Philadelphia summer music camp helps develop female, trans and nonbinary composers

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — This summer, 16 young composers are spending two weeks on Temple University's campus to workshop and develop their original works of music.

The Wildflower Composers Festival, now in its sixth year, is an educational program where female, trans and nonbinary composers learn from musical instructors who identify similarly. The program culminates with a concert of world premieres on July 19 at 2 p.m. at Rock Hall Auditorium on Temple University's campus.

Clover Drake, a 16-year-old composer from Washington who identifies as nonbinary, said this setting feels freeing.

"It makes it really easy to be yourself," Drake said. "I know that sounds cliche, but just speaking with other people and having some grounds to relate with and not feeling any judgment in this area makes it so easy to be creative."

Wednesday, pianist Hanchien Lee performed for students, breaking down the works of Mozart and other compositional masters. Drake said it was helpful.

"She was able to imbue this inanimate object with human-like emotion," Drake said of Lee's playing. "I'm writing for piano, so I was just thinking about what different techniques you can use, like dynamic change and working with different arpeggios."

A recent report by Donne Women in Music found in the 2023-2024 concert season, only 7.5% of the music pieces played by global orchestras were composed by women.

That's why Wildflower's founder and executive director, composer and cellist Erin Busch, started the festival.

"Stemming from my own experience growing up as usually the only girl in the space," Busch said. "I really just was longing for some peers and some community and mentors who looked like me, and so I wanted to create that space for the next generation."

Now, young composers like 16-year-old Madeleine Reed have someone to look up to. Reed brought her original composition for cello to the camp.

"I'm now really looking forward to getting more of the industry advice and the steps to actually getting commissions ... actually being able to make it a reality," Reed said.

By the end of the program, students will get to have their compositions recorded by professional musicians like Lee.

"It's an amazing bonding experience, and the students get this amazing recording that they can also use to apply to college," Busch said.

This experience is something Busch could have only dreamed of as a young girl.

"I think this would've completely changed the way I felt about myself as a composer," she said. "Just knowing that there were other folks out there would've made an enormous difference for me ... to know that there was a place for me."

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