On WRTI, regardless of the month, you can always count on hearing music by composers who are women, and performances by women artists. But during Women’s History Month we’re turning up the volume to showcase women in classical music and jazz in more specific ways.
We welcome you to join us throughout the month for this on-air exploration that will bring to light the extraordinary accomplishments of musical women—in the past and present.
On the classical side, we’re celebrating women composers with 100 and Counting!
Over the course of 2020, when our nation celebrated 100 years since women's suffrage, WRTI reached the milestone of broadcasting 100 women composers' music. And, best of all, we're still counting! This month, you’ll hear all 100 (and more) of those composers, as we playlist each and every one of them in our daily programming.
This includes a vast array of composers, from the 12th century’s Hildegard de Bingen to today’s Jessie Montgomery, homegrown ones such as Jennifer Higdon, and those in other corners of the globe such as Brazil’s Clarissa Leite. Read more about composers who are women here.
On the jazz side, it’s Ladies Out Front!
Tune in to hear women-led bands, women composers, and female super groups—from Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln to the DIVA Orchestra and Artemis, we’re celebrating the music from these fierce female leaders. Read more about women in jazz here.
You’ll hear plenty of WRTI exclusive tracks from local talent including Michelle Lordi and Joanna Pascale, and ladies who stopped by our WRTI studios while on tour, including Canada’s Bria Skonberg and New York’s Claudia Acuna especially on Nouveau Jazz Showcase with Ms. Blue on Friday nights at 6 PM.
Ryan Gottlieb will get in the mix on Saturdays with Jukebox Jazz, sprinkling in women jazz artist’s treatments of pop songs written by women. And Bob Craig will celebrate women in jazz during the 3 PM hour every Sunday on Voices in Jazz on WRTI HD-2.
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Women’s History Month on WRTI is supported by Temple University, which celebrates the legacy of Agnes Berry Montier, class of 1912, and the first Black woman to earn a medical degree from Temple.