Missy Mazzoli (BUTI'98, CFA’02) is one of America’s preeminent composers, and she’s fighting to improve the path for women in classical music. Photo by Marylene May
This article was first published in Bostonia on March 10, 2022. By Joel Brown
Excerpt
They are determined to use their experience, influence, and positions to help make their business, organization, and world more inclusive. They are breaking barriers—and then reaching back to help those behind them overcome the same hurdles. They are BU alumni, faculty, and staff—of every race, ethnicity, age, and gender—and they are “Opening Doors” for the next generation.
Missy Mazzoli began playing piano when she was seven.
“I knew instantly that I wanted to dedicate my life to music; it had such a profound effect on me,” says Mazzoli (BUTI'98, CFA’02). “I started writing when I was 10. I made the decision to be a composer before I knew what that meant.”
Now, she is one of America’s preeminent composers—Time Out New York calls her “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart.” Recently composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mazzoli is writing an opera based on George Saunders’ novel Lincoln in the Bardo for the Metropolitan Opera, and she rattles off new works that are performed or about to be performed by the National Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and others. Musical America named her its 2022 Composer of the Year. In addition to her bachelor’s degree from BU, she has a master’s from Yale and studied at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague. She is on the faculty of New York’s Mannes School of Music.
She’s one of a small but growing cohort of women composers trying to make their way in a classical music world that’s been dominated by men—white men—pretty much forever. The Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy found in a study of the 2021–2022 season at the top 21 American ensembles that only 15 percent of works scheduled were by women, and those works represented only 11 percent of performances.
Mazzoli and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Ellen Reid started the Luna Composition Lab, in collaboration with the Kaufman Music Center in New York, to give teenage female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers a head start. Mazzoli also makes it her practice to advocate for better representation for women, publicly when needed.
“Even my beloved Philadelphia Orchestra, my hometown orchestra—a couple of years ago they had a season that was all men [composers]. And I was very vocal on Twitter about pointing this out,” she says. “Like, this orchestra meant everything to me as a kid, and it’s disappointing to feel unwanted, like there’s no place for me in this organization. It was well publicized, and they made really concrete, amazing steps in a positive direction.
“They hired Valerie Coleman (CFA’95), my fellow BU alum, and started programming many, many more women. I had a piece with them in December,” Mazzoli says. “Change can happen fast.”
Q&A with Missy Mazzoli
Bostonia: How was your experience at BU as a composition major in the College of Fine Arts School of Music?
Missy Mazzoli: I like to look at the numbers and the statistics and the ratio in terms of representation in any program I’m in or in a leadership position in. At BU, for a couple of years I was the only female undergrad. Not the only woman in my year, the only woman out of four years. Then I think at the end of my sophomore year, one more transferred in, and there were two of us. And 2 out of 40 is not a great number.
Anytime you are that significantly in the minority, that’s not the best learning environment. There was Marjorie Merriman teaching in the department at the time. She was the only woman, and I actually never got to study with her. It’s great there’s one female faculty member, but one out of six or seven is not a great ratio.
I had an amazing time at BU, I had amazing professors, I learned a lot, and they really kicked my butt and drilled the fundamentals into me, and I draw on that knowledge every day. [But] when you are the only one in your situation, that is not ideal and usually not a supportive environment. Also, there were very few students of color. And at the time, we didn’t have the language to recognize people who are not binary. It was a very white, male department. That is still the overwhelming majority of people who make up composition departments.
How would you change that?
I would hire a lot more women. Everything I’m saying also applies to race and representation of nonbinary and trans individuals. But from my perspective as a woman, when you have women in positions of power, more women are attracted to apply. So at NYU, you have Julia Wolfe. I see a lot of women in that department. Up until recently, Jennifer Higdon was teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music, and that program, though it’s small, had a lot of women. My department at Mannes could be better, but there are a lot of women on faculty, so we get a lot of female applicants.
I would also find ways to recruit exceptional young women who are in their teens. Part of the reason we founded Luna Lab was to shine a spotlight on really young, female, and nonbinary and gender-nonconforming composers who are making decisions about where to apply. I could imagine some kind of recruiting situation where, if BU was interested in those students, we could encourage them to apply.
BU has women on the faculty. It becomes a sort of knotty situation when these programs don’t have significant numbers of women on faculty—then I cannot in good conscience recommend that program to my students. It takes time, building a department where young women feel like they’re heard and they’re welcome and they’re recognized.
As a high schooler, you also studied at the BU Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Composition Program.
I was the only woman in the program there too, and I had a really hard time because of that. It’s the same exact problem. I do believe it has opened up now, and I am working with them as an advisor to help it open up even more. [She is an advisor for a new CFA program—the Composition Fundamentals Workshop—for composers earlier in their development.]
Is this an academia problem or a classical music problem?
It’s both. I see the problem more acutely in academia because the numbers are smaller. I never had a female professor at Yale or at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague. There were no women on faculty at all. And this was not that long ago! This was, like, 15 years ago.
Up until recently, there were orchestras that would have entire seasons with no female composers on them. So, I’m reacting against the number zero. I’m not saying to these orchestras you need to have a 50-50 split—even though an accurate representation of our population would be 51 percent female—I’m just advocating for having someone on the season who is not white and male.
I think classical music has this genius problem, where genius trumps all. And that classical music is somehow above the fray and untouched by these earthly concerns about gender and race and racism. And we are not! This is music made by people. This is a job. And when you don’t represent people, you deny them jobs, work, artistic fulfillment; #metoo has not really fully hit classical music or music academia yet.