Maestra Music

“The organization’s initiatives aim to promote equality of opportunity and to address the many historical disadvantages and practices that have limited women composers and musicians in the musical theater. ”

RESEARCH PROJECT: Maestra Music Industry Study

COVERAGE: 2015-2019

RESEARCH PARTNERS: Georgia Stitt and Caitlin Warbelow

Maestra Music was founded by composer/lyricist and music director Georgia Stitt to give support, visibility, and community to the women who make the music in the musical theater industry. Our membership is made up of female-identifying, non-binary, and TGNC composers, music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, rehearsal pianists and other musicians who are an underrepresented minority in musical theater.

Month after month our group has grown, and we currently have over 150 women on the roster for the NYC chapter of women theater composers, as well as regional groups in the Midwest, Southern California, Nashville, Australia and the UK. Our extended online community has grown to include over 1000 women music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, music assistants, contractors, and pit musicians: a ferocious international network. We are forging new relationships with the women+ lyricists, bookwriters, directors, and producers in our industry and have built a Directory that allows you to find them and them to find each other.

FINDINGS: Maestra Music is at the very beginning of a data and statistics projects that will look at the numbers of women who work in music-making jobs in the musical theater. Our preliminary research has assessed the hiring and programming statistics from the last five seasons on Broadway.