"Girls Don’t Play Tuba”: A Phenomenological Analysis of Women in Music by Megan Brinson

My name is Megan Brinson (she/her). I hold a degree in music and sociology from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and I’m currently a PhD student in Sociology at NC State University. My work is centered around gender and race inequality, especially in male-dominated spaces like classical music. My paper, "Girls Don’t Play Tuba”: A Phenomenological Analysis of Women in Music" is the product of several interviews I completed with female classical musicians discussing their experiences in the field and insights on increasing equity. My first paper, "“Men Don’t Play Flutes”: Feminist Analysis of Gender and Music" inspired me to write my other work, and a general analysis of how/why musical instruments are gendered, feminism in musicology, and the power dynamics present in classical music.

An excerpt from “Girls Don’t Play Tuba” -

The field of classical music, like many subfields of the arts, is revered for its ability to bring people together and help us find our common humanity, especially in times of turmoil or unrest. However, there is a darker underbelly to the arts that isn’t often discussed as thoroughly as it should be, especially in classical music: the lack of representation of women as performers, composers, conductors, and scholars. The current research aims to explore the realities of women in the field and is supplemented by a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with women who have found success in the classical music field in some aspect.

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organized by Christina Fiol
Resource Committee Member