Jazz Ensemble Literature Featuring Female Composers and Arrangers: An Annotated Repertoire List

This portfolio, titled “Jazz Ensemble Literature Featuring Female Composers and Arrangers: An Annotated Repertoire List,” addresses the persistent underrepresentation of women in large jazz ensemble programming. It does this by providing a practical resource to support more inclusive repertoire choices. The project emerged from a central research question: How can jazz educators more easily identify and access high-quality, grade-appropriate jazz ensemble music by female composers and arrangers? The portfolio consists of three interrelated components: 1. A journal research article exploring the systemic barriers that limit the visibility of female composers in jazz education 2. An annotated repertoire list evaluating forty big band charts by women across five grade levels 3. Newly produced reference recordings for selected under-recorded works, performed in collaboration with a University of North Texas student ensemble. Together, these components synthesize research, pedagogy, and performance into a unified resource that supports equity-driven programming in educational jazz settings. The research article, titled “Expanding the Large Jazz Ensemble Canon: Increasing Access to Works by Female Composers and Arrangers,” examines trends in literature recommendations, commercial publishing, and programming data. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, it reveals systemic inequities in publisher catalogs, grading inconsistencies, and limited access to stylistic information or reference recordings. The article concludes with recommendations for educators, publishers, and institutions to support equity in programming, through intentional repertoire selection and expanded access tools. The annotated repertoire list builds on these findings, offering directors a curated set of forty pieces written or arranged by women, categorized by grade level (one through five). Each entry includes composer biography, publisher information, style and tempo, instrumentation, soloists, and technical and stylistic considerations. This structure is intended to mirror the format found in widely used resources like Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz, while expanding the scope of representation to include a broader and more inclusive range of composers. To support accessibility, the project also includes three new recordings of selected works from the annotated list. These reference tracks are intended as a practical aid for ensemble directors who may be less familiar with teaching jazz, or less comfortable programming unfamiliar literature without an audio reference. By offering clear recorded examples of articulation, balance, tempo, and style, these recordings help define a reference for each piece. This portfolio contributes an original, applied solution to a widely acknowledged issue in jazz education. While the field has made progress toward inclusive recognition, data shows that works by women remain significantly under-programmed and underrepresented in educational literature. By combining scholarly analysis with actionable resources, this project provides practical tools and guidance to support educators in making intentional, equity-driven repertoire choices.