Diversity of Orchestras

06/01/2026

"This is a resource page listing orchestras and large ensembles fully comprised of women musicians. The ensembles are listed chronologically within their cities, with an overarching hierarchy from city/municipality level to country level which are listed alphabetically.

"As there are many types of orchestras in the world other than European styled orchestras, the list will also include them. For example, the cover image to this resource page features the Afghan Women’s Orchestra “Zohra” which, as can be seen, includes South Asian instruments (rubab, sitar, tabla) blended with European instruments (violin, viola, cello). Excluding ensembles which are canonically European is premised on a colonial and racial logic continuum placing the modern Western [i.e. European] orchestra as the end state1 of orchestra evolution.

"As is the case for all resource pages at Mae Mai, this is a work in progress and will be updated regularly, albeit intermittently."

https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/orchestra/orchorgs/womens-orch/

05/28/2026

Homrong Isaan is in three parts. The first is influenced by Luk Thung and Luk Krung, two styles of Thai popular music that I grew up listening to here in the states. The second part is the “Thai Classical Music Section” with the marimba mimicking the Thai Ranad Ek, the Oboe modeling the quadrupl...

05/26/2026

Happy Heritage Month!

THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Akira Kikukawa and the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles

https://www.nichibei.org/2020/09/the-great-unknown-and-the-unknown-great-akira-kikukawa-and-the-japanese-american-orchestra/

"Some time ago, Jonathan van Harmelen and I wrote a column about the pioneering Japanese xylophonist Yoichi Hiraoka. In the course of our research, we found that in 1970 Hiraoka had performed a concert in Southern California with an orchestra of which neither of us had ever heard, the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles. Intrigued by the name, we resolved to look further into the history of this ensemble. What we discovered is that the story of the orchestra is very much that of its founder and longtime director, Akira Kikukawa."

"After arriving in the U.S., Kikukawa was approached by Katsuma Mukaeda, the former chairman of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, who asked him about organizing a Japanese American classical ensemble in Los Angeles. With encouragement from the Japan American Society of Southern California and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, in the spring of 1961 Kikukawa founded the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles (aka Japanese Orchestra of Little Tokyo). The mission of Kikukawa’s orchestra was to foster classical music among Japanese Americans and promote young Japanese composers in the United States. At the time, classical compositions by Japanese composers were all but unknown. What is more, professional symphony orchestras in America were largely white male clubs, and few hired Nikkei musicians. (Even as Kikukawa organized his orchestra, the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, a few years Kikukawa’s junior, attracted widespread attention when he was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic by music director Leonard Bernstein for the fall 1961 season). Kikukawa led the orchestra in its premier concert on Aug. 17, 1961, during the 1961 Nisei Week Japanese Festival, with a performance of pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George Bizet and Otto Nicolai."

05/25/2026

SCO is looking for outstanding P**a and Double Bass musicians to join our musical family! Be part of a national orchestra, collaborate with renowned artists and inspire audiences home and abroad. 
 
Deadline: 19 June 2026
For more information on requirements and application details, visit: sco.com.sg/careers
 
新加坡华乐团招聘琵琶及低音提琴演奏家加入我们大家庭！成为国家级乐团的成员，与知名艺术家合作，并以音乐感动海内外观众。
 
截止日期：2026年6月19日
更多招聘条件与申请详情，请浏览： sco.com.sg/careers

05/21/2026

Denver Philharmonic's May Theme -
"Music can be world-building: a way of making space for voices, histories, and ways of being that might otherwise go unheard.

"This May, for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Denver Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates the composers whose work has quietly (and sometimes boldly) reshaped what classical music can sound like, mean, and do.

"The AAPI community spans more than 70 countries, each carrying its own musical traditions and histories. The composers we lift up this month don’t fit neatly into a single story. But there is a thread that connects many of them: the experience of living and creating between worlds, carrying one musical inheritance while working in another, and refusing to abandon either.

"That creative tension hasn’t just produced beautiful music. It has expanded the entire canon."

https://denverphilharmonic.org/tas-aanhpimonth/

May Theme | Music can be world-building: a way of making space for voices, histories, and ways of being...

05/16/2026

05/11/2026

"Composer Diversity in State Music Lists: An Exploratory Analysis"
Cory D. Meals

Open access: https://doi.org/10.1177/00224294231218272

Abstract
"The selection of repertoire is a critical component of ensemble music, especially in educational contexts. Accredited music education systems often rely on required, recommended, or prescribed music lists to assist in these selections. Nonetheless, previous content analyses have primarily focused on questions of creative quality, artistic merit, and educational appropriateness while overlooking crucial demographic factors such as gender identity, ethnicity, race, and vital status of included composers. I examined gender and ethnic diversity within wind band repertoire lists from 10 states representing five geographical regions. The lists contained 17,281 total works by 1,221 identifiable composers, predominately White (92.63%) and male (95.58%). K-means clustering revealed two unequal composer groups, with the smaller, predominantly White and male subgroup accounting for 40.82% of works and a high per capita representation across lists. Principal components analysis showed composer ethnicity, gender, and vital status interrelated across data dimensions. Despite latent list differences, composer diversity across and within lists was extremely limited. If ensemble directors are to meaningfully engage in diversifying the repertoire their students perform, expanding beyond the existing collection of predominantly White and male composers is a necessity."

04/23/2026

Come Play With Us - Saw Peep Pan-Asian Ensemble

Info-Meeting and Reading Session
https://www.facebook.com/events/1407646134383259/

This Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month join a relaxed and collaborative music session with musicians exploring sounds from all over Asia, the Silk Road, and by diasporic Asian composers!

Meet Musicians
Explore Asian Intercultural Music
Make Music Together

Sunday, May 17 // 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Louisville Title Building
223 South 5th Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Have questions, please message us or email us here: [email protected]

Listen to a Saw Peep sampler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0GBkSqy5Xs

Connect with Saw Peep: https://linktr.ee/SawPeep

https://www.sawpeep.com/event/2026-05-17_come-play-with-saw-peep/