Women's History Month music for kids: a four-week listening plan

This plan gives you four weeks of music by women, with three composers a week and one piece each. It starts in a convent in the 1100s and ends with composers who are writing now.

Women’s History Month is March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In Canada it is October. International Women’s Day is March 8. The plan works in any month.

How to use the plan

• Play one piece on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• Say the composer’s name and the title first.
• Ask the question that comes with each piece.
• Play the week’s favorite again on the weekend.

Week 1: before 1750

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 to 1179). She led a community of nuns in Germany. She wrote chants, which are single lines of melody for voices alone. Play: any one of her chants. Ask: how long can the singers hold one breath? Read Hildegard of Bingen for kids.

Barbara Strozzi (1619 to 1677). She was a singer in Venice. She published eight books of her own music, which was rare for a woman of her time. Play: one of her songs for solo voice. Ask: is the singer happy, sad, or both? Read Barbara Strozzi for kids.

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665 to 1729). She played the harpsichord for King Louis XIV of France when she was a small child. Play: a dance from one of her harpsichord suites. Ask: how is a harpsichord different from a piano? Read Jacquet de La Guerre for kids.

Week 2: the 1800s

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805 to 1847). She was the older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. She wrote a set of piano pieces called The Year, with one piece for each month. Play: the piece for this month. Ask: does the music fit the month? Read Fanny Mendelssohn for kids.

Clara Schumann (1819 to 1896). She was one of the best-known pianists of her century, and she played concerts for more than 60 years. She wrote her piano concerto as a teenager. Play: the last movement of her Piano Trio. Ask: which of the three instruments has the tune now? Read Clara Schumann for kids.

Cécile Chaminade (1857 to 1944). She was a French pianist who wrote about 200 piano pieces. Play: her Concertino for flute. Ask: where does the flute play alone? Read Cécile Chaminade for kids.

Week 3: a new century

Amy Beach (1867 to 1944). The Boston Symphony Orchestra played her Gaelic Symphony in 1896. She was the first American woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra. Play: the second movement. Ask: does it sound like a folk song? Read Amy Beach for kids.

Ethel Smyth (1858 to 1944). She was an English composer who joined the fight for women’s right to vote. She wrote “The March of the Women” for that cause. Play: the overture to her opera The Wreckers, a story set on the coast of Cornwall. Ask: does this music sound like the sea? Read Ethel Smyth for kids.

Lili Boulanger (1893 to 1918). In 1913 she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, a top French prize for composers. She was 19. Play: “Of a Spring Morning.” Ask: what is the weather in this piece? Read Lili Boulanger for kids.

Week 4: living composers

Jennifer Higdon (born 1962). She is an American composer who taught herself the flute at 15. Play: “blue cathedral,” which she writes with a small b. Ask: can you find the flute and the clarinet talking to each other? Read Jennifer Higdon for kids.

Caroline Shaw (born 1982). In 2013 she became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, at age 30. The piece was Partita for 8 Voices. Play: the first movement, “Allemande.” Ask: how many kinds of sound can a voice make? Read Caroline Shaw for kids.

Alexina Louie (born 1949). She is a Canadian composer from Vancouver who has written music for young pianists as well as for orchestras. Play: one of her short piano pieces. Ask: does it sound like night or day? Read Alexina Louie for kids.

The plan on one page

Week	Monday	Wednesday	Friday
1	Hildegard, a chant	Strozzi, a song	Jacquet de La Guerre, a harpsichord dance
2	Fanny Mendelssohn, The Year	Clara Schumann, Piano Trio	Chaminade, Concertino for flute
3	Beach, Gaelic Symphony	Smyth, The Wreckers overture	Lili Boulanger, “Of a Spring Morning”
4	Higdon, “blue cathedral”	Shaw, Partita for 8 Voices	Louie, a piano piece

Things to do

• Sort by century. Place the 12 composers on the composer timeline.
• Make cards. Print composer cards and add one fact to each.
• Ask a hard question. Why are there fewer famous women composers from the past? Read women composers for kids: ten to know for an answer.
• Find one near you. Look at your local orchestra’s season and find a piece by a living woman composer.

For more composers who are working now, read living composers kids can hear today. For another month of listening, read Black History Month music for kids.