiasts worldwide. Composers are categorized by specific nationality, but also by groups such as African American Composers, Female Composers, LatinX Composers, and LGBT Composers.
The No Broken Links directories are a starting point for scholars, performers, composers, and teachers to discover solo and chamber repertoire by minority composers for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Saxophone, and Horn. The directories focus specifically on the work of womxn, transgender & gender non-conforming individuals, and/or Black, Indigenous, or persons of color.
This website is a working list of the non-idiomatic choral music of black composers. Non-idiomatic, as it relates to black composers, refers to the original concert music that is not part of the traditional idiomatic canon associated with black musicians. That canon includes spirituals, gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and rap among others.
A Seat at the Piano promotes and advocates for the inclusion, study, and performance of a more equitably representative body of piano works. The resources are helpfully leveled by difficulty, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, which is further divided into subcategories of early and late, if necessary.
A website pooling resources for inclusive teaching in early music, including articles and assignments, that may point to diverse or inclusive repertoire.
Violinist Gabriela Diaz is updating this database on a weekly basis with contributions from musicians all over the world. This list builds upon the previous work of Rachel Barton Pine and Dr. Megan E. Hill and also includes works catalogued in the Living Black Composers Directory.
Black Grooves is a music review site hosted by the Archives of African American Music & Culture (AAAMC) at Indiana University. Our goal is to promote black music by providing our readers with monthly updates on interesting new releases and quality reissues in all genres─including gospel, blues, jazz, funk, soul, R&B, world music, and hip-hop—as well as classical music composed or performed by black artists.
