About

Whistling Hens® was founded by soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom to perform and commission music by women composers to create a financially and artistically equitable future for women in music. The duo’s name was plucked from a quote by a male music critic who wrote in the New York Times in 1918, “women composers are at best whistling hens.”

A duo with “finesse and creative brilliance” (International Alliance for Women in Music Journal) and programming so engaging that “my daughter stopped reading Harry Potter to pay attention,” Whistling Hens creates performance experiences that integrate exceptional music, advocacy of women composers, and music history and education. Since its founding in 2018, Whistling Hens has commissioned 14 compositions, 10 transcriptions, the Whistling Hens Women Composer Coloring Book, and inspired 17 dedicated works.

Learn more at whistlinghens.com

Music

We perform music by women composers. The genre is a mix of classical, contemporary, jazz, and classical settings of folk music. Because so little repertoire exists for this combination, most of the works are post-1930, and many are commissioned by the ensemble.

Commissioned works:
Victoria Bond
Ashi Day: The Green Child
Ashi Day: Thursday
Melissa Dunphy: Chants
Cherise Leiter: Eve's Diary
Dannielle McBryan: It's Bedtime
Mojgan Misaghi: 17th Letter of the Living
Kimberly Osberg: Hombres Necios
Diana Rosenblum: Say I am a River
Kate Soper: Chutes and Ladders
Jennifer Stevenson: Musical Invective

Transcribed works:
Jenni Brandon: Multitudinous Stars and Spring Waters
Rebecca Clarke: Down by the Salley Gardens, Three Irish Country Songs, Three Old English Songs
Heather Gilligan: A Light Exists in Spring
Jocelyn Hagen: Silver Wing
Jake K: A Cycle of Love Songs
Cherise Leiter: American Folk Suite
Carrie Rose: Web Passage
Judith Shatin: Come Live With Me

Videos

Photos