WorldPride Partner Event Uplifts Women and Gender-Marginalized Composers At WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift

Boulanger Initiative’s seventh-annual music festival features two days of performances with works written by women and gender-marginalized composers, live composer workshops, exhibitor booths and more.

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (Mar. 26, 2025) — WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift, presented by Boulanger Initiative and co-presented by Strathmore, returns with a two-day festival celebrating music by gender-marginalized composers. As an official WorldPride Partner Event, this year’s festival, May 30 – 31 at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, showcases a revelatory lineup of LGBTQ+ and allied artists and ensembles, celebrating the voices of women and gender-marginalized composers in thrilling new ways. The opening concert will feature some of DC’s finest musicians, followed by a day of musical exhibitions, live composer workshops, outdoor performances, and transformative discussions. The festival will close out with an electrifying performance by composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z. 

The opening concert on May 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Room features sets by Marcolivia Duo, Chao Tian, Boyd Meets Girl, Ami Dang, New Choir of Mt. Vernon, The Alex Hamburger Quartet, and Leah Claiborne. All Day at the Mansion on May 31 features performances and events in the Music Room, Galleries, and the Gazebo starting at 2 p.m. The Music Room features performances by PUBLIQuartet, Seraph Brass, Tapestry, and Pamela Z. Performances at The Gazebo include District5 and Tara Hoot, the National LGBTQIA+ Flute Choir, and the International Pride Orchestra Brass Ensemble. Events in the galleries include live composer workshops with Boyd Meets Girl, interactive workshops with the BI team, and a performance by composer/accordionist Simone Baron honoring the lives and memories of the iconic Sofia Gubaidulina and Baltimore-based composer, improviser, and pedal steel guitarist, Susan Alcorn.

“In the face of hate, we affirm. In the face of oppression, we UPLIFT. In the face of those who want us gone, we are louder than ever. This year, we are thrilled and honored to be an official World Pride Partner Event. Join us for WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift, so that together we can support, celebrate, and show that everyone in our community is heard and celebrated.” 

-Boulanger Initiative Co-Founder and Executive & Artistic Director Laura Colgate

Learn more about WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift and purchase tickets at boulangerinitiative.org/woco-fest-2025. View the full festival schedule below.

WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift events

OPENING CONCERT
DATE: May 30, 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: The Music Room at The Mansion at Strathmore

Prepare to experience an evening of music that uplifts, inspires, and resonates long after the final note. Be captivated by performances by Chinese dulcimer instrumentalist Chao Tian, violin-viola Marcolivia Duo, pianist Leah Claiborne, sitarist/vocalist/composer Ami Dang, the New Choir of Mt. Vernon, classical guitar/cello duo Boyd Meets Girl, and The Alex Hamburger Quartet. This electrifying Opening Concert of WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift shines a spotlight on the boundless creativity of Maryland and DC-based musicians. From mesmerizing melodies to bold new sounds, there's something to uplift every listener.

Featuring: Marcolivia Duo (violin & viola), Chao Tian (Chinese dulcimer), Boyd Meets Girl (guitar & cello), Ami Dang (sitar, voice, electronics), New Choir of Mt. Vernon, The Alex Hamburger Quartet (jazz voice, flute, piano, drums, upright bass), and Leah Claiborne (piano).

MAY 31: ALL DAY AT THE MANSION AT STRATHMORE

Fulfill your wanderlust with a day of musical discovery and community connection at the second day of WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift at The Mansion at Strathmore and the Strathmore Lawn! In a time when we need it most, come together to uplift artists and one another through vibrant concerts, live composer workshops, and inspiring discussions with musicians, composers, and scholars. Experience uplifting music’s evolution from medieval renaissance to experimental electronics.

Be enthralled by performances from PUBLIQuartet, Seraph Brass, and Tapestry in the Mansion’s music room, classical guitar/cello duo Boyd Meets Girl during live composer workshops, and an electrifying festival finale by composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z. As an official Partner Event of WorldPride 2025, enjoy free outdoor performances by THE QUEENTET PROJECT featuring chamber ensemble District5 & DC-based drag artist Tara Hoot, The National LGBTQIA+ Flute Choir, and the International Pride Orchestra Brass Ensemble.

Your pay-what-you-can ticket includes entry to the Mansion, access to community booths, composer workshops, educational programs with the BI team, and more! Food trucks will be on site and don’t forget to bring your blanket or lawn chairs for the outdoor performances. Each performance in the Mansion’s music room is ticketed separately. Outdoor performances are free and open to all—no ticket or registration required.

PUBLIQuartet: FREEDOM AND FAITH

DATE: May 31, 2 p.m.

LOCATION: The Music Room at The Mansion at Strathmore

Applauded by The Washington Post as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music,” and by The New Yorker as “independent-minded,” multi-GRAMMY®-nominated PUBLIQuartet is an improvising string quartet whose repertoire blends genres and highlights American multiculturalism.

Each of the composers on this concert program and GRAMMY® Nominated album FREEDOM AND FAITH claims their seat at the table of history with distinction, virtuosity, and a very necessary subversive power. Expressing a unique and personal relationship to Faith, their music touches on the resilience many marginalized composers must maintain, tapping into Faith in the face of oppression, and sometimes using Faith rhetorically to be accepted by the status quo. Despite variations on themes of oppression repeated throughout the eras, these composers' power, sound, and expression continue to resonate in many shapes and forms: Despite history, their spirits continue to inspire and ring on.

Live Composer Workshops with Boyd Meets Girl

DATE: May 31, 3 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

LOCATION: The 2nd Floor Invitation Gallery at The Mansion at Strathmore

WoCo Fest 2025: Uplift features our Composer Workshops which are process-based, exploratory music workshops offering women and gender-marginalized composers the extraordinary opportunity to workshop their ideas in real time in front of a live audience and hear their works-in-progress performed by classical guitar/cello duo Boyd Meets Girl. These workshops are a safe space for composers to try out ideas which may or may not work and to take artistic risks that could lead them in an exciting new direction. It's also a thrilling opportunity for the audience to watch the creative process, so often behind-the-scenes, at work in real time.

District5 and Tara Hoot: THE QUEENTET PROJECT

DATE: May 31, 3:10 p.m.

LOCATION: The Gazebo at The Mansion at Strathmore grounds

"THE QUEENTET PROJECT" is a collaborative effort between Tara Hoot, an award-winning DC-based drag queen, and District5, a wind quintet committed to promoting new works. Their unique show highlights LGBTQIA+ voices and creates a novel exploration of unconventional storytelling through the melding of drag and classical music. The performance will include selected music and banned book readings from the full show.

Elegie
DATE: May 31, 3:10 p.m.
LOCATION: The 2nd Floor Gallery II at The Mansion at Strathmore

Join Simone Baron for a performance honoring the late Sofia Gubaidulina and Susan Alcorn, who have both recently left us.

Seraph Brass
DATE: May 31, 4 p.m.
LOCATION: The Music Room at The Mansion at Strathmore

In its 11th season, Seraph Brass was founded by trumpet soloist Mary Elizabeth Bowden with a mission to showcase the excellence of women brass players and highlight musicians from marginalized groups, both in personnel and in programming. Winners of the American Prize in Chamber Music, the group has been praised for its “beautiful sounds" (American Record Guide), "fine playing” (Gramophone), and “staggeringly high caliber of performance” (Textura). 

National LGBTQIA+ Flute Choir
DATE: May 31, 5:10 p.m.
LOCATION: The Gazebo at The Mansion at Strathmore grounds

The National LGBTQIA+ Flute Choir provides a celebratory space for LGBTQIA+ flutists and allies to come together, perform works composed or arranged by members of our community, and commission new works for flute choir by LGBTQIA+ composers.

Unlocking Creativity with Graphic Scores
DATE: May 31, 5:10 p.m.
LOCATION: The 2nd Floor Gallery II at The Mansion at Strathmore

How can we unlock and demystify the role of the composer? Graphic notation can empower anyone to connect to their inner creativity. Starting with a simple line drawing, we will work through the compositional process, ending with the thrilling experience of performing a piece written by YOU! Participants will use paper and coloring materials and be guided to represent an improvised sound/gesture in two dimensional form, which will then be workshopped and performed. A discussion will also be held to frame the workshop, asking listeners to consider the question of ownership in composition, their relationships to their own bodies, trees, dreams, sources of creativity, and memories. All ages are welcome, we will provide materials that you can create your scores with, and you are welcome to bring a musical instrument!

Tapestry: Women's Voices Then and Now
DATE: May 31, 6:00 p.m.
LOCATION: The Music Room at The Mansion at Strathmore

Tapestry was founded to create bold, conceptual programs that travel through time, weaving together a diverse range of genres and colors. Each program beckons the listener to a new time and place—“an inexhaustible cornucopia of sensual pleasures,” according to the San Diego Reader. Tapestry’s first inspirations were Hildegard von Bingen, medieval polyphony, and contemporary composers, especially women composers. Women’s Voices Then and Now reaches across centuries bringing together medieval cantigas, songs of rebellious nuns, a troubadour song by Beatrice de Dia, salon music of Pauline Viardot, a tango by Jocelyn Pook and more.

International Pride Orchestra Brass Ensemble
DATE: May 31, 7:10 p.m.
LOCATION: The Gazebo at The Mansion at Strathmore grounds

Founded in 2022, the International Pride Orchestra is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that brings together LGBTQIA+ musicians from around the world to present concerts, celebrate community, and raise funds for LGBTQIA+ causes.​​ The International Pride Orchestra unites music making with global advocacy. They are a volunteer orchestra with a charitable mission to raise awareness and funds for local, national, and international LGBTQIA+ programs.

Creating Music as a Tool for Change
DATE: May 31, 7:10 p.m.
LOCATION: The 2nd Floor Gallery II at The Mansion at Strathmore

This session will go in-depth into why creating original music is important and will include a hands-on activity that will help unlock their inner composer. We’ll ask questions like “What is a composer?” and “What stories and cultures need to be represented today?”  Together, we will explore which genres and instruments best represent these issues and which composition type is most suitable (written, aural, etc). Together, we will take a journey through transformative music throughout history with discussions of why this music was important and how it affected change and conclude with writing some compositions of your own!

Pamela Z
DATE: May 31, 8 p.m.
LOCATION: The Music Room at The Mansion at Strathmore

Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist working primarily with voice, live electronics, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live looping, she processes her voice to create complex sonic layers. Her solo works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and wireless MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures. She has been commissioned to compose scores for dance, theatre, film, and chamber ensembles including Kronos Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, the Living Earth Show, Eighth Blackbird, the Bang on a Can All Stars, Julia Bullock with SF Symphony, and the LA Philharmonic New Music Group.

Please join us for a reception following the final performance. 

About Boulanger Initiative

Boulanger Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting and commissions. Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender-marginalized composers. Learn more about Boulanger Initiative at boulangerinitiative.org.

Mission, Vision, and Values: 

Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender-marginalized composers. BI fosters inclusivity and representation to expand and enrich the collective understanding of what music is, has been, and can be. BI promotes music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions. 

We envision a future in which Boulanger Initiative becomes obsolete when women and gender-marginalized composers no longer need our advocacy.

We believe in bringing communities together with respect. We focus on women and gender-marginalized composers not to create division but to build equity. Through active intersectional inclusivity, we work to end discrimination against composers, whether based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, or ability, by creating an artistic space where everyone is welcome, supported, and heard. We prioritize those with the least institutional power in all of our advocacy.

You can find out more about BI’s Mission, Vision, and Values here, or watch our trailer to learn more about us.

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