Dulcamara Press

MISSION

Dulcamara Press aims to increase diversity and representation in classical music through the publication and promotion of both historical and contemporary classical music by composers from underrepresented populations.

VISION

At Dulcamara Press, we envision a future where the classical music canon embraces the full spectrum of human experience and creativity. We aspire to a world where the classical repertoire is defined not by historical exclusion but by its inclusivity, reflecting the rich diversity of our global society. Our goal is a classical music landscape where contributions from all backgrounds—regardless of wealth, race, or gender—are recognized, celebrated, and integrated into the fabric of our musical heritage.

VALUES

We believe that music and the arts are powerful tools for fostering human connection, empathy, creativity, and community. Western Classical Music is a vast and evolving tapestry that reflects centuries of artistic development, yet systemic biases have long constrained access and recognition to a narrow segment of composers. At Dulcamara Press, we are committed to broadening the classical canon by prioritizing the publication and promotion of works by women, gender-minoritized individuals, and composers from Black, Indigenous, Latiné, Asian, and other racialized backgrounds.

We advocate for equitable access to high-quality musical scores and literature for practitioners, students, teachers, and musicians of all kinds. We emphasize the importance of durable, well-crafted scores suitable for educational and performance settings, and are dedicated to producing meticulously researched and thoughtfully designed scores that enhance usability and accuracy. Our commitment is to provide resources that support both practice and performance, addressing the need for clear, reliable, and aesthetically pleasing materials.

Our Story

Every score published at Dulcamara Press is researched with scholarly rigor and edited with meticulous care. Our work exists to facilitate performance, so our scores are thoughtfully designed for clarity, readability, and practical performance use.

The seeds of this project were sown some years ago while I was juggling a busy schedule as a professional performer and composer, pursuing graduate studies in musicology, all while continuing to work as a graphic designer and parent young children. It was hectic and stressful, but artistically and intellectually rich.

During that time, I founded and directed a vocal ensemble that specialized in the musical bookends of early and contemporary music. The most satisfying projects I undertook for that ensemble involved hunting through primary sources for music that had not been transcribed or performed publicly for many hundreds of years. The more I delved into the wealth of extant manuscripts and early printed musical sources, the more I realized how limited the available performance repertoire is.

Most musicians have neither the time nor training to find, transcribe, edit, and produce new editions from primary sources, leaving thousands upon thousands of musical works forgotten and unheard. This is especially true of the medieval and early renaissance, but it also applies to the so-called “lesser” music of later periods, particularly music composed by women, whose place in society often limited their access to wide public performance, publication, and notoriety. Contemporary composers from marginalized communities fare somewhat better today than in the past, but barriers of race, class, gender, disability, and a myriad of other threads of identity still persist. As a composer and new music advocate myself, Dulcamara is my way to create a platform to provide publishing and distribution opportunities for contemporary composers.

I officially launched Dulcamara Press in April 2022, after a year of lockdown during which I, like many, reevaluated my priorities, goals, and the way I most wanted to spend this precious life. The covid pandemic forced us all to grapple with our collective community responsibilities and contributions, and to wrestle with our own daily lives and priorities. It lead many of us to finally do that thing that we’d been dreaming of (and perhaps putting off) for years. For me, that was Dulcamara Press.

Thank you for taking the time to explore our offerings and upcoming projects!