Diversity in Classical Music: Disabilities

Here are just a few of many composers with disabilities. Click to see a list of their music in our library. Scroll further down the page for these and other composers, listed with their disability, plus sources.

Below is a partial list of composers that have come up in our research.  We are unaware of any published resources that list composers with disabilities and their works. If you know of any, please tell us!

Click to see a list of the composer's music in our catalog. To find more of their music, search their name or a work title in WorldCat and click "ILL this with ILLiad" to borrow a copy from another library. Or, contact Tracey Rudnick (rudnick@hartford.edu, 860.768.4404) to suggest we buy a copy.

Superscript letters = Source identifying the person as having a disability. See list of sources below.

Johann Sebastian Bach (blindness) ^GMO
Ludwig van Beethoven (deafness) ^GMO
Anton Bruckner (mental illness) ^GMO
Antonio de Cabezón (blindness) ^GMO
Luis Calvo (leprosy) ^GMO
Jeremiah Clarke (mental illness) ^GMO
Aaron Copland (dementia) ^GMO2
Frederick Delius (effects of syphillis) ^GMO
Gabriel Fauré (deafness) ^GMO
George Frideric Handel (blindness) ^GMO
Friedrich Kuhlau (loss of one eye) ^GMO
Francesco Landini (blindness) ^GMO
Jean Langlais (blindness) ^GMO
Darius Milhaud (rheumatoid arthritis) ^GMO
Maria Theresia von Paradis (blindness) ^GMO
Allan Pettersson (rheumatoid arthritis) ^GMO
Tobias Picker (Tourette's) ^HAR
Maurice Ravel (dementia) ^GMO
Joaquin Rodrigo (blindness) ^GMO
John Rutter (chronic fatigue syndrome) ^MEA
Franz Schubert (effects of syphillis) ^GMO
Robert Schumann (mental illness) ^GMO
Bedřich Smetana (deafness) ^GMO
Ethel Smyth (deafness) ^GMO
John Stanley (blindness) ^GMO
Igor Stravinsky (stroke complications) ^GMO
Ralph Vaughan Williams (deafness) ^GMO
Louis Vierne (blindness) ^GMO
Peter Warlock (mental illness) ^BH

Sources
BH: Boosey & Hawkes. "Peter Warlock."
GMO: Grove Music Online. Search composer's name to read their biography.
GMO2: Grove Music Online, entry on Disability
HAR: Harries. "How We Met: Oliver Sacks & Tobias Picker."
MEA: ME Association. "Welcome to John Rutter."

Search one of the following databases for specific names, work titles, or keywords such as disability, blind, illness, madness, etc.