The Whistling Hens performance at UMBC, entitled “Reacting to the Landscape: Music by Women Composers,” will feature works by Cherise Leiter, Iris Szeghy, Jennifer Stevenson (including a premiere), Ashi Day, Melika Fitzhugh, and Victoria Bond.

Whistling Hens’s work is essential, relevant, and timely because women have been historically excluded from composing, performing, publishing, and educational opportunities. Even into the 20th century, bigots have said women were intellectually incapable of composing good music and should focus on home life; women were discouraged or even banned from composing, and they weren’t afforded the same educational privileges as men. A complex and multi-faceted history, these discriminatory social norms forced some women to write under pseudonyms or not write at all. To course correct against this exclusionary history, everyone must radically shift their thinking and methods of support to give women in the arts a chance at equal footing.