GENA BRANSCOMBE - CANADA
BORN 04 NOVEMBER
Source: Wikipedia and Katheelen Shimeta
Gena Branscombe (4 November 1881 – 26 July 1977) was a Canadian pianist, composer, music educator and choir conductor who lived and worked in the United States.
Gena Branscombe was born 4 November 1881 in Picton, Ontario. Her musical talent was apparent at an early age. She studied piano and harmony with local teachers. In addition, she had an easy ability improvising and sight reading. Gena entered high school at age eleven and graduated by age fourteen. With her musical talent and drive to succeed, the decision was made to send her to college for a music degree.
Of great influence to her life and compositional style were three teachers. Swiss born pianists, composer and conductor Rudolph Ganz was Gena's piano teacher. Private composition lessons were taken with Felix Borowski. No doubt his deep appreciation of the rich, lush and complex harmonies of the German Romantic era greatly influenced Gena's compositions. Her harmonies are intricate, rooted in the understanding of how dissonance and resolution affect word painting in her songs and instrumental works. Under the guidance of German born Alexander von Fielitz, Branscombe studied song writing. Her understanding of setting text to music may have come from him. Resigning her position at the Chicago Musical College in 1907, Gena became head of the piano department at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington .
During Gena Branscombe’s lifetime, 22 different music companies published 74 of her choral compositions, 150 art songs, 13 piano pieces and 8 instrumental works. Her publishers included Arthur P. Schmidt (promoter and publisher of American women composers), Wa Wan Press, Oliver Ditson of Boston, Gustave Schirmer, Summy Birchard, HW Gray, J. Fisher, Hatch Music Company of Philadelphia, Whaley Royce and Company and Boosey-Hawkes.
After her death, her manuscripts were donated to the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
♫ LISTEN
How do I love thee? by Gena Branscombe
ELENA KATS CHERNIN - UZBEKISTAN
BORN 04 NOVEMBER
BORN 04 NOVEMBER
Elena Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is an Australian pianist and composer.
Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uzbekistan, but then part of the Soviet Union). She is Jewish. She studied at the Yaroslavl Music School and the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow from age 14, and migrated to Australia in 1975, continuing her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, under Richard Toop (composition) and Gordon Watson (piano). She also participated in the Darlinghurst underground theatre scene, with groups such as Cabaret Conspiracy, Fifi Lamour, Boom Boom La Burn and others, often under the name Elena Kats.
Kats-Chernin studied with Helmut Lachenmann in Germany. She remained in Europe for thirteen years, and became active in theatre and ballet, composing for state theatres in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Bochum. In 1993 she wrote Clocks for the Ensemble Modern. It has since been performed around the world.
She has won numerous music composition prizes in Australia, and her pieces are regularly broadcast on ABC Classic FM radio. In 2009, Kats-Chernin was commissioned by the National Museum of Australia to write a piece for orchestra called Garden of Dreams, named for one of the architectural features of the museum, which premiered at the museum the same year.
Elena Kats-Chernin also was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in January 2019 "for distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly to music, as an orchestral, operatic and chamber music composer".
Source: Wikipedia e Australian Music Centre
♫ LISTEN
Phoenix Story Courting the Dragon by Elena Kats-Chernin
Phoenix Story Courting the Dragon by Elena Kats-Chernin
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