Crushing Classical

Ashley Ertz is an oboist and arts administrator in the Chicago metropolitan area. Ertz is the Artistic Director and Founder of 5th Wave Collective and the Program Manager with the International Music Foundation. She also recently won the position of English Horn with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and is on the Board of Directors for the Musicians Club of Women in addition to a healthy freelance career.   In March of 2018 Ashley saw a lack of performance space for womxn composers and thus started 5th Wave Collective, a Chicago based ensemble dedicated to the performance and promotion of music by womxn and gender non-conforming composers. They are now finishing off their fourth season with Ertz as Artistic Director, having had over 200 musicians perform with them and presenting over 100 womxn and gender non-conforming composers.    This is so sorely needed. In the orchestral world our attempts to feature female composers look like a tone poem here, a concerto there - but rarely a symphony, never a full concert.