Pualani Flute

This database includes over 160 flute solos by women composers from the Baroque era to the present day. Each era is accompanied by a corresponding playlist, and many of the historical pieces are available in the public domain.

Even though it’s important to engage with music from our own times, if we’re not familiar with works by women composers from historical eras, we’re losing over half of our potential opportunities to highlight music written by women.

I’ve organized the information below by era to ease readability. To view this database as a single, searchable spreadsheet with re-orderable columns, click here.

And if all this information feels overwhelming, don’t worry – I’ve got you. Check out my VFS starter guide for recommendations on programming and some of my favorite pieces from this list.

In Baroque Europe, women were not typically allowed to play wind or string instruments or compose. Those that did were rare, and often came from musical families. Others were nuns or students at institutions such as Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, the orphanage where Vivaldi taught.

Most Baroque flute solos by women composers came from the Prussian court and the musical circle around Frederick the Great’s sisters. Surviving works by Baroque women are limited, so I’m including violin transcriptions to provide a few more options.

Like with their early 18th century counterparts, the narrow range of instruments considered socially acceptable limited the musical activities of Classical era women. They primarily hosted salon concerts and performed on keyboard instruments, harp, or voice.

As a result, most compositions featuring the flute are sonatas for keyboard instruments with flute accompaniment. While they’re not technically flute solos, I’ve included a few to give a more balanced perspective on the musical landscape of the time – not all musicians were celebrity virtuosos who toured Europe and performed flashy concerti.

Although social restrictions on women composers began to loosen towards the end of the Romantic era, many still found it difficult to work their way up through the musical ranks. That said, this is where we start to seeing baddass women who were finally able to crack the glass ceiling.

In 1873, Josephine Amann-Weinlich founded the first all-women orchestra in Europe. Cécile Chaminade became the first woman awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1913, and Lili Boulanger won the Prix de Rome that same year.

While many of the pieces below exhibit similar characteristics to “standard” flute solos, we also have the addition of character pieces that were often played in music salons hosted by women in the private sphere. Although character pieces were often characterized as “trendy” or “too emotional,” they make beautiful recital pieces that show off the nuance and lyricism of the Romantic style.

World War II was one of the most important events for women in the history of Western classical music. Our field was one of many where women were now allowed to work in positions previously held only by men, and this was the first cohort of women who were able to officially claim the title of “professional” musician.

On top of that, this century brought shifts in the social settings where the flute was performed and the way that the instrument’s sound was characterized. After centuries of predominantly “masculine” associations, the flute became one of the most popular instruments for women classical musicians.

During this century, we also begin to see more women composers writing flute solos and a broader variety of musical publications accessible to flutists.

The widest variety of flute solos by women composers can be found in our own times – both in terms of the range of compositional styles employed and in the diversity of the women writing these pieces.

Although this is not an exhaustive list of modern flute solos, I’ve tried to give a snapshot of a wide variety of pieces and include composers from all around the world who write music for the Western transverse flute.

For additional resources for modern flute music, check out this blog post.