Hearing Her Voice

By Janaya Greene 

At a Colorado Springs schools visit, composer Wang Jie was enthralled with a group of student string players she met while working on a commission for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. The students were captivated by how changing one note could transform an entire composition, and Wang Jie was proud to be able to share her insights as a composer with them. After opening the floor for students to ask questions, to her surprise the first question Wang Jie received, from a young girl, was: “I heard it’s really hard to be a female composer. Is your life really hard?”

“I wasn’t angry immediately because I wanted to help her at the moment, but later after I wrapped this up and I was by myself, I had to really think about negligence in music education,” Wang Jie says. “I was so angry. How did this happen? It’s so wrong.”