GLBT: Classical Composers
Introduction
Welcome! GLBT composers have made immense contributions to classical music, in chamber and orchestral works, ballet, art songs, choral compositions, opera, musical theatre, and experimental pieces.
Some of the West's most influential composers are GLBT-identified, with a large number being bisexual. The glbtq encyclopedia offers excellent introductory articles on classical music, ballet, opera, and musical theatre
. Many of the composers below were also renowned as soloists and conductors. To keep this list focused, I omit exceptional GLBT talents who were exclusively performers, including singers Lauritz Melchior, Pierre Bernac, Peter Pears; pianists Wanda Landowska, Vladimir Horowitz, Van Cliburn; and conductors Dimitri Mitropoulos, Thomas Schippers, Kay Gardner.
In the future, I also hope to highlight the many diverse GLBT-identified popular musicians, who have enriched jazz, blues, folk, country, cabaret, rock, R&B, disco, punk, pop and more, including Joan Baez, David Bowie, Melissa Etheridge, Billie Holiday, Elton John, Janice Joplin, k.d. lang, Lou Reed, Bessie Smith, Pete Townshend. Wikipedia lists gay musicians, lesbian musicians, and bisexual musicians. As resources become available, I will include GLBT composers from Asia, Africa, and other regions. New! Thanks to James M. for writing with additional GLBT composers, to be added when time permits in the coming weeks.
More GLBT Arts Resources: GLBT Cinema, GLBT Literature, GLBT Visual Artists, essay "Why a GLBT Focus?" Some of the composers here are also on my personal highest-recommended music list.
PLEASE NOTE: All photos are solely for non-profit, educational use.
Hildegard |
Handel |
Beethoven |
Schubert |
Bellini |
Brahms |
Mussorgsky |
Tchaikovsky |
Satie |
Ravel |
Britten |
Bernstein |
Western GLBT Composers
- Arne, Thomas Augustine (3/12/1710 – 3/5/1778 / UK)
- Barber, Samuel (3/9/1910 – 1/23/1981 / US)
- Beethoven, Ludwig van (12/15/1770 – 3/26/1827 / Germany)
- Bellini, Vincenzo (11/3/1801 – 9/23/1835 / Italy)
- Berners, Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt–Wilson, Baron (9/18/1883 – 4/19/1950 / UK)
- Bernstein, Leonard (8/25/1918 – 10/14/1990 / US)
- Blitzstein, Marc (3/2/1905 – 1/22/1964 / US)
- Boulanger, Juliette Marie Olga Lili (8/21/1893 – 3/15/1918 / France)
- Boulez, Pierre (3/26/1925 – / France)
- Bowles, Paul (12/30/1910 – 11/18/1999 / US)
- Brahms, Johannes (5/7/1833 – 4/3/1897 / Germany)
- Britten, Lord Benjamin (11/22/1913 – 12/4/1976 / UK) – Britten resources
- Busoni, Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto (4/01/1866 – 7/27/1924 / Italy)
- Bussotti, Sylvano (10/1/1931 – / Italy)
- Buxtehude, Dietrich (ca. 1637 – 5/9/1707 / Germany)
- Caccini, Francesca (9/18/1587 – ca. 1645 / Italy)
- Cage, John (9/5/1912 – 8/12/1992 / US)
- Casulana, Madalena (ca. 1540 – ca. 1590 / Italy)
- Chausson, Ernest (1/20/1855 – 6/10/1899 / France)
- Chopin, Frederic (3/1/1810 – 10/17/1849 / Poland/France)
- Copland, Aaron (11/14/1900 – 12/02/1990 / US)
- Corigliano, John (2/16/1938 – / US)
- Corelli, Arcangelo (2/17/1653 – 1/08/1713 / Italy)
- Czerny, Carl (2/20/1791 – 7/15/1857 / Austria)
- Davies, Sir Peter (Maxwell) (9/8/1934 – / UK)
- Debussy, Achille-Claude (8/22/1862 – 3/25/1918 / France)
- Delius, Frederick (Fritz) Theodor Albert (1/29/1862 – 6/10/1934 / UK)
- Del Tredici, David (3/16/1937 – / US)
- Diamond, David (7/9/1915 – 6/13/2005 / US)
- Dussek, Jan Ladislav (2/12/1760 – 3/20/1812 / Czechoslovakia)
- Elgar, Edward (6/2/1857 – 2/23/1934 / UK)
- Falla, Manuel de (11/23/1876 – 11/14/1946 / Spain)
- Finn, William (2/28/52 – / US)
- Foster, Stephen Collins (7/4/1826 – 1/13/1864 / US)
- Frederich the Great (1/24/1712 – 8/17/1786 / Germany)
- Gershwin, George (9/26/1898 – 7/11/1937 / US)
- Gombert, Nicholas (ca. 1495 – 1560 / Flanders/France)
- Grainger, Percy Aldridge (7/8/1882 – 2/20/1961 / Australia)
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 Grieg, Edvard Hagerup (6/15/1843 – 9/4/1907 / Norway) - Griffes, Charles Tomlinson (9/17/1884 – 4/8/1920 / US)
- Handel, George Frideric (2/23/1685 – 4/14/1759 / Germany/UK)
- Harrison, Lou (5/14/1917 – 2/2/2003 / US)
- Hahn, Reynaldo (8/09/1874 – 1/28/1947 / France)
- Henze, Hans Werner (7/1/1926 – / Germany)
- Herman, Jerry (7/10/1933 – / US)
- Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179 / Germany)
- LaChiusa, Michael John (7/24/1962 – / US)
- Leonarda, Isabella (1620 – 1704 / Italy)
- Loewe, Frederick (6/10/1901 – 2/14/1988 / US)
- Mahler, Gustav (7/7/1860 – 05/18/1911 / Austria)
- Menotti, Gian Carlo (7/7/1911 – 02/01/2007 / US)
- Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich (3/21/1839 – 3/28/1881 / Russia)
- Porpora, Nicola Antonio (8/17/1686 – 3/03/1768 / Italy)
- Porter, Cole (6/9/1891 – 10/15/64 / US)
- Poulenc, Francis (1/7/1899 – 1/30/1963 / France)
- Ravel, Joseph Maurice (3/7/1875 – 12/28/1937 / France)
- Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai (3/18/1844 – 6/21/1908) / Russia)
- Rorem, Ned (10/23/1923 – / US)
- Rosenmüller, Johann (ca. 1619 – 9/10/1684 / Germany)
- Saint-Saëns, Charles-Camille (10/9/1835 – 12/16/1921 / France)
- Sapelnikov, Vassily [Wassily Sapellnikoff] (11/2/1867 – 3/17/1941)
- Satie, Erik Alfred-Leslie (5/17/1866 – 7/1/1925 / France)
- Schubert, Franz Peter (1/31/1797 – 11/19/1828 / Austria)
- Smyth, Dame Ethel (4/23/1858 – 5/8/1944 / UK)
- Sondheim, Stephen (3/22/1930 – / US)
- Stravinsky, Igor (6/17/1882 – 4/06/1971 / Russia)
- Strayhorn, Billy (11/29/1915 – 5/31/1967 / US)
- Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour (5/13/1842 – 11/22/1900 / UK)
- Szymanowski, Karol (10/6/1882 – 3/28/1937 / Poland)
- Tavener, John (1/28/1944 – / UK)
- Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilyich (5/07/1840 – 11/6/1893 / Russia)
- Thomson, Virgil (11/25/1897 – 9/30/1989 / US)
- Tilson-Thomas, Michael (12/21/1944 – / US)
- Tippett, Sir Michael Kemp (1/2/1905 – 1/8/1998 / UK)
- Youmans, Vincent (9/27/1898 – 4/5/1946 / US)
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