PATRICIA LEONARD - USA
BORN 13 MAY
A native of Boston, Patricia Leonard’s early musical training began with piano studies, followed by composition studies at The New England Conservatory. She received a degree in Composition from The Boston Conservatory of Music. Principal composition teachers include Larry Thomas Bell and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici.
Ms. Leonard’s music is performed frequently in the U.S. and in Europe, and her music has been premiered by acclaimed ensembles and artists such as the New York Piano Quintet, featuring members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Broadway singer Timothy Shew; Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Eddie Daniels and renowned contemporary music pianist Christopher Oldfather.
Ms. Leonard’s compositions have been reviewed as “arresting and evocative with innovative harmonies” by New York Concert Review; the New Music Connoisseur reviewed her musical style as “revealing musical sophistication and a high level of craftsmanship” and “wildly imaginative and vivid storytelling with virtuosic variety.”
Ms. Leonard is a founding member and Deputy Executive Director of New York Composers Circle and shared the group’s inaugural concert in May 2003 with guest composer, David Del Tredici. She is also a Board member of The League of Composers/ISCM, and a member of International Alliance of Women in Music, and New York Women Composers. Also an opera judge, Ms. Leonard panels the annual Violetta DuPont, Gerda Lissner and The Licia Albanese – Puccini vocal competitions for aspiring young opera singer.
♫ LISTEN
ELIZABETH TURNER - UK
Very little is known about Elizabeth Turner, apart from the fact that she published a "Collection of songs" and "Six lessons for the harpsichord" in 1756. She must have had some reputation, since the subscribers to these works included, among others, George Frederick Handel and William Boyce. A paper by Margaret Yelloly in "Early Music" February 2005, reports that her career began in 1744 and that she died in 1756.
Contemporary sources, mainly newspapers, throw some light on the brief professional career of Elizabeth Turner, an 18th-century singer and composer popular in her time, but of whom little is known today. Her musical output was slender, but as one of the first published women composers at a time when it was rare for women either to compose or to perform in public, her career has particular social and historical interest.
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Andante afetuoso for harpsichord by Elizabeth Turner 
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