{"id":211891,"date":"2026-05-28T02:02:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/how-women-composers-defied-expectations-and-transformed-the-music-world-australian-broadcasting-corporation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T02:02:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:02:47","slug":"how-women-composers-defied-expectations-and-transformed-the-music-world-australian-broadcasting-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/how-women-composers-defied-expectations-and-transformed-the-music-world-australian-broadcasting-corporation\/","title":{"rendered":"How women composers defied expectations and transformed the music world – Australian Broadcasting Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ria Andriani
ABC Classic
Topic:<\/span>Classical Music
Thu 28 May 2026 at 9:48am
Women composers continue to shape the music world despite facing immense social barriers. (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: Portrait by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni<\/span>)<\/cite>
You probably know the names of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.\u00a0
What about women in classical music?\u00a0
From core classical favourites to iconic music for the screen, we want to know what you think is the greatest classical music of all time.\u00a0
Many female composers have also made significant waves throughout history.
Women have been quietly composing in convents, using family influence to publish their music, and continuing to push against those who want to keep their talents under wraps or, worse, steal credit for their work.
The most recognisable female composer of medieval Europe is Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century noblewoman who became an abbess at a convent in Rupertsberg, Germany.
She was a composer, brewer, visionary and polymath<\/a> who wrote approximately 77 chants and a morality play regarded by some as the first opera in the Western classical music tradition.
Hildegard's mesmerising chants are frequently performed in concerts by ensembles around the world.
She was also far from the only woman composing music in medieval Europe.
Although many of their works have been lost, we know that some of the popular troubadour music was composed by women.
One of the most prominent examples is Blanche of Castile, Queen of France in the 1200s, who composed the secular and religious lyric Amours, u trop tart me sui pris<\/a> (Love, I have seized you too late).
During her lifetime, Francesca Caccini surpassed the success of her father Giulio Caccini.\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons<\/span>)<\/cite>
Most of the female composers we know from history were bold and brilliant. They were also usually related to powerful or respected men, or to the nobility.
That was the case for Francesca Caccini, whose father, Giulio Caccini, was a famous composer in his own right.
In 1614, Francesca Caccini was one of the most highly paid musicians, working for Tuscany's regent, Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine.
In 1618, Caccini published Il Primo libro delle musiche (The First Book of Music), a collection resembling her father's seminal book Le nuove musiche (The New Music).
Most of Caccini's operas have been lost, apart from The Liberation of Ruggiero, which was first performed in 1625.
Other female composers from the Renaissance and the Baroque include Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda, \u00c9lisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre and Wilhelmine, Margravine of Bayreuth.
You know the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.
More recently, the music world has started to give some overdue credit to the women of these families: Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Wieck Schumann.
If you're familiar with the music of their brothers, spouses and friends, you won't be surprised by the depth, beauty and virtuosity of these women's compositions.
But these three weren't the only female composers of their time, with more and more music being rediscovered and performed for the first time in centuries.
If you like Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schumann, check out music by Marianna Martines, Maria Theresa von Paradis and Louise Farrenc.
The turn of the 20th century was an exciting time for women, as the suffragette movement got under way. Ethel Smyth wrote the anthem for the movement, titled March of the Women.
Other composers like C\u00e9cile Chaminade, Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke and Florence Price got on with composing despite family and social pressures to stop.
But if we were to try and crown the greatest female composer of the 20th century, Nadia Boulanger would be high on the list.
French musician Nadia Boulanger was the first woman to conduct several major orchestras in the US and Europe. (Getty Images\/Hulton Archive: Erich Auerbach<\/span>)<\/cite>
A composer, conductor and teacher, Boulanger and her sister Lili sought to push the boundaries of what women could achieve in the music world, garnering many firsts.
Boulanger's budding career as a composer was cut short by the grief she experienced after the death of her sister.\u00a0
But from her apartment in Paris, she became an influential teacher who taught some of the most famous musicians of the 20th century, from Daniel Barenboim to Quincy Jones.
Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in the US and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hall\u00e9 and Philadelphia Orchestras.
Closer to home, Australian women have been blazing trails since before there were trails to blaze.
Margaret Sutherland, Miriam Hyde and Peggy Glanville-Hicks are now being celebrated as matriarchs of the Australian music world.
Today, Liza Lim, Ella Macens, Alice Chance and many others continue to write beautiful music that graces our stages.
First Nations composers such as Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Nardi Simpson and Brenda Gifford are bringing ancient storytelling traditions into classical music, as well as highlighting the diversity of cultures and languages across Australia.
Like many industries, the screen world has taken some time to recognise women.
So far, only two female composers have won the Oscar for Best Original Score: Rachel Portman, for Emma in 1997, and Hildur Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir, for Joker in 2020.
Hildur Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir was the second woman to receive an Oscar for Best Original Score for Joker in 2020. (Supplied: Warner Bros\/Niko Tavernise<\/span>)<\/cite>
Away from Hollywood, Australia is home to several award-winning screen composers, including Lisa Gerrard, who worked on Gladiator with Hans Zimmer, as well as Caitlin Yeo (New Gold Mountain, The Butterfly Tree, The Rocket) and Amanda Brown (Babyteeth, Deadloch).
Women are also making waves in the video game music industry.
Yoko Shimomura's iconic soundtrack for Street Fighter II helped shape arcade culture in the 1990s.
Today, a new generation of composers is shaping immersive worlds through scores such as Yuka Kitamura's music for Elden Ring and Jessica Curry's soundtrack for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.
Australian composers such as Starling Tan and Belinda Coomes are bringing home-grown melodies to games including Signy and Mino and Ring of Pain.
And let's not forget women's contributions to the long-running Assassin's Creed series, including Sarah Schachner and Stephanie Economou.
In 2023, Economou won the first Grammy awarded for video game music for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnar\u00f6k.
Thu 28 May 2026 at 9:48am
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