A new report from the Donne Foundation reveals persistent imbalance in equity in music.

The Donne Foundation’s latest report introduces a vital new data point for measuring inclusion. For the last five years, the Foundation has published the “Equality & Diversity in Global Repertoire” Report, analyzing the repertoire played by over 100 orchestras worldwide. The new report analyses not just the number of works performed, but the number of minutes those works occupy on stage. This additional data point will be featured in every future report alongside the existing metrics. This new report uses the 2024 BBC Proms as a case study, revealing that despite progress, deep gender and racial disparities remain.

The introduction of the BBC Proms 2024 Programming Analysis reads, “The 2025 BBC Proms season demonstrates clear progress: a greater number of commissions and premières by women, more women conductors, increased representation of global-majority composers, and an all-women line-up of soloists and conductor on the Last Night. The BBC Proms exceeded its 2022 target of commissioning half of all new works from women composers, showing their commitment to gender equity, and it continues to be a key platform for discussing diversity and inclusivity in classical music.

As leaders in the field, both the BBC Proms and the BBC as a whole have shown a strong commitment to improving equity and representation in classical music. The BBC Concert Orchestra currently leads the way on gender diversity, topping the Donne Foundation’s 2023/24 ‘Equality & Diversity in Global Repertoire’ report, and this commitment is equally evident in the music championed on BBC Radio 3, which continues to seek out and share new voices. We salute that leadership while urging the wider industry to set even higher benchmarks for inclusive excellence.

However, using this vital new lens for measuring inclusion, the data shows that of 574 works across 89 concerts, 47 percent of the 2024 BBC Proms concerts featured at least one piece by a woman composer, yet music by women accounted for just 13.6 percent of the works performed, and only 8.6 percent of the total performance time.

The findings show that even as women and global majority composers are increasingly included, they are still being heard less, both in duration and prominence. Gender and racial imbalances in programming are still a significant issue.”

Key Findings:

● Composer Gender: 89.9 percent of music, measured in minutes, was composed by men. Just 8.6% was composed by women. The remaining minutes were written by composers of unknown gender or multiple composers of mixed gender.

● Living vs. Historical Composers: Only 21.7 percent of music played at the Proms in 2024 was written by living composers, compared to 77.6 percent of music, which was written by historical composers. Of the women composers who were programmed, the majority (4.7 percent were living, whilst 3.9 percent were historical.

● Race/Ethnicity: 90.3 percent of the minutes performed were written by white composers, while 9.2 percent were composed by people of the global majority. Only 0.4 percent of minutes were written by composers of unknown race/ethnicity.

The top 20 most-performed composers, measured by duration, were all white men. Just 10 women composers had more than 20 minutes of music performed, with only one Black composer featured.

Based on the finding, the Donne Foundation now calls on the classical music industry as a whole to “meet this challenge through collective action. By actively increasing the performance and recordings of women and global-majority composers across the industry, short-term diversity efforts can transform into lasting, audience-led change.”

In closing, the Donne Foundation commended the BBC Proms for its transparency in sharing data, and hopes that this
level of collaboration and transparency will inspire similar practices worldwide.

The full BBC Proms 2024 Programming Analysis can be read here.

Read Related Stories

• Angel Blue, Latonia Moore, Jamie Barton, Corinne Winters & Christopher Maltman Lead BBC Proms’ 2024 Season

• Louise Alder, Gerald Finley, Carolina López Moreno, Erin Morley, Golda Schultz & Aigul Akhmetshina Lead BBC Proms’ 2025 Season

• OPERA America Releases an Encouraging 2024 Annual Field Report

• New Study Finds Gender Inequality & Non-Standard Work in US Opera Production

• OPERA America Field-Wide Opera Demographic Report 2021 Shows Good News for Gender Representation while BIPOC Languishes