Promoting the music of contemporary and historical women-identifying composers since 2001
Announcing the 2026 Festival
Friday, March 27 & Saturday, March 28, 2025
Central Connecticut State University
Celebrating 25 Years of the WCFH!
Meet the 2026 Artists-in-Residence
2026 Composer-in-Residence
Kari Cruver Medina
Seattle-based composer and pianist, Kari Cruver Medina (she/her) grew up on the lively shores of Puget Sound surrounded by the music of the natural world. Literature, history, faith, folklore, and the intersection of Art and culture have always inspired her. These interests reflect in engaging music marinated in an imaginative, often whimsical blend of narrative and nature. She likes to laugh, and that reflects in her music too. Medina’s award-winning pieces have been performed and premiered internationally and span a broad swath of stylistic traditions: from art song and choral works to solo, chamber and orchestral music. Grounded in the Pacific Northwest, she studied at UW and WSU, and has a Master’s in composition. Nature continues to be her playground; when not composing you will find her working in her garden or tramping through the woods, a rake, a book of poetry, and a cup of coffee close at hand.
2026 Ensemble-in-Residence
Whistling Hens
Photo by Patrick Lill
Whistling Hens® was founded by soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom to perform and commission music by women composers to create a financially and artistically equitable future for women in music. The duo’s name was plucked from a quote by a male music critic who wrote in the New York Times in 1918, “women composers are at best whistling hens.” Since its founding in 2018, Whistling Hens has premiered 29 pieces and commissioned 15 compositions, 10 transcriptions, the Whistling Hens Women Composer Coloring Book, and inspired 21 dedicated works.
The duo released their debut album Reacting to the Landscape in 2022, which featured seven living American women composers. In 2023, they presented at Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute at The Kennedy Center and were recipients of the inaugural Iranian Female Composers Association Award with composer Mojgan Misaghi. Other highlights include receiving Chamber Music America’s Residency Partnership Grant (2020) and Classical Commissioning Award with composer Kate Soper (2022), and serving as Ensemble in Residence for Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival (2021), Smith College (2023), Metropolitan State University of Denver (2024), and Towson University (2025).
In 2025, the Hens will release their second album, Big Crass Monster, and four new commissions will come to fruition in the 2025/2026 season. When Whistling Hens isn’t busy dismantling the patriarchy in the arts, they are watching reruns of The Golden Girls and thinking of fun punchlines to “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Learn more at linktr.ee/whistlinghens.
Photos by Britt Olsen-Ecker & Emory Hensley
Want to apply to become an Artist-in-Residence, have your music performed, present scholarly works, or promote the music of women-identifying composers? Please see our Artist Opportunities page to access applications.
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The Women Composers Festival of Hartford promotes the music of contemporary and historical women composers.
We embrace diversity of race, ethnicity, and ability, and empower artists from underrepresented groups who identify as women, including transgender and gender-fluid individuals, women of color, indigenous groups, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities.
We warmly invite and welcome all attendees. Our annual Festival is accessible for all those with mobility, visual, and/or hearing impairments.
When you make a tax-deductible donation to the Women Composers Festival of Hartford, your money directly supports the creation, promotion, and performance of women’s music.