Boulanger Initiative Database
Welcome to Boulanger Initiative’s premier open-access resource, Boulanger Initiative Database (BID).
Designed for everyone – musicians, performers, conductors, students, researchers, educators, artistic administrators, and anyone with a curious mind – this database provides access to thousands of works by women and gender-marginalized composers. By sharing knowledge and resources, BID increases access to works by underrepresented composers, empowering all who wish to diversify classical music programming.
Explore over 10,000 works by more than 1,300 composers with ease, available to you for free.
Our current catalogue focuses on access to both repertoire and information from non-living composers, with an array of filtering options and redirection towards primary resources to streamline your search process.
Search options for works include: composer names; composition types; instruments, voice types, ensemble types; languages (vocal works); ranges for year of publication; and publishers. Database users will find a wealth of information about historical composers, including: links to composer websites and Wikipedia articles, notes on the composer, public domain images and photographs, and/or links to their works currently in the database. Information about works will include: links to scores (publisher and library access), audio and video recordings, and/or notes on relevant details such as text authors, translations, and movement titles.
This is a forever project, which BI will continuously grow and build upon; to see searchable features coming in the future, visit this link.
According to a recent study, during the 2021-2022 concert season, the top orchestras in the U.S. dedicated under three percent of their programming to the works of non-living women composers.
This underrepresentation perpetuates a damaging myth that women have historically created little of artistic merit.
There is, in fact, a wealth of high-quality music written by women dating hundreds of years in the past and forward, but most people are unaware of it.
SPECIAL THANKS is due to our supporters, contributors, & everyone who makes our work possible
Shepherd Moon is honored by and grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with Boulanger Initiative and develop the BID. We hope our combined effort furthers Boulanger Initiative’s mission to bring more attention to gender-marginalized composers and their works. Looking forward, we welcome additional development and consulting engagements with Boulanger Initiative and other partners to realize shared goals.
