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March is Women’s History Month and with a rich musical scene and vibrant local university programs, there are plentiful opportunities to perform, appreciate, and champion music written by women in Kansas City.
There are many local women composers creating music today, like Stacy Busch, Leah Sproul, Laura Whitney Johnson, Sascha Groschang and Laurel Parks. Others historically got their start here, like Emma Lou Diemer, Nora Holt and Dana Suesse, building careers in music on those Kansas City foundations.
Here are four Kansas City area women who have impacted the music world for decades, contributing as composers, educators and advocates.
Chen Yi
Chen Yi, the Lorena Searcy Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor of Composition at UMKC Conservatory, has written hundreds of works and guided hundreds of students since she joined the faculty in 1998. Her award-winning work is regularly performed around the globe, with groups like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Boston Symphony and the China Philharmonic in Beijing, and has been recorded on over 100 albums. Her “Fountains for Kansas City” was premiered by the Kansas City Symphony in 2011 to help usher in the very first season of performances at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Chen blends elements of Western classical music and traditional Chinese music, both invigorating and accessible.
Ingrid Stölzel
Originally from Germany, Ingrid Stölzel earned her bachelor and doctoral degrees from UMKC Conservatory and now serves as associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Music. Her work is widely commissioned and performed nationally and internationally, particularly by musicians with local ties, like American Wild Ensemble, New Morse Code, newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and Van Cliburn gold medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch, artistic director at Park University’s International Center for Music.
In 2024, the Kansas City based chamber music collective NAVO performed a full program of Stölzel’s work as a “musical portrait” during their 10th anniversary season. Her 2018 album “The Gorgeous Nothings” includes performances by soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson, violinist Véronique Mathieu and pianist Ellen Sommer, and the title piece is performed frequently around the world.
Jean Belmont Ford
Jean Belmont Ford came to Kansas City in the 1970s, where she first became involved in the local music scene as a presenter and organizer, as well as piano teacher. Once her children were in school, she returned to writing, steadily composing ever since. Conductor Charles Bruffy is an advocate of her work. The Kansas City Chorale recorded her piece “Nativitas” in 1996 and commissioned “Electa” (which appears on Phoenix Choral’s 2008 Grammy-Award winning album “Spotless Rose”) and “Murmurations,” which premiered in 2023. KC Chorale will record that piece in May 2025 for a forthcoming album.
Susan Kander
Though Susan Kander doesn’t live in Kansas City any longer, she grew up here and retained her musical connections (her uncle is acclaimed Broadway composer John Kander; her father Edward was director of development with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for 25 years). She has written multiple works for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, collaborated with soprano Roberta Gumbel on multiple projects, notably “dwb, driving while black,” and written commissioned work for Victoria Botero’s Cecilia Series based on the poetry of the late Michelle Boisseau, formerly of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble performs a new work by Kander, “Melodies Lost and Found,” in May 2025.
Organizations throughout Kansas City, like the Midwest Chamber Ensemble, Bach Aria Soloists, KCVITAs, MidAmerica Freedom Band, and Owen/Cox Dance Group, regularly bring attention to women composers as matter of course throughout the year, not just in March.
And with strong composition programs in the area at UMKC Conservatory and University of Kansas, even more women are creating original music in the community. But it’s not limited to classical. Historically, Kansas City was home to women like Melba Liston, Julia Lee, and Mary Lou Williams, who made an impact in jazz and blues, too. Read more about the women in Kansas City’s jazz history with this KCUR Adventure.
