Ludwig van Beethoven. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Johann Sebastian Bach. Johannes Brahms – the list goes on. What do all of these people, the world’s greatest composers, have in common? They are dead, white European men.
Now, how about Clara Schumann? She was one of the most talented concert pianists of her time, earning money to support her husband’s – the much better known Robert Schumann – composing career and making him a household name. Or Florence Price – the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra, her Symphony in E minor by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Maybe you’ve heard of Hildegard von Bingen, a saint and polymath who was a pioneer in music, as well as theology, writing, and the sciences, for women of the Middle Ages.
How come we don’t hear about these composers, or learn about them in school? Classical music is incredibly diverse, but so many composers are still to this day underrepresented and overlooked.
Hidden Composers Project was founded to increase the public awareness of music by diverse composers. This website was born out of a lifelong passion for music and the realization that classical music in particular lacks the diversity that it should have.
Our mission is to spread music education as well as representation of diverse composers in a variety of genres, mainly classical and instrumental. We firmly believe music should be as diverse as the world around it.
Our Team
DECLAN HONG, FOUNDER
Declan is a high school student in Washington State, plays piano, viola, and oboe, and has always had a passion for classical music. As he gets older and learns more about music, Declan has realized there are not many diverse faces in the classical world. Why is he not able to play music written by people that look like him? For a world as incredibly diverse as this one, classical music is very centered on Caucasian European males. Declan started Hidden Composers Project to increase awareness and representation of diverse perspectives in classical music. Hidden Composers works to educate and promote music by composers of diverse ethnicities, nationalities, gender identities, and sexual identities.
The hope of Hidden Composers Project is to ensure people are represented and feel included in classical music, spreading the love of music to all.
