Compose Like a Girl

Jocelyn Hagen
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Music Interviews
  • Updated Biweekly

Jocelyn Hagen shares conversations with composers as a part of Compose Like a Girl, an initiative that amplifies female-identifying and gender-expansive composer, helps conductors diversify their concerts, and works toward more equality in music programming and commissioning.

  1. 6d ago

    Abbie Betinis: Composing Through the Seasons of Life With Craft and Style

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with composer and her long time close friend, Abbie Betinis. They talk about their entwined education history, how they charted their own paths through motherhood and composition, and discuss how they approach and recognize craft and style in music.    Episode Transcript   Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify Learn more: https://linktr.ee/ComposeLikeaGirl  Support us: Buy Me a Coffee    Relevant Links: A Blessing of Cranes with poetry by Michael Dennis Browne  Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight Rhapsodos  American Suzuki Foundation St. Olaf College  University of MN Twin Cities School of Music  European American Musical Alliance    Peter Hamlin  Judith Lang Zaimont  Nadia Boulanger  Philip Lasser Stephen Paulus  "Examining Shifts in Repertoire Programming Practices: Pre- and Post-Pandemic" by Mark Helms, published in the September 2025 issue of the Choral Journal (Vol. 66, No. 2, p. 6). Having it All by Corrine Low On Being with Krista Tippett: Alice Parker – "Singing Is the Most Companionable of Arts" The Answering Voice: The Beginnings of Counterpoint by Alice Parker

  2. Jul 30

    Georgia Stitt: Musical Theater, Maestra, and Managing It All

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with Georgia Stitt about her career in musical theater, the multifaceted Maestra project, navigating the need for community and isolation in creativity, and what it means to be in the very small club where your husband is also a composer.  Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify   Episode Transcript   Learn more: https://linktr.ee/ComposeLikeaGirl  Support us: Buy Me a Coffee  Order Here I Am: Choral Music of Jocelyn Hagen from True Concord Voices and Orchestra      Relevant Links:   Snow Child based on the novel by Eowyn Ivey Bell Tower  Stop from the album A Quiet Revolution  The Danger Year  Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower   Maestra  Maestra Directory Maestra Mentorship run by Meg Zervoulis Bate and Sonya Hayden   Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt  NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Summer Stock Stage (SSS)  Princeton University   John Morris Russell Eric Whitacre  Mary Mitchell Campbell  Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Time’s Up Plus One initiative The Artist’s Way    Violet by Jeanine Tesori  The Last Five Years (movie version) tick, tick... BOOM! directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda (movie version) Sweet Charity with Sutton Foster, directed by Lee Silverman

  3. Jun 25

    Cynthia Lee Wong: Inviting Audiences in with Visuals and Animation

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with Cynthia Lee Wong about how she incorporates visuals and animations into her music as a way to invite audiences in.    Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify   Support us: Buy Me a Coffee  Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Episode Transcript Performers on "Moon" from Six Gupta Songs: Ashley Stone, mezzo-soprano Christina Wright-Ivanova, piano Relevant Links:   Cynthia’s Website Cynthia’s Youtube Carnival Fever In the Blink of An Eye composed for ROCO Chamber Orchestra  Fates and Furies Piano Quartet inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's story “Ligeia” Six Gupta Songs   Juilliard Journal  League of Composers/ISCM Milton Babbitt David Del Tredici Samuel Adler  New England Conservatory Preparatory Division    Python coding Blender (3D animation program) Apple Motion  Stable Diffusion (AI image generator)   Jocelyn’s The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and filmmaker Isaac Gale

  4. May 28

    Nathalie Joachim: Cultivating a “Perfectly Imbalanced” Creative Life at the Intersections of Composition and Performance

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with Nathalie Joachim about different musical modalities as vehicles for creative expression, being present and resisting the pressures of capitalist-demanded output, and unlearning perfectionism.  Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify Episode Transcript   Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Relevant Links:   Nathalie Joachim Flutronix Fanm d'Ayiti, Album Ki moun ou ye, Album Erin Patrice O’Brien, photographer  Malin Lindaeus Vintage Store in Brooklyn, NY Blood Sister from She is Called: Dear Stranger, Brooklyn Youth Chorus

  5. Apr 30

    Alex Shapiro: Being Heartfelt and Being Taken Seriously (But Not Too Seriously)

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with Alex Shapiro about writing from your gut and your heart, the compositional process behind her pieces Spark and Tight Squeeze, and how to prevent the gerbils in your mind from taking over your creative process.    Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify   Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Transcript PDF   Relevant Links:   Tight Squeeze commissioned through Composers and Schools in Concert consortium  Spark written in honor of Dale Mara Bershad Lights Out Paper Cut Bioplasm  Proximity to Europe Theory, Pages 18-19 San Juan Islands American Composers Forum  Libby Larsen Mary Ellen Childs  Alex’s Photography and Her Studio Ursula Mamlok Arnold Schoenberg Anton Webern   Serialism, Twelve-Tone Columbia College Chicago Music Department  Cocktails With Creatives: Episode 1 Cocktails With Creatives: Episode 2

  6. Mar 26

    Gabriela Lena Frank: Self-Knowledge, Storytelling, and Not Sleepwalking Through Life

    In this episode, Jocelyn talks with Gabriela Lena Frank about the multitudes of her music, which spans intimate explorations of love and loss to the multi-generational effects of colonialism. They also discuss responsibly engaging with trauma, mentoring the next generation of composers, and writing music for a universe where there’s no oppression.    Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify   Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Transcript   Relevant Links:   Gabriela Lena Frank’s website Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and their Eco-Citizenship program A Psalm of Disquiet, written for the Fry Street Quartet Conquest Requiem, premiered by The Houston Symphony  El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), libretto by Nilo Cruz, premiered by the San Diego Opera LA Opera Digital Shorts: The Five Moons of Lorca by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz  La Llorona: Tone Poem for Viola and Orchestra Meyer Sound  Anna and the Tropics by Nilo Cruz  Frida by Robert Rodriguez Dead Man Walking by Jake Hegge

  7. Feb 26

    Shara Nova: Humanity and Belonging in an Eclectic Creative Life

    Shara Nova joins Jocelyn to talk about her many and multi-faceted musical endeavors. They discuss music's role in love, loss, family, and why everyone should try to make a joyful musical noise together.     Episode transcript   Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify   Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Relevant Links:   AwRY My Brightest Diamond Bring Me the Workhorse - Golden Star This is My Hand All Things Will Unwind Titration  “III. Resolve” from Carols After a Plague - The Crossing Death Speaks by David Lang   Earl Harvin - drummer  Chris Bruce - bass Eighth Blackbird Philip Glass  Nina Simone Nico Muhly Owen Palette Brooklyn Youth Chorus yMusic Zac Rae Bryce Dessner  Aaron Dessner Laurie Anderson    Homeland, Joe's Pub Vanguard Artist & Residency  Crossing Brooklyn Ferry at BAM Texas Conspirare 2022-2023 Hear Me Out Program  MusiCares Article: Client Spotlight: How Shara Nova Amplified Her Career By Keeping A "Wild Belief" In Herself & Other Women   ProTools Sibelius

  8. Jan 29

    Mari Esabel Valverde: Unlearning Shame and a Reverence for Language

    Mari Esabel Valverde joins Jocelyn to talk language, unlearning shame, gender, and pathways to excellence for the under-resourced.    Companion playlists: YouTube, Spotify   Episode Transcript    Follow us: @composelikeagirl on Instagram and Facebook Learn more: Compose Like a Girl   Relevant Links:   Before Spring To digte af Tove Ditlevsen | Performed by Matthew Valverde, tenor Darest, O Soul | Performed by Cantus Earth, Mother | Performed by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club Moonlight Quartet | Performed by Her Ensemble  Border Lines | Text by Yesenia Montilla | Composed for and Performed by Adams State University Chamber Choir   St. Olaf College European American Music Alliance  Amir Rabiyah, poet  International Orange Chorale of San Francisco   Influences and inspiration:  Claude Debussy King David, Part III: “The Death of David” by Arthur Honegger Les Six Wilhelm Stenhammar Jean Sibelius Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Edvard Grieg Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, V. Nana by Manuel de Falla   Resources on Gender Identity: Video by Chase Ross: “Trans 101: Ep 1 - What is Transgender?”  Graphic by the Trans Student Education Resource: The Gender Unicorn  Graphic by Sam Killerman: The Genderbread Person

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About

Jocelyn Hagen shares conversations with composers as a part of Compose Like a Girl, an initiative that amplifies female-identifying and gender-expansive composer, helps conductors diversify their concerts, and works toward more equality in music programming and commissioning.

Information

  • Creator
    Jocelyn Hagen
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Compose Like a Girl

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