Last year I came out to the world as a transgender person. I am a mature person, and felt I couldn’t carry my secret gender identification to my grave. I reached the realization that others like me needed an orchestra where they could express their art and be safe living as their authentic selves. For many years, I never dreamed of being able to express my feminine persona in my job. Dressed in a tuxedo I performed thousands of rehearsals and concerts. Then I thought that perhaps I could provide concerts where musicians could dress in the gender that they identified as. In my research, I found that no one had ever created an orchestra of transgender musicians before. I would do just that. It would provide a secure artistic environment for all LGBTQ+ and minority musicians who have previously been quietly discriminated against throughout history. Thus the idea of the Non-Conformists was born.