The Undeniable Truth About Women Composers That No One is Telling You As an undergraduate music major, I did not find it unusual that after four exhausting semesters of music history, I had only studied a handful of talented women involved in composition. The usual names popped up - Clara Schumann , Fanny Mendelssohn, and Amy Beach. Of these women, only one, Amy Beach, was not associated with a famous male composer. After graduate studies in music, I realized the importance of studying women in music, notably contemporary living composers. I had been fortunate to be mentored by Clare Shore , Kristine Burns, and Pauline Oliveros. For more in-depth studies on women in western music, I suggest Burns' Women and Music in the US Since 1900: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2002), Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner's Crossing the Line: Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States , the Kaprova Society's Women Composer Database, and the International Alliance for Wome...