The Swarthmore College Orchestra is committed to studying and performing works by composers who have long been underrepresented in orchestral culture. Through our programming we aim to lift up works by past and present composers including but not limited to those who identify as women, non-binary, Black, Indigenous, or People of Color in order to address the long history of presenting repertoire mostly limited to white males of predominantly European descent. It is our goal to study, learn, and bring to the Swarthmore community a wide variety of music for orchestra that moves and encourages all of us to make the world of orchestral music an inclusive space. This is an ongoing process, and we welcome suggestions and dialogue as our work as an ensemble evolves together. 

Here are a few of the works that have entered our repertoire over the last few years, and we plan to broaden our repertoire with each new cohort of Swarthmore students. 

• Amy Beach, “Gaelic” Symphony
• Valerie Coleman, Seven O’Clock Shout
• Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Sussex Landscape
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ballade
• Stacey Garrop, Penelope Waits
• Emilie Mayer, Symphony no. 3, Scherzo 
• Florence Price, Symphony no. 3
• Dame Ethel Smyth, Overture to The Wreckers
• William Grant Still, Symphony no. 5
• Lili Tobias ’19, On Narrow Foot-Bridges
• Grace Williams, Penillion