As 2017 winds to a close, we’d like to use our final Five Things Friday of the year to make a difference in the community. We spend a lot of time here at Brass Chicks discussing the reality of how things are for us as women playing brass instruments, but sometimes fail to make the connection to what we can do to make things better. Hopefully, the five methods below can help us to help each other and make a change in 2018 and beyond!
1. Listen to women
Go to shows and concerts featuring female musicians, buy albums of work by women, and listen to and play music by female composers. Additionally, show your students that you are doing these things! Lend your students CDs where they can hear female players. Send them YouTube links to videos of your favorite female soloist. In addition to helping out the musicians whose work you share, this can help show the next generation of musicians that brass is not just a men’s game and women are setting a standard of excellence in this field. Continue reading