WALNUT, Calif. — When Lori Stuntz looks around the rehearsal room at Mt. San Antonio College, she doesn’t just see a lot of shiny brass instruments.

“I see a lot of really great musicians and all my friends,” she said.

Stuntz is one of the founding members of She Can Play Brass, an ensemble made up of women, female-identifying and non-binary musicians playing instruments that are more often than not — professionally at least — seen in the hands of men.

“We’re just trying to show the world that we are just as good and can have a group that's just as good as a group of men,” Stuntz said.

Gender progress is slowly being made by orchestras on the whole, but when you boil it down by section, the contrast is stunning. In 2018, an analysis done by Quartz of the top 20 plus orchestras in the world and found: “Just one of the 103 trumpet players is a woman, and there are no women among the 99 trombonists and 26 tuba players.”

A look at the websites for the NY Phil, the LA Phil and the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras shows the trumpet, trombone and tuba players are currently all men. It’s a problem with deep historical roots, says trombonist Shelly Suminski.

“At one point, women were not supposed to play any instruments that touch their face because it would distort the woman's face. And we can’t have that," Suminski said.

There’s also an emotional bias with brass instruments having been seen as more masculine. Groundbreaking female trombonist Rebecca Cherian detailed this in a 2000 TEDx Talk on Sexism in the Symphony.

“The brass instruments express power through loud and aggressive sounds,” Cherian said.

“I mean, we're told to be quiet, don't make a scene,” Suminski agreed. “So you give us an instrument with a bell that's facing forward, you give us power.”

She helped form She Can Play Brass as a way to do outreach to other female musicians, to network and to have a place to play in peace.

“Other groups I have played with, there are passive-aggressive comments, there are passive-aggressive actions,” Suminski said. “But here in this room, this is our safe place.”

In addition to their holiday concert being held on Dec. 16 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Glendale, the group also host gatherings and jam sessions — and this summer they’re planning a camp, taught by women but open to all.

“It's important that the girls growing up see empowered women,” Suminski said. “But, you know, it's also important for those boys to see women in power and in talent as well. It is good for everybody.”

She says the year she got her undergrad at USC, the entire graduating class, including the valedictorian at the School of Music, were all women trombone players. She believes she is the only one left still playing professionally in Los Angeles and isn’t sure how many of the others continued their music careers.

While it’s important to get more young female musicians in the pipeline, Stuntz said in order for real progress to be made, there also needs to be a change at the top.

“I think we're going to have to have more women in leadership roles,” she mused.

Stuntz' advice to young girls who want to play brass but don’t see themselves reflected in the pit: "Just dream big and go for it and stay with it, and try to try to educate the people that are telling you 'no.'”