As a woman working in classical music, an industry that has historically been male-dominated, it is important to me to see marginalized voices uplifted. I have made it part of my mission as an artist and an educator to ensure that my work reflects my value of including diverse voices. My contributions include commissioning music by marginalized composers, serving my musical and local communities through volunteer work, and advocating for diversifying compositional voices through music programming.

Commissioning new music is an integral part of what I do as an artist. As of November 2024, I have commissioned two female-identifying composers: Lisa Neher’s bassoon sonata, Sunflower Sea Star (consortium), and a new piece for bassoon and marimba by Ayako Pederson-Takeda, called the things i saw. I am also a member of Lisa Neher’s consortium for her new 2025 piece, Southern Resident. I look forward to continuing to commission new works for the bassoon in this way in the future following this project.

In addition to my commissioning efforts, I also make a point to contribute through community involvement. Since I moved to Minneapolis, I have been fortunate to be a core member of LADYBAND, which saw its inaugural performance just two weeks after I arrived. This group has largely shaped my experience in the local music scene, and I am proud to be a part of this feminocentric chamber ensemble which amplifies the voices of women in the Minneapolis community by partnering with local women-owned venues, creating programs often solely featuring female composers, and featuring exclusively female instrumentalists.

Additionally, I am a volunteer co-vendor coordinator for the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium, an organization dedicated to making the bassoon world diverse, equitable, inclusive, and supportive. Meg Quigley serves bassoonists by providing resources, access, opportunity, and strives to eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of those impacted by systemic oppression in Classical music and beyond.

Like many areas of the liberal arts, classical music has in recent years seen a push for including marginalized voices in the community. Personally, I feel it is simply a no-brainer that a modern program should include one historically marginalized voice at minimum, but ideally should feature a variety of diverse people and styles of music. I think it is important to take risks in order to support historically marginalized voices in the liberal arts. I have had plenty of difficult conversations with colleagues about diverse programming and have successfully advocated for the performance of music composed by women, non-binary people, Native, and BIPOC composers. No matter the discomfort, having these conversations is one of the ways that we can uphold our values of promoting the expression and exploration of all perspectives and viewpoints.