International Alliance for Women in Music

Community, Partners & Affiliates

Below is a list of community partners and other organizations that advocate for diversity in music and support IAWM’s mission.

American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)

The mission of American Choral Directors Assocation (ACDA) is to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone through education, performance, composition and advocacy.

Anna’s Composer Database

Anna’s Composer Database is a curated list of compositions by historically underrepresented composers, with a mission to encourage and promote musical diversity at the highest level from youth to professional music organizations.

Archiv Frau und Musik

The Archiv Frau und Musik, with ~ 28,000 media units by and about 2,000 women composers and conductors, is the largest archive of its kind in the world. It includes sheet music, sound recordings, literature, and gray literature on women composers and musicians from the 9th to the 21st century in the field of classical music, rock, pop, and jazz. A main focus is on original scores and letters from the 18th to the 21st century, as well as bequests of women composers.

Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC/ACC)

The Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC/ACC) is the only professional association of women and women-identified composers and musicians in Canada. It actively supports music written by Canadian women. The ACWC promotes its members on this website, and publishes a bi-annual Journal highlighting activities and articles of interest.

The Athena Brass Band

The Athena Brass Band is dedicated to promoting the growth of female-identifying musicians in the world of brass banding, and to providing opportunity for those newer to the field to gain experience. 

Boulanger Initiative

Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers. We foster inclusivity and representation to expand and enrich the collective understanding of what music is, has been, and can be. We promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions.

College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA)

The College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) is a community of artists who change lives through music; leaders who champion diversity, equity, inclusivity, and belonging in all aspects of our profession; Educators who empower their students.

College Music Society (CMS)

The College Music Society (CMS) promotes music teaching and learning, musical creativity and expression, research and dialogue, and diversity and interdisciplinary interaction. A consortium of college, conservatory, university, and independent musicians and scholars interested in all disciplines of music, the Society provides leadership and serves as an agent of change by addressing concerns facing music in higher education.

Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland (CMC)

The Contemporary Music Centre (CMC) is Ireland’s archive and resource centre for new music, supporting the work of composers throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Donne, Women in Music

DONNE is here to make a positive change in the fight against gender inequality within the music industry. Our goal is to celebrate, advance, and amplify women in music so that they are seen, heard, and appreciated for their talent so they can leave a legacy of inspiration for future generations.

Girl Gang Music

Girl Gang Music is a media platform and curated community of women and nonbinary humans within the music industry. We are songwriters, artists, producers, journalists, photographers, managers, agents, instrumentalists, and innovators within the industry.

Historic Brass Society

The Historic Brass Society is an international music organization concerned with the entire range of early brass music.

Illuminate 

Illuminate promotes the work of emerging women composers and performers. Set up by Dr. Angela Elizabeth Slater in 2017, it provides a platform for historical repertoire by women composers to sit alongside new works.

Institute for Composer Diversity

The Institute for Composer Diversity works to encourage the discovery, study, and performance of music written by composers from historically excluded groups.

The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML)

The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) encourages and promotes the activities of music libraries, archives and documentation centres to support and facilitate the realization of projects in music bibliography, music documentation and music library and information science at national and international levels.

The International Conductor’s Guild

The International Conductors Guild is dedicated to encouraging and promoting the highest standards in the art and profession of conducting.

International Music Council (IMC)

The International Music Council (IMC), founded in 1949 by UNESCO, is the world’s largest network of organizations and institutions working in the field of music. The International Music Council promotes access to music for all and the value of music in the lives of all peoples. Through its members and their networks, IMC has direct access to over 1000 organisations in some 150 countries and to 600 million persons eager to develop and share knowledge and experience on diverse aspects of musical life.

International Musicological Society (IMS)

The mission of the International Musicological Society (IMS) is to connect every musicologist to the world community of musicology by embracing the study of music in all its diversity and advancing musicological research across the globe in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

International Rostrum of Composers (IRC)

The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) is an international forum of representatives of broadcasting organizations who come together for the purpose of exchanging and broadcasting contemporary music.

Jazz Education Network

Jazz Education Network is an educational and performance nonprofit dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences.

J.W. Pepper

Delivering Sheet Music Since 1876; We offer sheet music for directors and performers alike as well as music equipment, accessories, and software to support composers’ musical journey.

Kapralova Society

The Kapralova Society wasf ounded in Toronto by Karla Hartl. The Society’s mission is to promote the music of Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940) and to build awareness of women’s contributions to musical life by publishing research on Kapralova and other women in music.

Kvinnlig Anhopning av Svenska Tonsättare (KVAST)

The Swedish Association of Women Composers (Kvinnlig Anhopning av Svenska Tonsättare – KVAST) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise awareness for women composers and promote the performance of their music.

LunArt Festival

The mission of LunART is to support, inspire, promote, and celebrate ALL women in the arts through public performances, exhibitions, workshops, and interdisciplinary collaboration; thus enriching our community and creating a welcoming space for learning and experimentation.

Media Sound Hamburg 

A conference of sound designers, film and video game composers and musicians come together.

Merging Arts Productions

MergingArts Productions reaches out to communities both locally and globally. and produces cultural events and radio programming related to music and visual arts.

Music Teachers National Association (MTNA)

Whether you are a seasoned professional or new teacher, membership in Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) is an essential part of your professional life. Since 1876, MTNA has been the foremost leader in empowering the music-teaching professionals by providing the latest teaching trends and research, engaging events for you and your students, and connectivity with MTNA’s vibrant community of teachers.

National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA)

The National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA), founded in 1933, is one of the oldest organizations devoted to the promotion and performance of American concert hall music.

New York Women Composers (NYWC)

The mission of the New York Women Composers, Inc. is to support the creation, promotion and performance of music by women. NYWC has an annual international Seed Money Grant program that has generated hundreds of performances worldwide. Membership geographic focus is NY state and the greater NYC metro area, extending to NJ, PA, CT.

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble

The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble (PJCE) creates and performs original jazz music that engages and supports our community’s diverse artists, cultures and place.

Sophie Drinker Institut

Sophie Drinker Institut, Bremen The Sophie Drinker Institute was founded in 2001 and is dedicated to musicological research on women and gender. In addition to the extensive online encyclopedia, European Women Instrumentalists of the 18th and 19th Centuries, the Institute provides a comprehensive list of orchestral works by women and the digitized estate of the Romanian composer Miriam Marbé. Research results and outcomes by external scholars appear regularly in the Institute’s publication series. The beautiful 19th-century institute building also houses a library with an extensive collection of research literature, sheet music, and recordings. Concert and lecture evenings are held here regularly.

Women’s Audio Mission (WAM)

Changing the face of sound by providing hands-on training, work experience, career counseling, and job placement to over 4,000 women/girls/gender-expansive individuals every year in creative technology for music, radio, film, television, and the internet.

Women in Music (UK)

Women in Music is a national membership organisation that celebrates women’s music making across all genres of music. We raise awareness of gender issues in music and support women musicians in their professional development.