FONDAZIONE ADKINS CHITI: DONNE IN MUSICA (Website)
WIMUST exists to change the landscape for thousands of contemporary European women in music. In 2011, together with the European Network WIMUST was set up to raise visibility for women creating music, while investigating mechanisms producing current inequalities/discrimination. WIMUST is also preparing an online Encyclopedia of Contemporary European Women Composers and Creators of Music. In December 2012 biographies for 4.274 women had been written and work continues (Link to the database).
Background: “Where are the women”? You may well ask when you look at current music curricula and see what orchestras, festivals, theatres, radio and TV are programming. In Europe nearly 40% of Composers and Creators of Music are women, but more than 90% of all European music institutions are directed by men. In March 2009 the European Parliament adopted the Resolution for Equal Opportunities in the Performing Arts, underlining that inequalities in career prospects and opportunities for women are very much present in access to decision-making posts, means of production and broadcast networks.
This Resolution has never been adopted by any European government, thereby allowing the persistence of gender inequalities, prejudices and discriminatory behaviour towards women in selection and appointment procedures. In Europe less than 4% of all music programmed has been written by women. Even female artistic directors do not appear to know very much about the numbers, activities and music of women composers who continue to be under-represented in positions of responsibility in institutions, academies and universities.
Donne in Musica, was founded in 1978 and is today present in 108 countries, promoting and sustaining women as creators and composers of music in all fields: classical, contemporary, electronic, opera, theatre, ballet, jazz, sacred, traditional, educational, film, television, advertising, pop, multimedia, fusion, tecno, rock, hip hop, heavy metal and impro… If one of the great achievements of the 20th century was that women gained access to all fields of economic, commercial and intellectual activity, one of the major challenges of the 21st century is to ensure that women composers, songwriters and creators of music achieve equal opportunities for access, advancement and recognition.
Contact
Patricia Adkins Chiti
President of the FONDAZIONE ADKINS CHITI: DONNE IN MUSICA
Teatro Comunale, Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, Fiuggi Città, Italy
Tel: 0039 0775 168 56 35
forum@donneinmusica.org
www.donneinmusica.org
Member of International Music Council, UNESCO and of European Music Council
Non Governmental Organisation in official relationship with UNESCO
Library and Archives under the tutelate of the Italian State Archival System