27 JANUARY

NANCY GALBRAITH - USA
BORN 27 JANUARY 

Nancy Galbraith (b. 1951) has been composing music since the late 1970's, creating instrumental and vocal sound praised for its rich harmonic texture, rhythmic vitality, emotional and spiritual depth, and wide range of expression. With major contributions to the repertoires of symphony orchestras, concert choirs, wind ensembles, chamber ensembles, and soloists, Galbraith plays a leading role in defining the sound of American contemporary classical music. Galbraith resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she is Chair of Composition at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music, and holds the Vira I Heinz Professorship of Music endowed chair. She is published by Subito Music.

♫ LISTEN 

Lumen Christi Deo Gratias by Nancy Galbraith

► NANCY'S WEBSITE

MARGUERITE CANAL  - FRANCE

DIED 27  JANUARY 

French composer and teacher, Marguerite Canal was the first woman in France to conduct orchestral concerts. Born into a musical family in Toulouse in 1890, Marguerite Canal revealed her musicality in her earliest years and began her studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1903. Under the direction of Paul Vidal, Canal proved to be an outstanding pupil, earning first prizes in harmony, piano accompaniment and fugue. Drawn to composition, she began to write songs, some of them to accompany her own poems. Her phenomenal talents were recognized in 1917 and 1918 when she became the first woman to conduct orchestral concerts in France (at a series held at the Palais de Glace). In 1919, she was appointed teacher of solfège (music theory) for singers at the Paris Conservatory, and the next year she won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for her dramatic scene for voice and orchestra, "Don Juan."

Marguerite Canal's compositions are sensitive and often poignant. Her songs, particularly those set to the verse of Paul Fort, display her love of the sea and the coast of Brittany. Others, including a 1948 setting of four lullabies derived from the poetry of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore , testify to her passionate love of children, and are a commentary on one of the great sadnesses of her life, never having had a child. Largely unknown even to connoisseurs of modern French music, the creative efforts of Marguerite Canal represent an aesthetic treasure yet to be discovered by music lovers.

♫ LISTEN 

Sonata for Piano and Violin (3rd Movement) by Marguerite Canal

►FIND MUSIC BY MARGUERITE CANAL