Composition and Composer Database List

In an effort to provide a resource to the percussion community for the purpose of programming thoughtfully diverse recitals and concerts, the PAS Diversity Alliance is proud to present this annotated compilation of composition and composer databases. Please notify the chair, Dr. Elizabeth DeLamater, if you know of any databases that were missed so they might be included in future distribution.

The Big List
Hosted by the Donne: Women in Music organization to promote women composers, this database includes notable women in music names listed by birthdate and linked to encyclopedic entries.

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Percussion Database
Hosted by Samuel Solomon, these repertoire lists include solos, chamber music, and method books.

Castle of our Skins Repertoire
Castle of our Skins is a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. This site has a list of repertoire programmed and an excellent resource page with dozens of links.

Colorfull Music
Hosted by Jodie Blackshaw, this database contains submitted concert programs with works by ColourFULL composers, i.e., composers of varying gender, color, and age. These programs will inspire your imagination, and they are there to be used in whatever way works best for you.

Composer Diversity Database
Hosted at SUNY Freedonia and the Institute for Composer Diversity, this database allows users to discover almost 4,000 composers from underrepresented groups. You can search by composer name, living or deceased, specifically for women or non-binary composers, common large and small ensemble genres, racial, ethnic, or cultural demographics, and by location (city, state, and country).

Composers Equity Project
A Database of ALAANA, Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Composers hosted by Chamber Music America. Each name listed in this database is linked to a personal social media site. Chamber Music America uses the acronym ALAANA to indicate composers who identify as African/Black, Latinx, Asian/South Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Native American.

Female Band Composer List
Hosted by composer Jodie Blackshaw and focusing on band works from Grades 1–4.

GLBTQ Artist Archive
This database contains encyclopedic entries for artists of all media, including artist bibliographies.

International Women’s Brass Conference Composition Commission Projects
Part of the mission of the IWBC is to encourage and promote the creation of new music by women composers. To further this goal, the organization regularly funds commissions projects and also strives to create performance opportunities for these new works. This is a list of the works.

Many Many Women Index
Curated by musician and archivist Megan Mitchell, this site is an index of over 1,000 composers, improvisers, and sonic artists. Artists included are non-cis men, and each entry is linked to at least one primary source with media.

Music by Black Composers
This project is part of the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation and features a variety of resources: MBC Instrument Books & Online Resources, Coloring Book of Black Composers, MBC Timeline Poster, Living Composers Directory, Repertoire for Violin and Orchestra, Children’s Books, Bibliography, Discography, and more.

The New Music USA Online Library
Created by the American Music Center and continuing today under the guidance of New Music USA, this is a vast and comprehensive digital database that contains over 57,000 works by more than 6,000 composers and includes over 14,000 media samples (recordings and scores).

The New Works Project
This organization is “a 501(3)(c) dedicated to lowering the financial barriers that exist in commissioning new music, increasing access to new music, and supporting marginalized voices within our community.” Completed commissions are available for perusal and purchase on this site.

New York Women Composers
This is a resource created and hosted by a New York 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, under the direction of its members. Membership is open to residents of New York State and the greater New York City metropolitan region who are women composers of serious concert music and to those in musical occupations who support the recognition of women composers. The website has a searchable catalog of works by current and former members.

Percussion Ensemble Works by Women-Identifying Composers
Compiled and hosted by James Doyle, this open document of Percussion Ensemble Works by Women-Identifying Composers includes titles, composers, ensemble size, instrumentation, difficulty level, and links for more information as available.

Percussion Pieces by Black Composers
Organized by Jack Kloecker, this spreadsheet is searchable by Solo, Ensemble, Mixed Chamber, and Steelband, and includes tabs for new submissions and extra resource links.

Repertoire by Women Composers
Hosted by the Women’s Philharmonic Society, this page contains multiple lists, most notably that of their own publications and one of Orchestral Music by Women of African Descent.

Siwe Guide to Solo and Ensemble Percussion Literature
Housed by the Percussive Arts Society and part of its searchable database of percussion literature available to PAS members.

The Wind Repertory Project
This is a comprehensive database of wind literature categorized by composer, nationality, instrumentation, form and style, and composition grade.

Women in Music
Hosted by Kapralova Society, this page includes multiple lists and databases of women composers and conductors categorized by musical genre or nationality.

Works Diversity Database
Hosted at SUNY Freedonia and the Institute for Composer Diversity, these wind band and orchestral catalogs created by Christian Michael Folk and the Kassia Art Song catalog compiled by Logan Contreras allow users to search for individual compositions with numerous search filters from among over 1,600 art songs by women as well as almost 1,400 works for large and small wind ensembles and over 11,000 orchestral works by underrepresented composers. Filters include various ensemble genres, duration, and grade level, as well as composer demographics and location, and the results include instrumentation (when known) and links for rental and purchase as well as audio and video.

DISSERTATIONS:
Illuminating Silent Voices: An African-American Contribution to the Percussion Literature in the Western Art Music Music Tradition. By Darrell Irwin Thompson. May 22, 2012 ProQuest-CSA, LLC.
Concert band music by African-American composers: 1927–1998. Moss, Myron David. 2000.
An Annotated Catalog of Marimba Concertos with Winds. Anthony Joseph Calabrese, DMA. Northwestern University, June 2014.
Text, Movement and Music: An Annotated Catalogue of (Selected) Percussion Works 1950–2006.
Natalie Grant. Victorian College of the Arts, 2006.