Where are the women in music?

PRS for Music Foundation & Birds Eye View ask the experts: Why is there such a gender gap?

As part of its 10th anniversary, the PRS for Music Foundation is teaming up with Birds Eye View and leading women from the music business to explore why women are outnumbered 6 to 1 amongst registered music creators and songwriters.

Speech Debelle, Mira Calix, Rachel Portman and Janis Susskind will discuss their views in a panel to be chaired by influential music journalist Miranda Sawyer. This event will take place at Kings Place on Monday 24 May, 7pm as part of Bird’s Eye View’s Sounds and Silents series.

Birds Eye View is curating this event in collaboration with the PRS for Music Foundation to demonstrate its commitment to developing and supporting women across the arts: only 7% of film directors and 12% of screenwriters are female. This gender imbalance also exists in the music business – only 14% of PRS for Music’s registered creators and writers are women. 

Vanessa Reed, Co-Director of PRS for Music Foundation said

“If we want women to maximize their creative talent, we need to work across the creative industries so that we can understand the barriers and to raise awareness of the current status quo. Bird’s Eye View’s Sounds and Silents series - which features live scores for film written by cutting edge female artists - is the ideal platform for this debate.”

For more information see birds-eye-view.co.uk

Notes on panellists:

Miranda Sawyer, Journalist & Broadcaster is a long time supporter of Birds Eye View and has taken part in a number of different events and discussions at the Birds Eye View Film Festival.

Speech Debelle, Music Creator (tbc) is the 2009 winner of the Mercury Music Award and has spoken out about the gender imbalance in the music industry.

Mira Calix, Music Creator is signed to Warp Records and a winner of 2009 Composer of the Year and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.

Rachel Portman, Film Composer is the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score (for Emma in 1996).

Janis Susskind, is Director of Composers & Repertoire at Boosey & Hawkes publishers, holding the largest specialist classical music collection in the world.