A Playlist in Celebration of Pride Month

From Piotr Tchaikovsky to Nadia Boulanger to Leonard Bernstein to Wendy Carlos, LGBTQ+ composers and musicians have made significant contributions to the classical music canon, whether they were able to reveal their true selves publicly in their own lifetimes or not.

The Seattle Symphony celebrates Pride Month — paying tribute to the numerous individuals at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and the movement for LGBTQ+ rights that followed — and honors the LGBTQ+ artists who have made an indelible mark on the musical world with this playlist featuring several talented and underknown creators. Listen up.

An activist for the women’s suffrage movement, Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) holds a special place in history as a pioneering composer and musical disruptor. She was also the first female composer to be awarded damehood! Serenade in D Major was composed in the late 19th century and premiered on April 26, 1890. Get a little playful with its memorable second movement!

Throughout Lou Harrison’s prolific life, he garnered widespread acclaim as an innovator, artist, composer, poet and activist. Harrison wrote Music for Bill and Me in honor of William Colvig, his partner and collaborator. Colvig also helped to build many of the percussion instruments used in Harrison's music.

Many years before his 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning Second Symphony, John Corigliano delivered a deeply moving and thought-provoking memorial to friends affected by the AIDS epidemic. During the early years of the health crises, the LGBTQ+ community suffered disproportionately, especially in relation to inequalities in healthcare and public policy. Throughout the composition’s four movements — written from 1988–1989 and premiering with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1990 — Corigliano’s anger and frustration is a focal point used to inform his stylistic choices. In the third movement below, shouting wind sections trade with dance-like rhythmic figures, conjuring a sense of frantic energy.

Composer Jennifer Higdon, another Pulitzer Prize-winner on this list, has spoken about how her identity has allowed her to openly express her emotions through music, and blue cathedral is no exception. The work showcases the sounds of the flute, which Higdon taught herself to play when she was 15, and clarinet, in honor of her late brother.

Musical visionary and avant-garde composer Julius Eastman, whose compositions were almost lost to time, is finally being recognized as an important intersectional queer Black artist. A great advocate of Eastman’s work is Seth Parker Woods, who gave a stunning Octave 9 performance this season. Here, he performs Eastman’s music with the Los Angeles-based ensemble, Wild Up.

Nico Muhly has made waves as one of the most sought-after composers and instrumentalists active today. His music holds a fond place in the repertoire of the Seattle Symphony; his piece, So Far So Good, premiered at Benaroya Hall back in 2012. Fast forward to this past March and the U.S. premiere of his explosive and colorfully orchestrated Cello Cycles; the first movement of the collaborative Three Continents Cello Concerto was as thrilling for audiences as it will be for you right after you finish reading this sentence!

The Omar Thomas Large Ensemble’s May, 9th 2012, from their four-movement LGBTQ+ Civil Rights jazz piece, We Will Know, commemorates the day that Barack Obama publicly declared his support for same-sex marriage — the first president in American history to do so. This declaration, along with concerted action by a variety of community-based and politically involved stakeholders, led to marriage equality legalization in June 2015. Music has always been intertwined with widespread progress, so here's to Pride Month, and every month, for letting love sing out for all to hear!

Click here to check out the Seattle Symphony's Pride Month playlist on Spotify and add it to your library.