List of LGBT classical composers

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Numerous composers of Western classical music were LGBT, from at least the 16th century to the modern day. Many of these composers faced persecution or violence as a result of their sexuality.

16th century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Dominique Phinot	c. 1510	c. 1556	Franco-Flemish	Phinot was a composer of motets with polyphonic experimentation that predated the music of Palestrina. He was tried and executed by the French government for "homosexual practices", likely in the city of Lyon.	[1]

17th century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy	1605	1677	French	d'Assoucy is believed to have been the lover of the French novelist Cyrano de Bergerac. He was arrested multiple times by the Holy Office for unspecified reasons.	[2]
Jean-Baptiste Lully	1632	1687	Italian-French	Lully was a composer of Baroque music employed in the court of then-king Louis XIV. He was discovered to have had sexual affairs with both men and women, and was subsequently expelled from the courtship at the orders of the king.	[3]
Johann Rosenmüller	1619	1684	German	Rosenmüller was a German composer who fled to Italy in 1658, after a scandal involving his homosexual activities came to light.	[4]

18th century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Frederick the Great	1712	1786	Prussian	Frederick the Great is best known as the first King of Prussia, and had several musical works published during his lifetime. His homosexuality and numerous documented partners have been confirmed by modern historians.	[5]

19th century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Clement Harris	1871	1897	English		[6]
Adela Maddison	1862	1929	English		[7]
Ella Overbeck	1870	1919	Russo-English
Camille Saint-Saëns	1835	1921	French		[8]
Ethel Smyth	1858	1944	English		[9]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	1840	1893	Russian		[10]
Siegfried Wagner	1869	1930	German

20th century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Walter Arlen	1920	2023	Austro-American
Ruth Anderson	1928	2019	American
Samuel Barber	1910	1981	American		[11][12][9][10]
Jean Barraqué	1928	1973	French
Stanley Bate	1911	1959	English
Arthur Benjamin	1893	1960	Australian
R. R. Bennett	1936	2012	Anglo-American
Lord Berners	1883	1950	English
Leonard Bernstein	1918	1990	American		[13][9][10]
Marc Blitzstein	1905	1964	American		[12][13][10]
Konrad Boehmer	1941	2014	German-Dutch
Henriëtte Bosmans	1895	1952	Dutch
Pierre Boulez	1925	2016	French
Paul Bowles	1910	1999	Moroccan		[13][10]
Benjamin Britten	1913	1976	English		[9]
Merton Brown	1913	2001	American
Sylvano Bussotti	1931	2021	Italian
John Cage	1912	1992	American		[12][10]
Wendy Carlos	1931		American		[14]
Roger Sacheverell Coke	1912	1971	English
Aaron Copland	1900	1990	American		[13][9][10][15][16]
John Corigliano	1938		American		Married to Mark Adamo[14]
Henry Cowell	1897	1965	American		[12][17][10]
Ingolf Dahl	1912	1970	German-American
Peter Maxwell Davies	1934	2016	English
David Del Tredici	1937		American		[12][14][9]
David Diamond	1915	2005	American		[13][10]
Hubert du Plessis	1922	2011	South African
Julius Eastman	1940	1990	American		[9]
Joseph Fennimore	1940		American
William Flanagan	1923	1969	American		[10]
Wolfgang Fortner	1907	1987	German
Karel Goeyvaerts	1923	1993	Belgian
Charles Tomlinson Griffes	1884	1920	American		[18]
Clare Grundman	1913	1996	American
Reynaldo Hahn	1874	1947	Venezuelan-French		[19]
Lou Harrison	1917	2003	American		[12][17][10]
Hans Werner Henze	1926	2012	German
David Hogan	1949	1996	American
Lee Hoiby	1926	2011	American		[12]
Vladimir Horowitz	1903	1989	Russian
Jerry Hunt	1943	1993	American		[12]
Douglas Lilburn	1915	2001	New Zealander
Annea Lockwood	1939		New Zealander		[12]
Frederick May	1911	1985	Irish
Colin McPhee	1900	1964	Canadian-American		[20]
Gian Carlo Menotti	1911	2007	Italian-American		[9][10]
Noel Mewton-Wood	1922	1953	Australian-English
Zygmunt Mycielski	1907	1997	Polish
Dimitri Mitropoulos	1896	1960	Greek
Pauline Oliveros	1932	2016	American		[12][9]
Harry Partch	1901	1974	American		[12][10]
Thomas Pasatieri	1941		American
Daniel Pinkham	1923	2006	American		[10]
Francis Poulenc	1899	1963	French
Roger Quilter	1877	1953	English
Peer Raben	1940	2007	German
Aribert Reimann	1936	2024	German		[21]
Ned Rorem	1923	2022	American		[12][13][10]
Henri Sauguet	1901	1989	French
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji	1892	1988	English
Conrad Susa	1935	2013	American		[22]
Karol Szymanowski	1882	1937	Polish		[23]
Virgil Thomson	1896	1989	American		[13][10]
Michael Tippett	1905	1998	English		[9]
Tui St. George Tucker	1924	2004	American
Claude Vivier	1948	1983	Canadian		[9]
Ben Weber	1916	1979	American		[10]
Juliusz Wertheim	1880	1928	Polish		[10]
Arnold van Wyk	1916	1983	South African
Charles Wuorinen	1938	2020	American		[24]

21st century

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Details	Ref(s)
Mark Adamo	1962		American	Married to John Corigliano
Thomas Adès	1971		English		[9]
William Basinski	1958		American
Eve Beglarian	1958		American		[12][25]
Iain Bell	1980		English
Chester Biscardi	1948		American		[12]
Roger Bourland	1952		American
Mark Carlson	1952		American		[26]
David Conte	1955		American
Conrad Cummings	1948		American		[12][25]
Corey Dargel	1977		American
Don Davis	1957		American
Jeremy Dutcher	1990		Canadian
Mohammed Fairouz	1985		American		[25]
Gareth Farr	1968		New Zealander
Michael Finnissy	1946		English		[9]
Alan Fletcher	1956		American
Jake Heggie	1961		American
Jennifer Higdon	1962		American		[14][25]
Stephen Hough	1961		Anglo-Australian		[14][25]
Laura Karpman	1959		American		[14]
Lowell Liebermann	1961		American
Jonathan Mills	1963		Australian
Meredith Monk	1942		American		[14]
Nico Muhly	1981		American		[14]
Andrew Norman	1979		American		[25]
Patrick Nunn	1969		British
Thomas Pasatieri	1941		American
Albert Patron	1969		Italian
Tobias Picker	1954		American
Matthew Ricketts	1986		Canadian
Gil Shohat	1973		Israeli
Michael Tilson Thomas	1944		American
Philip Venables	1979		English		[9]
Šimon Voseček	1978		Austro-Czech
Rufus Wainwright	1973		American-Canadian

References

Citations

1. Jacob, Roger. Macy, Laura (ed.). Dominique Phinot. Grove Music Online.
2. Dejean, Joan (1981). Libertine strategies: freedom and the novel in seventeenth-century France. Ohio State University Press. pp. 198–211. ISBN 0-8142-0325-6
3. Haggerty (2000), p. 855-856.
4. Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. p. 762. ISBN 978-0-674-37299-3.
5. Blanning 2016, p. 193.
6. Carr, Jonathan (2007). The Wagner Clan. London: Faber and Faber. p. 121.
7. Fuller, Sophie (1994). Pandora Guide to Women Composers. London: Pandora. pp. 203–206. ISBN 0-04-440897-8.
8. Haggerty (2000), p. 1178.
9. Hind, Rolf (2015). "Queer Pitch: is there such a thing?" The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
10. Hubbs (2004), p. 67.
11. Hubbs (2004), p. 2.
12. Haggerty (2000), p. 562.
13. Hubbs (2004), p. 4.
14. Knoll, Brooke (2021). "10 contemporary queer composers to listen to in honor of Pride Month". Your Classical. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
15. Aldrich & Wotherspoon (2020), pp. 123–124.
16. Pollack 2000, p. 39.
17. Hubbs (2004), p. 13.
18. Hubbs (2004), p. 101.
19. Gavoty 1976, p. 37.
20. Haggerty (2000), pp. 893–894.
21. Queer.de: Nachruf, Aribert Reimann
22. Haggerty (2000), pp. 1309–1310.
23. Haggerty (2000), p. 1323.
24. Hubbs (2004), p. 84.
25. Peterson, Catherine (2018). "10 Contemporary LGBTQ Composers You Should Know". Arts Boston. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
26. "Meetings This Month | City of West Hollywood". 2 June 2012.

Sources

• Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry (2020). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15982-1.
• Blanning, T. C. W. (2016). Frederick the Great: King of Prussia. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6812-8. OCLC 994869052.
• Gavoty, Bernard (1976). Reynaldo Hahn: le musicien de la Belle Époque (in French). París: Buchet Chastel. OCLC 954560497.
• Haggerty, George E.; Beynon, John; Eisner, Douglas, eds. (2000). Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (volume 2 of The Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures). New York and London: Garland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-81531-880-4.
• Hubbs, Nadine (2004). The Queer Composition of America's Sound: Gay Modernists, American Music, and National Identity. University of California Press. ISBN 978-1-41754-522-3.
• Pollack, Howard (Spring 2000). "The Dean of Gay American Composers". American Music. 18 (1): 39–49. doi:10.2307/3052389. JSTOR 3052389.