About CoWoCo
From concerts in renowned concert halls to study concerts at art universities, works by female composers are still only found in relatively small numbers in their programs and - as is also the case with their male colleagues - usually only by a few well-known names.
The motivation for this project arose from the desire to make the works of female composers better known and thus enable the concert repertoire and canon to become more diverse and egalitarian. Such a change begins with the accessibility of sheet music and extends to its use in lessons and programming in concerts.
As a survey conducted by the mdw's student body in 2021 showed, students are now familiar with several female composers, and some of their works are available as sheet music in the mdw University Library and collections on the Internet. To incorporate this into their teaching, they need time for research, which is often unavailable.
This is precisely where the Compendium comes in. Its aim is to make it easier to discover and get to know this highly important repertoire of music. On the search page, it is possible to use filters with comprehensive search parameters to find works specifically for particular ensembles, vocal ranges, difficulty levels, etc. By providing links to recordings and sheet music collections, the online database also aims to enable users to explore and become familiar with works, to use them in teaching, and to perform them in concerts.
CoWoCo - Vocal (first project phase) initially focused on the vocal music by 19th-century female composers available at the mdw. We are currently already working on incorporating this repertoire from all musical eras.
CoWoCo (second project phase) In the next project phase, which we will launch in 2026, we also intend to catalogue works from outside the ubmdw and to update the data already entered, as well as to gradually incorporate the repertoire for other instruments and ensembles.
Project team
- Johannes Geppert, Department for Vocal and Voice Research in Music Education
- Tanya Aspelmeier, Department for Vocal and Voice Research in Music Education
- Stefan Szepe, IT
- Stefan Trumpf, IT
- Nora Geroldinger, Student Assistant
Former members of the project team
- Birgit Huebener, Equality, Gender Studies & Diversity Unit
- Magdalena Janezic, Student Assistant
A cooperation project of the platform Gender_mdw funded by the Gender|Queer|Diversity Call_mdw