Sir, There are many reasons for the unfair scarcity of women composers (letter, June 11), but I dispute that family commitments are one of them (after all, I wouldn’t exist were it not for a woman composer with a family, my grandmother Liza Lehmann).
About 30 years ago, one of my daughters, then 5, asked by one of her teachers what her daddy did for a living, said: “My daddy is a composer, but sometimes he goes out to work.”
As a classical composer, 99 per cent of my time is spent working at home (the rest is lecturing and conducting), and through three marriages, with each wife frequently going out to work, and seven children, three of them still at school now, I have managed to do the school run and provide tea for more than 40 years (with no au pair) and have produced more than 100 commissioned pieces, never having once missed a deadline.
As Marsha Head concludes: “It is all a matter of priorities.” Children sleep for about ten hours, and are at school or pre-school for several more. One can always find plently of time for composing, as well as the washing and ironing.
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DAVID BEDFORD
Bristol