The Other "One Percent"

Quite a bit of current political discussion, especially in the United States, refers to "The One Percent"-- that group of people who earn the most money. However, both in the US and the European Union there is another "one percent."

Women composers, whether of popular or serious music, receive one percent of all broadcast time in the European Union.. Little more than a generation ago recorded music by women was hard to find, but today it is readily available. Why does so little of it get heard over the radio?

In the United States, according to the League of American Orchestras, only one percent of all music programmed on orchestral concerts is by women. Why does is so little of our orchestral music get heard live?

Yes, Ladies, we are "the other one percent!"

Comments

Barbara Ulman
28 Aug 2012: I'm glad to see this. When I was studying composition, I felt that some of the (male) professors were condescending; it was hard to be confident that I could be a composer. For years my compositions sat in my piano bench.

Now that I'm more publicly "out there" -- with a new CD, and a presence on MusicaNeo -- not much is happening. I can relate to a statement I once heard: "Publishing a volume of poetry is like dropping rose petals down the Grand Canyon and waiting to hear the echo." Same is true of music, I fear.