This collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to issues of identity and its representation, examining intersections of age and gender in relation to music and musicians across a wide range of periods and places. Drawing together the work of musicologists and practitioners, it offers new ways in which to conceptualise the complex links between age and gender in both individual and collective practice and their reception: essays explore juvenilia and 'late' style in composition and performance, the role of institutions in fostering and sustaining creative activity throughout musical careers, and the ways in which genres and scenes themselves age over time.

Introduction: Gender, age and musical creativity, Catherine Haworth and Lisa Colton; 'Something revolting': women, creativity and music over 50, Sophie Fuller. Part I Performing Identity in Early European Musical Culture: Noblewomen and music in Italy, c.1430-1520: looking past Isabella, Tim Shephard; Age, masculinity and music in early modern England, Kirsten Gibson; From castrato to bass: the late roles of Nicolò Grimaldi 'Nicolini', Anne Desler. Part II Gendered Musical Communities: Music as a lifelong pursuit for bandsmen in the southern Pennines, c.1840-1914: reflections on working-class masculinity, Stephen Etheridge; Intergenerational relationships: the case of the society of women musicians, Laura Seddon; Professionalism and reception in the New York composers' forum: intersections of age and gender, Melissa J. de Graaf. Part III Contemporary Creative Practices and Identities: Urchins and angels: little orphan Annie and clichés of child singers, Jacqueline Warwick; 'Across the evening sky': the late voices of Sandy Denny, Judy Collins and Nina Simone, Richard Elliott; Sanctuaries for social outsiders: a queer archive of feelings in songs by The Smiths, Mimi Haddon; 'New music' as patriarchal category, Lauren Redhead; multiple/radical/forms/comma/traces/creativity/of/constraint: a piece for solo voice and various accompaniment, Caroline Lucas. Bibliography; Index.