YoWo Music was founded by Melbourne musicians Lena Douglas and Claire Cross in 2015, to empower young women to pursue a career in music.

Both Lena and Claire studied jazz and contemporary music at university, and were in the minority as female instrumentalists in their courses. Gender imbalance is prevalent throughout all areas of the music industry, and they felt inspired to make a positive change!

They observed that it is usually somewhere between childhood and university that girls give up playing instruments. So they created the YoWo Music Band Program, a program that supports and inspires young women in high school to continue playing music.

YoWo Music has been building a community of local musicians, teachers, parents and music industry who are all working towards closing the gender gap in music. Over 8 years, we’ve had 51 bands through the semester-long Band Program, released 2 albums, and had alumni accepted into VCA, VCASS and form their own bands.

In 2021, Sarah Rafferty came on as CEO and took over the operations of YoWo Music, supported by Program Manager, Selene Messinis. Under the guidance of Sarah and Selene, YoWo has begun a new era of growth as a registered charity.