Our biggest orchestras are finally playing more music by women. What took so long?

"Zero is a very damning number." That was the contrite admission Jeremy Rothman, chief programming officer of the Philadelphia Orchestra, offered in 2018 when confronted with a stark truth: Of the roughly 55 different composers whose work would be performed at regular symphony concerts by his organization in the 2018-19 season, none were women. To be fair, the same was true at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The numbers weren't much better for the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Four years later, there's still work to be done — but the tide seems to be turning. More than one in four composers in Philadelphia's current season are women. Among those are three living women receiving world premieres. And there's a showcase for the; the orchestra's recording of her once-forgotten symphonies already earned Philly a Grammy in April.