Happy Women’s History Month, everyone! Of course March shouldn’t be the first time that we talk about women in music in our classrooms, but it sure is a great time to give them a feature. Today I’m sharing four of my favorite female musicians to discuss for Women’s History Month.
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Alma Deutscher
A musical prodigy who is now 16, Alma is a composer, pianist, and violinist originally from England (residing in Austria now). Not only do students find her fascinating because she is a prodigy, but also because she is current. Deutscher wrote an opera of Cinderella a few years ago, which students enjoy listening to or watching, since it is a familiar story and performed in English. When we cover Alma, we watch a couple of the clips below.
Nina Simone
One of my favorite picture books is Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil Rights Activist Nina Simone by Alice Briére-Haquet. With gorgeous black and white illustrations and powerful text, this book is great for having discussions with students about symbolism, anti-racism, activism, resilience, and more. We listen to her performance of “Feeling Good” afterward while they color her picture from my Jazz Musicians Coloring Sheets set.
There’s also a video of Nina performing “I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel to be Free)” that we watch an excerpt of, so students can really see her in action and appreciate her skill at the piano.
Selena
Selena Quintanilla Perez is a wonderful way to introduce students to Tejano music. Because of the leveled books and play-along I’ve found, I can cover Selena for Women’s History Month with both lower and upper elementary students. For younger students, I recommend The Life of Selena by Patty Rodriguez. This book familiarizes them with Selena in a short and simple way, and it is in both English and Spanish. For older students, the book Queen of Tejano Music: Selena, by Silvia Lopez is ideal. Although the book is gorgeous and very detailed, it is a bit long to hold the attention of students younger than third grade, in my experience.
After we read about Selena and listen to her classic “Como la Flor,” we do a body percussion play along. The kids loved performing along with Selena’s Bidi Bidi Bom Bom, and I loved that there were two difficulty levels for different ages.
Hildegard von Bingen
For some reason (maybe my Catholic school upbringing), Hildegard von Bingen really stuck out to me in Music History class. A nun from the Middle Ages who composed? I’m interested. There are a couple of picture books about Hildegard that you can use. One thing to note about both books is that naturally they do mention her faith, since she was not only a nun but a saint. The first one I have used is The Secret World of Hildegard by Jonah Winter. Although the book is beautiful, it does place equal emphasis on her compositions and her her religious visions. Recently I discovered another children’s book called Hildegard’s Gift by Megan Hoyt. What I like about this book is that it focuses on her music and her visions being a gift, or talent that she needed to embrace.
Either book is great for introducing students to Hildegard. I like to read the book, and then play her music in the background while students color her coloring page. You can find this page in my Female Composers coloring sheets resource by clicking here.
So there’s four of my favorites for Women’s History Month. It was hard to narrow it down to four, so I’ll be sure to share more with you in the future! Who are your favorite musicians and composers to feature for Women’s History Month? Leave a comment below.
Happy teaching!
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also enjoy the following.
- No-Touch Movement Activities for Music Class
- Things to Keep in Mind at the End of the Year in the Music Room
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