Association of Canadian Women Composers/L'Association des femmes compositeurs canadiennes

Association of Canadian Women Composers/L'Association des femmes compositeurs canadiennes

Association of Canadian Women Composers/L'Association des femmes compositeurs canadiennes, a national organization founded in 1980 by writer-broadcaster Carolyn Lomax, whose aims are to promote the performance of works by women composers in Canada and abroad, to encourage women composers to realize their creative potential and to foster the highest standard of composition. Membership, initially about 40, was approximately 95 in 2002, and comprised active, affiliate, associate and composer-in-training categories. A directory for members, first published in 1987 and distributed to libraries and music departments throughout North America, was by 1999 available on a website (composition.org.acwc).

The organization publishes a newsletter in English 6 times a year. The association's annual general meetings are held in different Canadian cities; these meetings include workshops, guest performers and speakers, and concerts of members' works. The Association also sponsors concerts of members' works in cities such as Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. Prominent among its current members are the well-known composers Diana McIntosh, Linda Bouchard, Alice Ho, Ann Southam and Hildegard Westerkamp. The Association has, by its efforts and programs, succeeded in fostering an awareness of the creativity of women composers in Canada, yet continues to recognize the ongoing need to ensure the performance and dissemination of the results of this creativity.