On March 8, International Women’s Day, the Washington, D.C.-based Boulanger Initiative—which promotes music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions—will host its second annual one-day WoCo Festival. This year’s festival will include multiple performances at D.C.’s Big Bear Cafe and All Souls Church, including Third Coast Percussion performing the world premiere of JLin’s Perspective, Boulanger Initiative’s first commissioning project. The festival will feature composers, ensembles, and artists working toward gender equity in classical music, and daytime festivities will highlight local performers and artists who are regularly empowering women-identifying composers. In addition to performances, there will be panel discussions and professional development booths. Featured performers will include composer-performers Kirsten Lies-Warfield, who in 1999 became the first woman trombonist to serve in the United States Army Band; District5 wind quintet; composer/performer Molly Joyce, whose work uses disability as a creative source; Bergamot String Quartet; and Barclay Brass. Among featured composers will be Jessica Krash, Fanny Mendelssohn, Suzanne Farrin, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw, Ledah Finck, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Lili Boulanger. The Boulanger Initiative was founded in 2018 by violinist Laura Colgate and organist Joy-Leilani Garbutt, who serve as its co-artistic directors.
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