Monday
This week starts with a day off. My life has always included lots of evening rehearsals and weekend work, so it’s important for me to set aside at least one day when I can rest and recharge for the week. No alarm, slow morning, and at least a few hours of unstructured time. I read a book about releasing stress, water my plants, soak up some Californian sunshine, and practise the organ (this is technically work, but it’s also one of my favourite things to do). Then it’s off to the races.
Tuesday
Early morning flight from San Francisco to Washington, DC, to help with final preparations for Boulanger Initiative’s WoCo Fest 2025! Laura Colgate and I founded this organisation in 2018 to address the shocking underrepresentation of music composed by women across our field. In addition to research, advocacy, commissions, educational programmes, and a host of other activities, we started an annual music festival in 2019 exclusively presenting music by women and gender-marginalised composers. Although our team is primarily based in the DC area, we have folks all over the country, and WoCo Fest is a time for us all to gather and celebrate with a whole weekend of music. This year’s festival is lucky number seven, and it’s also special because we are an official partner of World Pride 2025, which is taking place in DC this year. So in addition to a focus on music composed by women and gender-marginalised folks, we are also highlighting LGBTQIA+ performers and allies this year.
After landing, I reacquaint myself with DC rush-hour traffic and make my way to meet with Laura and our festival co-ordinator Hannah Kolarik. Things are moving smoothly, and we are grateful to be in our seventh year. We review timelines, schedules and remaining tasks for the week.
Wednesday
I’ve always worn many hats as a musician and today I get to switch between several of them. The day starts with a donor thank-you breakfast, we catch up about life, death and music, and I express my gratitude for his generous gift to help sponsor this year’s festival. From the beginning Boulanger Initiative (BI) has relied on many individual donors to make this work possible, and we always want to keep people updated on how their gifts are making a difference to so many composers, students, and every single person who gets to hear music that they would not otherwise know existed.
Next up is a virtual staff meeting. Being in DC means I’m working remotely for my San Francisco jobs. I’m the Director of the Girls’ Choir and Associate Musician at Grace Cathedral, and also Director of Music for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Much of the work is playing the organ and directing choirs, which can’t be done remotely, so I’m managing replacements for this week’s rehearsals and services and taking other admin meetings on Zoom.
Then it’s back to festival prep, this time with a team building art project! I meet up with the rest of the BI staff at our offices in Takoma Park, where the entire floor has been covered with a blue tarp so we can tie-dye shirts to wear for the weekend. It’s wonderful to see everyone take a break from their computers to get creative with rainbows and swirls of colour. With the help of YouTube, I attempt to tie-dye a trans pride flag in the shape of a heart. We’ll see how it turns out…
After we try unsuccessfully to wash the dye from our hands, I switch back into research mode for a meeting with our General Manager of Operations and our Research Manager. We’re working on the third volume in our curriculum series “Beyond the Box, Into the Barlines: Women Composers Throughout History”. Our first publication in the series highlighted over 50 composers from the Baroque era, and the second focused on orchestral compositions by women from across three centuries. I’m the lead writer for the third volume which is set in La Belle Epoque, France. It’s my favourite place and time period to write about, so I’m delighted to be working with this amazing team to help bring the stories of these composers and their music to life.
The day ends with music. My friend Reginald Smith Jr. is performing the title role in Porgy and Bess with the Washington National Opera, so I head back downtown to cheer him on. It’s a stunning performance, and a good reminder for me that men have composed some decent music too!
Thursday
One day before the festival! I start the morning by getting coffee with an old friend, Dr. Anwar Ottley; he’s now the director of a university choral programme and I ask for help spreading the word about the festival to his students and faculty. It takes a village, and we need all the help we can get to let people know about the weekend’s activities, as well as our ongoing work. I ask him about his repertoire for the upcoming year and recommend some choral works by Julia Perry. I tell him he can learn more about her and her music in the BI Database, which has catalogued over 15,000 works by more than 1,600 women composers. Over lunch the BI team has our final check-in confirming timelines, staffing assignments and remaining tasks.
In the afternoon I have a session with my therapist. Attending to our mental health is so important and I will never not take an opportunity to give a shout out to therapy.
My next stop is at a nearby church, where I’ve arranged to have a few hours of practice time. Being an organist means that I never get to travel with my instrument, and so I rely on the kindness and generosity of other organists and institutions who make their instruments available wherever I am.
It’s finally time for one of my favourite WoCo Fest traditions: The Wardrobe Meeting! Laura and I co-ordinate a look every year, with a general colour palette or theme. We do lots of welcome speeches and fundraising pitches, plus the majority of the year’s marketing photos come from the festival, so we want to make sure our presentation is just right. This year we settle on some golds, metallics and bold primary colours.
Friday
WoCo Fest Day 1 is here! This year our venue is The Mansion at Strathmore. Our production team and first groups of musicians arrive in the morning to begin set up and sound checks. Laura and I sit down together to put the finishing touches on our welcome speeches. We have lots of coffee. It’s one of the necessary ingredients of a music festival.
The team does a final load up of supplies from the BI offices, and we set up camp at Strathmore for the next two days. We have our all-festival-volunteers-and-staff orientation meeting to review details of the venue, ticketing, merch sales, food and beverage, and make sure everyone and everything is ready to go! Then we wait for the doors to open.
There is a buzz of excitement as the hall begins to fill. We are sold out and the anticipation is palpable. Friday night is a showcase of mostly local performers, each doing short sets. The genres range from a capella choral music, to sitar, to Chinese dulcimer and jazz flute. All is going well, and the vibe is excellent.
But suddenly there is a loud pop, the room goes pitch black, and the fire alarm begins blaring! Our amazing team handles it all like pros. We evacuate the building (when did it start raining?!) and all of our performers and guests are huddled outside in the dark.
After what feels like an eternity, the power is restored, the lights return, and all is well. We welcome everyone back into the building and start pouring free glasses of wine. Deep sighs of relief. No one went home; the hall fills up again, and we get the show back on track. If we’ve learned anything by year seven, it is to expect the unexpected.
Saturday
The main event this morning is watching the skies and every weather app we can access to determine if the outdoor events can go on as planned, or if we need to activate our rain plan. There is a torrential downpour, but as if on cue, it stops just in time for our first outdoor set. There are food trucks, and pride flags, drag queens and kings, and streamers and bubbles, and it feels like the celebration we all need. The day is a blur as Laura and I rotate from stage to stage introducing performers and welcoming audiences. We have a full line-up of indoor and outdoor shows, as well as composer workshops, vendor booths, and we can see that everyone is having a great time. People have come from far and near this year, and our mix of free and ticketed events mean that everyone can join in one aspect or another.
After our headliner, Pamela Z, finishes her stellar set to close out the festival, we have a closing reception and toast the completion of another BI year.
Sunday
It’s another very early morning to catch a flight. I’m headed home and absolutely glowing from the incredible weekend. Our numbers are in and we welcomed 84 performers from 15 different groups, presenting the music of more than 60 women and gender-diverse composers. The works performed included three world premieres, and the repertoire spanned about 375 years of music, with the earliest compositions by Barbara Strozzi, who was writing in the 1600s to our world premieres and composer workshop pieces written this year!
Our work to create more gender equity and representation in the music world is ongoing, and feels more needed than ever, but at least for today, I can sit back and revel in a moment’s satisfaction that we are making a difference in the world.
