The concert etude emerged as a specific genre in the nineteenth century, combining the original intention of solving technical problems with the purpose of expressing inventive musical ideas. Throughout the nineteenth century and earlier, the field of music composition was dominated by male composers. In the 20^th century, the music community finally began to recognize the talents and contributions being made by many female composers. This has resulted in many tremendous etudes by female composers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. I will briefly review the history of the étude and the reasons behind its expansion as it evolved. Specifically, I will focus on four contemporary women composers, namely Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), Karen Tanaka (b. 1961), Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964), and Unsuk Chin (b. 1961) by discussing their background and showing a number of their études with stylistic analysis and comparison with other composers’ etudes.

My dissertation aims to introduce the études of these women composers so as to provide help for students, teachers and pianists who intend to tackle these works, and may be searching for music by a more diverse group of composers than those normally featured in the concert hall.