AGATHE BACKER-GRØNDAHL - NORWEGEN
BORN 01 DECEMBER
Agathe Ursula Backer Grøndahl (1 December 1847 – 4 June 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. She married the conductor and singing teacher Olaus Andreas Grøndahl in 1875, and was generally known thereafter as Agathe Backer Grøndahl. Her son Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl (1885–1959) was also a pianist and composer, who promoted his mother's compositions in his concerts.
Agathe Backer Grondahl played a major role in the period often called the golden age of Norwegian music history. She composed in total some 400 pieces spanning seventy opus numbers, and was a prominent character on the Norwegian musical scene; being a close friend of Edvard Grieg. Her earlier compositions synthesized the predominant pianistic and stylistic ideas of 1850s Europe. In her later years however, her style transformed and anticipated some of the early twentieth century impressionistic ideas, which ultimately led the composer Pauline Hall to call her the first true Norwegian impressionist.
As a teacher she was markedly successful and influential. Her children studied under her and are counted with her gifted pupils. She was the author of many songs and a great deal of music for the piano, and both as pianist and composer stands at the head of modern music in Norway. Agathe Backer Grøndahl died at her home in Ormøya, outside Christiania, at the age of 59. She is today chiefly remembered for her piano pieces and songs.
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The Sange Op 1 by Agathe Backer Grøndahl
ELIZABETH BELL - USA
BORN 01 DECEMBER
BORN 01 DECEMBER
Elizabeth Bell was an American composer.
Elizabeth Bell was born in Cincinnati in 1928. She gained her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Wellesley College in 1950, and a BS in Composition from Juilliard in 1953. She studied under Peter Mennin and Vittorio Giannini. Later she also studied with Paul Alan Levi. From 1969 to 1975 Bell worked as the music critic of the Ithaca Journal. She has performed throughout the world. She is a founder member of New York Women Composers, Inc. and has been on the Board of Governors of American Composers Alliance. She is also strongly involved with the International Alliance of Women in Music. Bell died on December 19, 2016 in Tarrytown, New York.
She married astronomer Frank Drake in 1953 and they had three sons. In 1983 she married Robert E. Friou.
There are three all-Bell CD’s: “The Music of Elizabeth Bell”, MMC 2082; “Snows of Yesteryear”, N/S R 1029; and “A Collection of Reflections”, N/S R 1042. Other recordings are on CRS, Classic Masters, VMM, and North/South Records. There have been six all-Bell concerts, including two to celebrate her 75th birthday: NYC 10/12/03, and Yerevan, Armenia, 4/28/04. Performed world-wide, she was a member of BMI, ACA, SCI, AMC, NACUSA, and other professional organizations. She passed away on December 19, 2016.
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Millenium by Elizabeth Bell
Millenium by Elizabeth Bell
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