The Athena Festival is a biennial event, sponsored by the Department of Music, devoted to the study and performance of music composed by women. The Athena Festival is a multi-faceted event reaching public school music students, MSU students and faculty, regional audiences and scholars/performers front across the country. The Athena Festival VI will be held March 10-13, 2009 and include three days of lecture/recital sessions, and concerts featuring MSU Concert Choir, MSU Jazz Orchestra and Department of Music Faculty Chamber Music ensembles.

The theme of the 2009 Athena Festival is "Women, Music and the Twenty-first Century." The featured composer and scholar for the 2009 festival is Judith Lang Zaimont, award winning composer of international reputation, and editor of the three volume book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. The featured composer for the "Meet the Composer" program is Ruth Elaine Schram, who has published more than 1450 choral works both sacred and secular.