Resources Mentioned
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March is Women’s History Month and by extension, Women in Music Month—an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions to our field.
When I was a grad student at Eastman, they used to have an annual Women in Music Festival in March. Students and faculty worked together to create a series of programs and lunchtime concerts featuring music (and sometimes lyrics) by women. I had the opportunity to accompany on a program one year—it was so meaningful to be part of such a special event. It’s still something that stands out in my memory from my time in grad school.
As a teacher, I love finding ways to honor and celebrate things like this with my students. A few years ago, we did a studio-wide blues composition project (see Ep. 045) during the month of February, Black History Month.
Then, there was the year I created a 4-week study unit for one of my high school students focused on women composers. In Ep. 057, I talked about the composers and scores we were planning to study and shared a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.
I’ll link to both of those episodes in the show notes for you if you want to check them out.
This year, we’re celebrating Women in Music Month with a series of three musical informances. If you’re new here and haven’t heard me talk about informances before, here’s a quick introduction:
What is a Musical Informance?
Informances are informal performances focused on sharing information and engaging the audience. Dr. Dave Headlam describes it as a “performance for the information age” (source: The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory).
I hosted informances in my studio last year for the first time (I shared three things I learned from this experience in Ep. 071). This year, our theme is Women in Music and each student is preparing a piece by a female composer (15 in all).
Today, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re preparing for informances this year including how I’m structuring them, how we’re highlighting women’s contributions to the field, expectations I have for my students, and ways we can include the audience in the process.
Structuring a Musical Informance in Your Studio
I want to start by talking about the overall structure first. I’m planning three informances for my studio at the end of this month. Why three different events? A few reasons:
We can keep the group small, 5-6 performers and their families.
With a smaller group, we can have the event in a music classroom at the school where I teach vs. the theater or a more formal performance venue. This creates a more intimate environment where the focus is more on the learning process than the polished performance.
The whole event is under 45 minutes, but with only 5-6 performers, there’s time to share about the piece and the composer and provide some insight into the student’s unique learning process.
I surveyed my studio families for their availability and assigned students to an event. I tried to make sure that everyone will have a friend—someone in their class at school or that they know from studio class. One informance program has only 3rd-5th graders while another has students from Kindergarten to 10th grade. So, it just depends.
Choosing Repertoire by Women Composers
Once I decided on the theme for this year, I began planning repertoire. I like to give my students some input here, so in our first lessons of the new year, I presented each student with 2-3 repertoire options and let them choose. Each student will perform a different piece and most have different composers, as well.
Pieces include:
“Answering” by Emma Lou Diemer
“Starfish at Night” and “Angelfish” by Anne Crosby Gaudet
“Winter Time” by Chee-Hwa Tan
“Boat of Tai Lake” arr. Emilie Lin
“Love Song” by Sara Bareilles
“Between Worlds” by Chrissy Ricker
“Straw Hat Strut” by Martha Mier
“Reflections” by Paula Dreyer
After my students selected their pieces, I realized that most of the composers are still living, so I decided to add another dimension to this year’s informances: Writing letters to the composers.
We worked on this together in lessons: I invited my students to think of 3-5 questions to ask—about their piece, the composer’s musical life, or their personal life. I dug up email addresses and contact forms and wrote letters on their behalf, sharing what grade they were in, what piece they’re playing, and how long they’ve been studying piano. To my delight, we received thoughtful responses from every one—11 composers in total.
My students asked questions like:
What is your favorite part of the song?
How old were you when you first started piano?
Do you play any other instruments?
What inspired you when you wrote this piece?
Do you like playing the piano? Is it fun for you? It’s fun for me. (One of my favorite questions a student asked!)
How old were you when you wrote your first piece?
How many songs have you made? (Their words)
Do you like the black keys or the white keys more? I like the white keys because they’re easier to play on. (Again, adorable.)
What’s your favorite color?
I think it’s so important and special for students to interact with living composers. Having the opportunity to write a letter (or email) and receive a response back from a real, living composer is a little bit magical. I printed off the replies and shared them with my students in lessons. My favorite part was watching them read the letter and smiling to themselves.
Some wrote such kind, affirming statements.
Anne Crosby Gaudet wrote, “I hope you enjoy preparing for your informance. Keep exploring, creating, and making music—it’s such a wonderful journey!”
Chee-Hwa Tan shared “I started when I was 5-years old and it still gives me so much joy to be able to connect with my heart to music.”
In addition to the printed copies I shared with my students, I’m planning to put digital copies on Google Drive and share them with the audience via a QR code on the program. I also have short bios for each composer to share with the audience.
Setting Expectations for Students
Most of my students participated in informances last year, so they know what to expect, but several students are new this year. We’ve been talking about the event since January and I’ve been slowly introducing my expectations for them as participants.
This is something I’ve been reflecting on recently, so I thought I’d take the time to write it out. Here’s what I expect of students as we prepare for informances:
All students will participate in annual informances
Students may choose the piece they perform from teacher selections
Students should aim to practice 4x/week following the guidance on their assignment sheet
Pieces do not need to be memorized
Students will make musical decisions about their piece leading up to the event, reviewing technique, form, dynamics, articulation, phrasing, and expression
Students will participate in a conversation with the teacher in front of an audience, discussing their piece, the composer, and their learning process, with questions prepared ahead of time
Students will perform a solo piece for a small audience
Do you set expectations like this for your students? I’d love to hear what this looks like in your studio.
We’ve talked about structuring a musical informance, choosing repertoire, and setting expectations. Next, let’s talk about creating opportunities for audience engagement.
Creating Opportunities for Audience Engagement
Now that we’re a few weeks out from the event, we’re spending time in each lesson talking through ways to engage the audience. Here are some of the questions I’m asking:
Who is the composer and what do you know about them?
What do you want to share or tell the audience about the piece before they hear it?
How did you learn this piece? Tell us about your process.
What’s your favorite part?
What’s something you learned from working on this piece?
We practice having this conversation for 3-4 weeks leading up to the event. This way, I can refine the questions I want to ask and the student can prepare how they want to respond. We can also practice musical examples, if there are any spots they want to demonstrate before playing.
This is an organic process and it varies by student.
In a few conversations, I’ve thought, “This would be a great opportunity to invite the audience to participate.” This only works with certain pieces, but I love incorporating at least one opportunity in each informance for people to actively engage with the piece or a musical component.
An informance is different from a performance in that there’s an informational component—something we’re teaching or sharing with the audience. I like this to be as interactive as possible—giving the audience something to do or experience instead of just being passive listeners.
People are curious. They’re looking for more engagement and a deeper understanding of the music they hear. And I’m talking about more than just program notes or a pre-concert lecture. They want to feel connected.
How can we invite the audience into the learning process? How can they participate in the music-making instead of just being a consumer? And because I’m a constructivist at heart, how can we co-construct a musical experience together?
Here are a few examples of what that might look like:
Voting on two ways to end the piece
Creating a storyline based on the title and musical ideas presented
Learning and practicing a prominent rhythm pattern
Participating in a musical quiz (e.g. major vs. minor?)
Improvising in black-key pentatonic to establish the sound world of a piece
Musical Informance Planning Guide
If you’re thinking about hosting an informance in your studio, I put together an in-depth PDF resource guide with all this information and more—it started out as a few planning worksheets and turned into a comprehensive, 37-page document.
It includes eight theme ideas with leveled repertoire lists, source links, and ideas for related musical activities that tie in to help you engage your audience. You’ll also get a 12-week planning timeline + checklist—this is what I’m using in my studio, an activity-planning worksheet and materials/supply list, a sample program, and email swipe copy.
Conclusion
American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey argued that the goal of education is to balance the “informal and the formal, the incidental and the intentional” (source: Democracy and Education). This is my goal with hosting musical informances—creating space for incidental and intentional learning, enriching community engagement, and equipping our students to be musical leaders, teachers, and innovators in the future.
This year, I’m honored to highlight the voices and contributions of women to our field and give my students the ability to connect and engage with living composers.
I’d love to hear from you:
Have you celebrated Women in Music Month in your studio? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below or send me a message on Instagram—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
