This month’s instalment in the women’s orchestra series looks at the Women’s Philharmonic, based in San Francisco. It was formed by Miriam Abrams, Elizabeth Seja Min and Nan Washburn in 1980 with the vision to compensate for under-representation of women within the mainstream classical music world, by creating an orchestra of all women, which performed music composed by women.
The orchestra began as a grassroots effort, with many donors giving small amounts, rather than large donations by wealthy patrons or civic support from the city. However, they did receive 17 awards in 22 seasons, including for Adventurous Programming from ASCAP and the American Symphony Orchestra League. This was largely due to their commitment to female composers, as throughout their history they presented works by more than 160 female composers, including more than 130 premiere performances and more than 40 commissions.
The Women’s Philharmonic disbanded in 2004, after stating that their project to promote women composers, conductors and performers had reached completion. Reasons for this claim include that the number of women in orchestras was nearly equal to men, some composition prizes had gone to women and female conductors were continuing to gain prominence. Additionally, in terms of their personal achievements, they had promoted works by female composers to audiences nationwide and participated in targeted campaigns, such as supporting new commissions and the National Women Conductors Initiative. As such, they decided to pass the torch onto other leading organisations, believing they could no longer effectively manage as a small-budgeted, locally based orchestra.
Their legacy still remains today with their adjunct orchestra, the Community Women’s Orchestra, Oakland, which started in 1985. In 2008, Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy was also formed to recognise the achievements of the Women’s Philharmonic and build on their work by advocating for more representation of female composers in orchestral programmes worldwide.
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References:
Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy (no date). The Women’s Phil. Available at: https://wophil.org/the-womens-phil/ (Accessed: 13th July 2023).
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