The List
The following alphabetical list is by no means complete. It shows queer composers represented by an identification letter:
L = Lesbian, G = Gay, B = Bisexual, T = Transgender/Transexual, I = Intersex, A = Asexual, N = Non-binary.
Composers are also classified by century and musical genre:
P = Pop/Mainstream, A = Art/"Classical" Music, M = Musical Theatre, F = Film/TV.
| Identifier | Composer Name | Genre | Century |
| T | Alexander James Adams | P | 21st |
| G | Peter Allen | P/M | 20th |
| T | Barbra Amesbury | P | 20th |
| T | Anohni | P | 21st |
| G | Howard Ashman | M | 20th |
| L | Ruth Anderson | A | 20th |
| G | Samuel Barber | A | 20th |
| B | Nathan Barr | F | 21st |
| L | Eve Beglarian | A | 21st |
| B | Max Bemis | P | 21st |
| G | Lord Berners | A | 19th |
| G | Leonard Bernstein | A/M | 20th |
| G | Marc Blitzstein | A/M | 20th |
| B | Henriëtte Bosmans | A | 20th |
| L | Nadia Boulanger | A | 20th |
| B | David Bowie | P | 20th-21st |
| B | Paul Bowles | A | 20th |
| T | Natalie Braginsky | A | 21st |
| T | Namoli Brennet | P | 21st |
| G | Benjamin Britten | A | 20th |
| T | Cidny Bullens | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Sylvano Bussotti | A | 20th |
| T | Mya Byrne | P | 21st |
| L | Madelyn Byrne | A | 21st |
| G | John Cage | A | 20th |
| T | Wendy Carlos | A | 20th |
| T | Dave Carter | P | 21st |
| L | Meg Christian | P | 20th |
| T | Quinn Christopherson | P | 21st |
| T | Jessie Chung | P | 21st |
| T | Katherine Collins | M | 20th |
| G | Aaron Copland | A | 20th |
| G | Arcangelo Corelli | A | 17th |
| G | John Corigliano | A | 20th-21st |
| T | Jayne County | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Noel Coward | M | 20th |
| G | Henry Cowell | A | 20th |
| T | Elysia Crampton | P | 21st |
| G | Peter Maxwell Davies | A | 20th |
| I/T | Vaginal Davis | P | 20th-21st |
| B | Gabi Delgado-López | P | 20th |
| G | David Del Tredici | A | 20th-21st |
| T | Shea Diamond | P | 21st |
| B | Ani DiFranco | P | 20th |
| B | Emil Dimitrov | P | 20th |
| T | Dnash | P | 21st |
| G | Julius Eastman | A | 20th |
| G | Roger Edens | M | 20th |
| G | Manuel de Falla | A | 19th-20th |
| T | Maxine Feldman | P | 20th |
| G | Fernando 'Ferdinand' Feluxo | P | 21st |
| T | Inti Logan Figgis-Vizueta | A | 21st |
| G | William Finn | M | 20th-21st |
| G | George Forrest | M | 20th |
| T | Ezra Furman | P | 21st |
| T | Teddy Geiger | P | 21st |
| T | Beverly Glenn-Copeland | P | 20th |
| G | Charles Tomlinson Griffes | A | 19th-20th |
| G/A | George Frederic Handel | A | 18th |
| G | Lou Harrison | A | 20th |
| G | Hans Werner Henze | A | 20th-21st |
| G | Jerry Herman | M | 20th |
| L | Jennifer Higdon | A | 20th-21st |
| L | Hildegard of Bingen | A | 12th |
| N | Neo Hülcker | A | 21st |
| T | Charles Céleste Hutchins | A/P | 21st |
| L | Janis Ian | P | 20th-21st |
| T | Mila Jam | P | 21st |
| G | Elton John | P | 20th |
| G | John Kander | M | 20th-21st |
| T | Skylar Kergil | P | 21st |
| L | Paula Kimper | A | 20th-21st |
| B | Iosif Kotek | A | 19th |
| T | Left At London | P | 21st |
| L | Marilyn Lerner | A | 20th-21st |
| B | Anne Linnet | P | 20th-21st |
| L | Annea Lockwood | A | 20th-21st |
| B | Jean-Baptiste Lully | A | 18th |
| T | Jennifer Maidman | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Colin McPhee | A | 20th |
| G | Gian Carlo Menotti | A | 20th |
| B | Andy Mientus | M | 21st |
| G | Dimitri Mitropoulos | A | 20th |
| L | Linda Montano | A | 20th-21st |
| T | Angela Morley | A | 20th |
| T | Ataru Nakamura | P | 21st |
| L | Holly Near | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Ivor Novello | M | 20th |
| L | Pauline Oliveros | A | 21st |
| T/I | Dee Palmer | A/P | 20th |
| N | Kitt Philippa | P | 21st |
| B | Eva Polna | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Cole Porter | M | 20th |
| G | Francis Poulenc | A | 20th |
| G | Maurice Ravel | A | 19th-20th |
| T | Hedra Rowan | A/P | 21st |
| T | Jess Rowland | A/P | 21st |
| T | Patricia Ribeiro | P | 21st |
| T | James Robinson | P | 20th-21st |
| B | Tom Robinson | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Ned Rorem | A | 20th-21st |
| T | Deena Kaye Rose | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Johann Rosenmüller | A | 17th |
| T | Nomi Ruiz | P | 21st |
| G | Camille Saint-Saëns | A | 19th-20th |
| G | Franz Schubert | A | 19th |
| T | Ice Seguerra | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Marc Shaiman | P/M | 20th-21st |
| T | Lucas Silveira | P | 21st |
| B | Bessie Smith | P | 20th |
| L/B | Ethel Smyth | A | 19th/20th |
| N | Brin Solomon | C | 21st |
| G | Stephen Sondheim | M | 20th-21st |
| G | Michael Stipe | P | 20th-21st |
| B | John Strauss | F | 20th |
| G | William Thomas Strayhorn | P | 20th |
| N | Tami T | P | 21st |
| N | Chrysanthe Tan | P/A | 21st |
| T | Ramon Te Wake | P | 21st |
| G | Conrad Susa | A | 20th |
| G | Karol Maciej Szymanowski | A | 20th |
| G | Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky | A | 19th |
| G | Virgil Thomson | A | 20th |
| G | Michael Tilson Thomas | A | 20th-21st |
| L | Nurit Tilles | A | 20th |
| G | Michael Tippet | A | 20th |
| T | Mari Ésabel Valverde | A | 21st |
| G | Rufus Wainwright | P | 20th-21st |
| B | Malcolm Williamson | A | 20th |
| G | Cris Williamson | P | 20th-21st |
| G | Scott Wittman | P/M | 20th-21st |
| G | Robert Wright | M | 20th |
Background
There has been an erasure of queerness in the music industry that has gone on for far too long. It is so important for LGBTQIA+ music makers to be visible and inspire younger generations in this community so that they know they are welcome in the music industry. Also for those who are not a part of this community to understand the wealth that comes from LGBTQIA+ music.
Going into my 5th academic year of teaching, I was tired of using mostly straight, white, male composers harking from the usual canon I had been indoctrinated with during my education. I had recently come out as a non-binary person so I wondered where I could find queer composers - songwriters, music creators - who I could feature in my teaching materials. I asked a colleague who said “Well there mustn’t be very many queer composers. You can’t only teach Tchaikovsky”… I also found no online resources that listed composers by their gender identities or sexual orientation. So I started my own list in August 2018 to help me organise my research and ensure I could represent music from the most diverse background possible within the LGBTQIA+ community.
As I started compiling this list I was surprised again and again to find some of my most loved composers were actually from the queer community. While I was initially overjoyed finding this out, I soon became angry. Why was their sexual orientation/gender identity left out by my teachers, by researchers, publishers, record labels, venues… I am glad to say I have already proven my colleague wrong, that there is a plethora of queer composers throughout history. So I hope that this list can shed some light on the queer composers of the past, be a beacon for those of today and strengthen our queer community.
Reference Material
My first reference point was The Queer Encyclopaedia of Music, Dance and Musical Theatre, published in 2004. It is apparent this book did not, nor did it try to contain a definitive list. While this book’s publishers from the GLBTQ Encyclopaedia Project continued adding articles online until 2015, their website has since been archived, so the topical indexing used to help navigate their resources and therefore help identify composers in this encyclopaedia has been lost for any entries since the 2004 publication.
Work in progress
After working through the list of composers in the 2004 publication I noticed a lower representation of trans, bisexual and lesbian composers. While Wikipedia has a list of LGBT composers, this was not helpful for immediately finding composers from each sub-group within the LGBTQIA+ community. So at this point I found the Wikipedia category: Bisexual Musicians helpful and populated those who identify as composers in my list. Next, in the category: Transgender and transsexual musicians, there was still a lack of trans people who identify as composers so I included songwriters in my list as well as this playlist of trans composers. An initial search for lesbian composers produced this list of Lesbian American Composers who have also been included.
Next Steps
Further consolidation of composers and songwriters from the Wikipedia lesbian, gay and bisexual musicians category lists is needed to bring my list into complete alignment with what has been taken from the trans musician category list. Furthermore, cross referencing to the LGBT category list of composers is also needed. More research in identifying composers from every part of the LGBTQIA+ community will be ongoing. So watch this space for future updates! Any contributions are most welcome and can be made in the comments below or by contacting me through my contact form.