Musician Elaine Vander Plate Held is promoting the works of women composers through the fourth annual Honoring Women Composers concert at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, Lincroft, March 9.

A unique concert has been arranged by pianist and lecturer Elaine Vander Plate Held to draw classical music lovers’ attention to the works of oft-overlooked women composers.

You might say they are MIA from the classical music industry — Marianne Martinez, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Rebecca Clarke, Margaret Garwood, Mary Lloyd-Butler, Libby Larsen and Inessa Zaretsky. Add to that Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Lili Boulanger, Cecile Chaminade, Madeline Dring, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Florence Price, Clara Wieck Schumann and Pauline Garcia Viardot, and you still have only a partial list.

If you add Melinda Wagner, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1999, the list would still be incomplete. It represents only a fraction of the women who have made marvelous music over the past millennia — yet their compositions almost never grace the classical music stage.

Held, who is the choral director at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, Middletown, wants to change that. She said she is hoping to popularize the music of women composers from the Baroque era to the 21st century. This is her mission, something that has become increasingly important to her in the last five years, she said.

It all began in 1980. While working as a violinist, Held said she found it almost impossible to obtain published music by a woman composer, and had to go to the Lincoln Center Library in New York City to find copies of the compositions, only searching for the women composers she knew about at the time.

"We spent many quarters copying this music to present to audiences," Held said. "Now the music is more readily available, but first you have to know the names of the women composers! In all of my years studying piano or accompanying, I had never played a piece by a woman composer. I finally decided that I had to rectify this."

Held said she began a concert and lecture series four years ago called Honoring Women Composers. The fourth annual Honoring Women Composers concert will be held March 9 at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 1475 W. Front St. in the Lincroft section of Middletown. Held will be playing the harpsichord and the piano during the concert.

She has rounded up an impressive group of guest artists including New York City soprano Trudy Ellen Craney; local clarinetist Roy Gussman, conductor of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra and principal clarinetist in the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea; and the Zephyr Duo, Elizabeth Schulze, viola, and Luba Slepoi, piano.

Gussman is currently the orchestra director at Wall Township High School.

"I will pick up on the theme of affirmative action," Held said. "I would love to get to the point where we don’t have to say that it’s a program of women composers. I’d like to just say it’s a concert and include the best of both sexes, but we’ve been honoring men forever and women need to be heard."

Held feels that it is not only important to know the names of these little-known musicians, it is also important to know something about them, so she includes a lecture in her concert programs.

"It is not enough to hear the obvious genius through their music, but to hear about their lives and then to ask, ‘Why have we not heard about them or their music? Where have they been? Are they worth listening to if no one seems to present their works?’"

Held has collected biographies on a number of the composers she presents, like Libby Larsen, a prolific composer born in 1950. According to Held, Larsen is recognized as a crusader for musical causes like music education, American music and women composers. According to Larsen’s biography, she has a lyric style with free dissonance and employs poetic imagination with her topics and evocative titles. Her work Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus is an opera that draws parallels between the ancient alchemists and 20th century scientists.

Then there is Rebecca Clarke, who was born in 1886 in England and died in New York in 1979. She was a composer and violist, and among the first of six females who were full members of a professional London orchestra. Clarke came to the United States at the age of 23 to perform her "Morpheus" for viola and piano at Carnegie Hall.

She was the first female to earn a degree in composition from the royal Academy of Music, where she also studied violin, viola, harmony and counterpoint.

Clarke won numerous awards including the Composer Fellowship Award from the National Educators Association. Clarke’s viola sonata will be played at the concert, Held said.

Over 200 works have survived Marianne Martinez, who was born in Vienna in 1744. According to her biography, Martinez’s is the largest output of a classical woman composer.

Even before Martinez, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, 1664-1729, was considered by some to be the marvel of the century. She was educated under the care of Louis XIV in the court of Versailles. According to biographical information, "all of the great musicians and fine connoisseurs went eagerly to hear her. She had, above all, a talent for improvising and for playing fantasias extemporaneously."

An accomplished musician herself, Held received a bachelor of music degree in piano and a master’s of church music in choral conducting and organ from Westminster Choir College, Princeton. She studied piano, organ and conducting with many notable musicians.

Held said she hopes to prove through her lectures and recitals that women composers are worthy of attention. She encourages people to play the music of women composers and to demand that radio stations spend more time finding and playing music written by women.

Held recounted an incident that made it apparent to her that what she is doing has value.

"After one of my concerts, a very elderly man came up to me and said, in a very frail voice, ‘I am sorry to say that I think I have been a chauvinist all my life because I really didn’t think women composers were capable of writing such intense and wonderful music,’" Held said.

"This is what it is all about, discovery and amazement!" she said.

"Women composers should be heard simply because their music is excellent, important, significant and is part of history. We have a nasty habit of treating history the way we think it should be told. And, frankly, that has meant leaving out important information, such as the musical accomplishments of women composers like Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Cecil Chaminade, Alma Mahler, and so many more who were notable composers and performers in their own right."

Held said that although most women composers are ignored, some were wildly successful in their time. "There is a whole array of women composers who wrote ragtime, like May Aufderheide, Irene Giblin and Adaline Shepherd.

"I hope to redeem at least some of the history of women composers. When you hear their music, you will understand how important this is," she said.

In 1999, Held presented an organ recital in the Netherlands on a 500-year-old organ. She said she was the only American performer in the 12 concert series, and the only performer to play music by women composers.

Held has been the organist/choir director for many churches over her career, and is currently the director of music at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County. She is the president of the Shore Music Educators Association, a professional organization that promotes excellence in teaching and performance through continuing education and application.

Held recently attended the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Conference in New York City.

"Out of over 200 pieces of music, only eight [performed at the conference] were by women composers," she said.

Held has plans to broaden her reach in drawing attention to women composers.

Her concert on Sunday will focus on seven composers: Martinez, de la Guerre, Clarke, Garwood, Butler, Larsen and Zaretsky. Admission is $20 at the door ($12 for seniors and $5 for students).