Boulanger Initiative co-founders Joy-Leilani Garbutt (left) and Laura Colgate (photo by Geoff Sheil)

Classical organist Joy-Leilani Garbutt had just completed a rehearsal one evening last fall when she stopped by the Takoma Beverage Company. A fellow musician who runs the hangout spot thought Garbutt might hit it off with violinist Laura Colgate, who was also there. Little did the two know how much they had in common.

Both musicians were pursuing doctoral degrees, Colgate at the University of Maryland and Garbutt at The Catholic University of America. Each of their dissertations focused on female composers and, in the process of doing research, Colgate and Garbutt independently arrived at the conclusion that there is a need to bring past and present female classical composers to light.

The two exchanged contact information and met in early 2018 for a brainstorming session.

“That’s where we sat down and started talking about the research we had been doing, how driven we both were to bring more attention to music written by women, and how much it is overlooked,” Garbutt recalls. “The more that we talked, the more these ideas kept spinning out of what we’d like to do.”

The result of this and subsequent meetings is the Boulanger Initiative, whose mission is to “promote music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions.” The project took its name from Lili Boulanger, a late 19th/early 20th century French composer who was the first female winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome composition prize.

At first, Colgate and Garbutt thought they would simply curate a chamber series where they themselves would perform pieces by women. The vision grew, and now they are aiming for a high-profile launch in 2019 with a much broader array of complementary activities, including an educational component and commissioning original pieces from female composers.

“Nothing like this exists for women composers,” Colgate says. “If we’re going to do it, we might as well jump in with both feet.”

Colgate and Garbutt are in the process of registering the Boulanger Initiative as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and are in the early stages of identifying board members. They cannot solicit donations and apply for grant funding until this process is complete, but meanwhile, they are taking advantage of the excitement that their work is generating.

“We just became public two weeks ago and people are coming out of the woodwork. We’re finding a lot of support for this,” Colgate says.

Colgate and Garbutt will host a low key meet-and-greet on Monday at Takoma Beverage Company to present their vision. The event is invite only, but anyone interested should contact them through the website to see if there is space available.

The current plan is for the Boulanger Initiative to have its grand debut over the weekend of International Women’s Day in March 2019. Garbutt and Colgate envision a multi-day festival that includes concerts and master classes. Right now, they are planning to have a main performer for each day who will bring in a composer with whom they are collaborating. In addition to the performance, each duo will participate in a panel discussion or clinic.

“We haven’t announced anything yet and we’re still sorting things out, but we’re talking to some really exciting composers and performers to come in for that weekend,” Colgate says.

After next year’s anticipated festival, Colgate and Garbutt are hopeful that the Boulanger Initiative will present a full season of concerts beginning in 2019-2020 and extending beyond. While performances are vital to the organization’s mission, both Colgate and Garbutt believe that the education and commissioning new pieces are equally important to the initiative’s success.

“When organizations do focus on new music there is greater equality that comes with that because there are so many wonderful composers who are women,” Garbutt says.

Colgate’s training experience illuminated how women received short shrift in the classical canon.

“There’s maybe one female composer who’s included in textbooks, ever,” she says. “Beyond that there’s really nothing.”

The Boulanger Initiative will also fit in nicely within the D.C. area’s cultural landscape. At the most basic level, it will present music that is currently absent from the typical concert season. The program will also be able to take advantage of the many universities in the area to start pushing back against sexism in classical music.

“It’s really trying to put a little pressure on music departments and music schools to make this a bigger part of the curriculum,” Garbutt says. “We might not be as fair as we think we are, as a society, and I think we’re starting to recognize that.”