I’m thrilled to be participating in Maestra's End of Year Fundraising Campain: The Unwritten Measures.  

What is it? A six-week effort to raise $200,000 in support of women and gender-expansive musicians, as well as other underrepresented artists. As parity is deprioritized and data shows steps backward, Maestra is pledging to continue the work of supporting an arts industry that flourishes with diversity and opportunity for all. Every donation—big or small—helps me reach my fundraising goal and directly impacts an organization I care deeply about. 

Here's how you can help:

• Donate: Contribute whatever you can. No amount is too small!
• Spread the Word: Share my fundraising page with your friends, family, and social networks. Let’s spread awareness so we can raise more!

Your contribution at any level to support Maestra or any of our programs (RISE Theatre, Mentorship, First Takes, Maestra Care, Virtual Technical Workshops, and more) will allow you to enjoy meaningful engagement with Maestra’s work and community, as well as enjoy donor benefits like event invitations, show tickets, exclusive newsletters, and more. (See website for details) 

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For six years now, Maestra has been providing support, visibility, and community for women and nonbinary theater musicians. We started with a small directory that has grown to include over 2900 members who work all over the world. Two years ago we also partnered with Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family to create RISE Theatre, a program that includes a second directory,  taking what we’d built for Maestra and blowing it up to serve even more categories of theater artists -- like designers, directors, producers, administrators, technicians, general managers, and so on. RISE was designed to make visible candidates from underrepresented backgrounds but, intentionally, is open to everyone in the industry and already has about 4000 members. So everything we do here at Maestra – our programming, data collection, event-planning -- is all in the service of those 7000 theater artists and musicians, making sure they can be seen, considered, and, ultimately, hired. 

Since Maestra was founded, the number of all-male orchestra pits in new Broadway musicals has dropped from 25% to 3%. The 2023-2024 season showed a 200% increase in female and nonbinary composer representation over the entire previous decade. And yet we’re living in this de-stabilizing moment when terms like equity and inclusion are taboo, and government support for nonprofit organizations like ours is vanishing. The 2025 Women & Girls Index reported that the percentage of total US charitable donations that goes to organizations focusing on women and girls is 2%. Two cents on a dollar! But we continue to do this work, because Maestra believes that creative excellence and cultural equity are inseparable and demand sustained intervention. 

Please join me in supporting this work and this wonderful organization!