International Alliance for Women in Music

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. The IAWM engages 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 IAWM was formed in 1995 from the merger of three organizations that arose during the women’s rights movements of the 1970s to combat inequitable treatment of women in music: (1) the International League of Women Composers (ILWC), founded in 1975 by Nancy Van de Vate to create and expand opportunities for women composers of music;[1] (2) the International Congress on Women in Music (ICWM), founded in 1979 by Jeannie Pool to form an organizational basis for women-in music conferences and meetings;[2] and (3) American Women Composers (AWC), Inc., founded in 1976 by Tommie Ewart Carl to promote music by women composers.[3] AWC created a library of music scores at George Washington University, published a journal, the AWC News/Forum, and produced concerts and recordings of music by American women.[4]

Through the efforts of its approximately 400 members,[5] the IAWM continues the work of its parent organizations to achieve its cultural and educational mission of gender equity. The IAWM sponsors an annual “Search for New Music” composition competition for women and presents the winning pieces in public concert.[6] The Journal of the IAWM published in two issues per year, includes research about women in music, continuing the tradition of the AWC News/Forum and the ILWC Journal.[7] IAWM Congresses feature compositions, performances, and research papers about women in music.[8] IAWM members offer women-in-music courses in colleges and universities.[9] Towards ending gender discrimination, the IAWM led successful boycotts of the American concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1990s; the “VPO watch” continues.[10]

Advocacy by the International Alliance for Women in Music has contributed to the inclusion of women composers in college music history textbooks.[11] For some years the IAWM also published the journal "Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture," now handled by the University of Nebraska Press.[12] It borrowed part of its name from the historic Women in Music newsletters that were published by the woman conductor Frédérique Petrides from 1935-1940. The Journal of the IAWM is a first hand resource on information of women composers and has been cited as such on research articles concerning women composers.[13] The IAWM plays an important role in the careers of many women composers.[14]

The International Congress on Women in Music, sponsored by IAWM, has established the Pauline Alderman Award for musicological and journalistic works on women in music in 1986.[15]

References

  1. ↑ B. Beath, "The International League of Women Composers" ILWC Journal (1991), http://iawm.org/articles_html/Beath_ILWC.html.
  2. ↑ Stephen Fry, "The International Congress on Women in Music," Journal of the IAWM 1 (June 1995), http://iawm.org/articles_html/fry_ICWM_history.html. The ICWM had merged with the ILWC in 1990.
  3. ↑ http://iawm.org/about_history.htm
  4. ↑ Sophie Fuller, "International Alliance for Women in Music," Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
  5. ↑ Figures for 2009 from "International Alliance for Women in Music," Encyclopedia of associations: International organizations, 49th ed., 3 vols (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 2010).
  6. ↑ The IAWM’s annual concert in 2000 was reviewed by Joan Reinthaler, “Music by Women: Notes From All Over,” Washington Post, June 13, 2000.
  7. ↑ http://iawm.org/iawm_article_archive.htm. Reviewed by Suzanne Eggleston, "New Periodicals," Notes of the Music Library Association, Second Series 53/4 (June 1997),1233, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669825.
  8. ↑ For a description of one such Congress, see Marcia Citron, “Beyond Biography: Seventh International Congress on Women in Music. Utrecht, The Netherlands 29 May-2 June 1991," Journal of Musicology 9/4 (Fall 1991), 533-543
  9. ↑ For a description of one such course and historical perspective on the state of music curricula, see Calvert Johnson, "Women in Music Courses at Agnes Scott College," Journal of the IAWM 3/1 (Feb 1997), http://iawm.org/articles_html/johnson_women_music_courses.html.
  10. ↑ http://www.iawm.org/vpowatch/
  11. ↑ Vicki D. Baker, "Inclusion of Women Composers in College Music History Textbooks." Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 25/1 (Oct. 2003), 5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40215274.
  12. ↑ Karen Little, "New Periodicals," Notes, Second Series 55/1 (Sept 1998),172, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669825;
  13. ↑ Maria Anna Harley, "Górecki and the Paradigm of the -Maternal," The Musical Quarterly 82/1 (Spring 1998),124,http://www.jstor.org/stable/742237.
  14. ↑ Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States: Crossing the Line (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006); review by Renée McBride in Notes 63/3 (March 2007), 619-622, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/not/summary/v063/63.3mcbride.html.
  15. ↑ "Pauline Alderman Award". Iawm.org. Retrieved 2010-10-21.

External links