ADRIENNE ALBERT - USA
BORN 1 AUGUST
BORN 1 AUGUST
Award-winning composer Adrienne Albert has had her chamber, choral, vocal, orchestral and wind band works performed throughout the United States and across the globe. Before beginning composing her own music in the 1990s, Albert enjoyed a long career as a singer working with composers including Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Gunther Schuller among others,. Adrienne’s own music has been supported by noteworthy arts organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, Meet The Composer/Rockefeller Foundation, Subito Awards, Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity, MPE Foundation, ACME, and ASCAP. Recent commissions include works for The Cornell University Chorus, Harvard-Westlake School, Holyoke Civic Symphony, Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, Palisades Virtuosi, Zinkali Trio, Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Chamber Music Palisades, Pacific Serenades as well as private individuals. A graduate of UCLA, Albert studied composition privately with Stephen Mosko, and orchestration with Albert Harris. Her music has been recorded on MSR, Naxos, Navona, Centaur, Little Piper, Albany, and ABC Records and is published by Kenter Canyon Music (ASCAP). Her music can also be found through Falls House Press, FluteWorld, Theodore Front Musical Literature, and Trevco-Varner Music.
In 2007, Adrienne composed several commissions including Between the dark and daylight, a three-movement work for flute, violin, viola, cello and harp (Nightdreams, Lullaby, and Daydreams) for Pacific Serenades, an Evensong Cycle commissioned by St. Bedes Church in Mar Vista, CA. that premiered in May, 2007.
She is former Composer-In-Residence for both The Wagner Ensemble and The Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra who commissioned two orchestral works, "Courage" (2000) and "Western Suite" (1999), both of which were premiered by LADSO on the West Coast and have had numerous performances across the country including performances by Virginia Symphony Orchestra, The Hewlett-Packard Symphony Orchestra, The Old Post Road Orchestra, the Carson City Symphony, Kona Symphony and the Conway Symphony Orchestra in Central Arkansas among many others. "Courage for Winds "(2009) was commissioned by a Consortium of Wind Bands headed by Jeffrey Boeckman, Director of the Inland Empire Youth Wind Symphony.
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Boundaries by Adrienne Albert
JANET HARBISON
BORN 1 AUGUST
BORN 1 AUGUST
Born in Dublin in 1955 into two worlds of music: traditional Irish and classical art music. At Trinity College Dublin, the Dublin College of Music and Cork University, Janet studied performance on a range of instruments: principally piano, composition and conducting and won a number of national competitions at the Feis Ceol. As a traditional musician, she played and developed informally within the community of traditional music, first on whistle and bodhran, and after taking up the harp at age 13 (with Mairin Ferriter at Sion Hill), she brought her harp to the session. By 1981, Janet had won every national Irish harp competition (including the All-Ireland Championship) and a number of international festival competitions (including the Isle of Man Millennium Competition and Festival International de l’Harpe Celtique, Dinan).
After some years of performing throughout Europe and America and composing film music, she moved to Northern Ireland primarily to pursue her doctorate but, with 'the troubles' (civil strife) still raging, found purpose in using music as a meeting place for the two traditions. Janet was awarded a 2 year Research Fellowship at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast from where she progressed to the appointment of Curator of Music at the Ulster Folk Museum. Here, she established cross-community initiatives and collaborations in cultural heritage (including the formation of the Belfast Harp Orchestra (Grammy Award winners with the Chieftains), directing the Belfast Harpers Bicentenary Festival (including the World Harp Festival Belfast), establishing the Harp Foundation Ireland Ltd, a charitable community organization which she served as CEO for 8 years from 1994 accruing many awards and accolades for her achievements in helping the peace process (including an honorary doctorate from Ulster University). In 2002, Janet moved 'home' to Castleconnell, county Limerick establishing the Irish Harp Centre, a permanent base for her harp orchestra and residential harp college.
At the Irish Harp Centre, Janet trained up and directed another community of professional harpers and teachers - catering for students from all over the world who aspired to careers in stage and studio performance, ceremonial performance (weddings), as entertainers (background and corporate), teachers and as therapists in palliative health-care. With her regular touring Irish Harp Orchestra (now with management in Munich, Germany), and having published her traditional (oral) ‘Harp Method’ (with 6 tutor books and teacher support manuals (2006), and having further developed the Irish Harp College examinations system, teacher training courses and 1-3 year professional apprenticeships, Janet was at her zenith - however with 9-11, recession and family responsibilities, and exhaustion after her 2014 Brian Boru Millennium year, Janet was content to return to academe on her appointment as Visiting Professor of (Irish) Music at the University of Ulster at Magee College, Derry in Northern Ireland in July 2016.
From her home base currently in London, Janet travels to Northern Ireland for her activities there, and continues to compose, perform, teach, write and record.
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After some years of performing throughout Europe and America and composing film music, she moved to Northern Ireland primarily to pursue her doctorate but, with 'the troubles' (civil strife) still raging, found purpose in using music as a meeting place for the two traditions. Janet was awarded a 2 year Research Fellowship at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast from where she progressed to the appointment of Curator of Music at the Ulster Folk Museum. Here, she established cross-community initiatives and collaborations in cultural heritage (including the formation of the Belfast Harp Orchestra (Grammy Award winners with the Chieftains), directing the Belfast Harpers Bicentenary Festival (including the World Harp Festival Belfast), establishing the Harp Foundation Ireland Ltd, a charitable community organization which she served as CEO for 8 years from 1994 accruing many awards and accolades for her achievements in helping the peace process (including an honorary doctorate from Ulster University). In 2002, Janet moved 'home' to Castleconnell, county Limerick establishing the Irish Harp Centre, a permanent base for her harp orchestra and residential harp college.
At the Irish Harp Centre, Janet trained up and directed another community of professional harpers and teachers - catering for students from all over the world who aspired to careers in stage and studio performance, ceremonial performance (weddings), as entertainers (background and corporate), teachers and as therapists in palliative health-care. With her regular touring Irish Harp Orchestra (now with management in Munich, Germany), and having published her traditional (oral) ‘Harp Method’ (with 6 tutor books and teacher support manuals (2006), and having further developed the Irish Harp College examinations system, teacher training courses and 1-3 year professional apprenticeships, Janet was at her zenith - however with 9-11, recession and family responsibilities, and exhaustion after her 2014 Brian Boru Millennium year, Janet was content to return to academe on her appointment as Visiting Professor of (Irish) Music at the University of Ulster at Magee College, Derry in Northern Ireland in July 2016.
From her home base currently in London, Janet travels to Northern Ireland for her activities there, and continues to compose, perform, teach, write and record.
♫ LISTEN
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