EDITH HEMENWAY - USA
BORN 23 DECEMBER
Edith Hemenway is an American composer and pianist.
Edith Hemenway (nee Fitz) was born in 1926 in Brookline, Massachusetts, where she studied piano as a child with the talented French wife of E. Power Biggs. In 1946, she married Augustus L. Hemenway and together they graduated from McGill University, where she majored in English Literature.
They moved to California, where her husband attended Divinity school and was made rector of the Good Samaritan Church in San Francisco. With a growing family (there would eventually be eight children), she started taking organ lessons with Harold Mueller, her first important musical influence, and immersed herself in the works especially of J.S. Bach. The organ was her principal instrument for several years until she discovered the joys of the art song.
The family moved to Providence, Rhode Island in 1962, and there she became studio accompanist to David Laurent, a well- known bassbaritone who was active at Brown University. Here she developed her love of the art-song literature, and soon began studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she received a Master’s degree in Vocal Accompaniment. Shortly thereafter, she earned an M.A. from Brown University in musical composition. Since then, her attention has been divided between performing, coaching, and composition.
While on a two-year stint in Savannah, Georgia, she became friendly with Nancy Braithwaite, and composed two works for her: Asian Figures and A Child’s Garden. Other widely performed works by Ms. Hemenway have been the works song-cycle Wonderings on poems by Kenneth Patchen, and the popular Four Duets on Poems by Langston Hughes. Several other song-cycles and chamber works have been premiered by Nancy Braithwaite and her ensembles in The Netherlands including ‘Questions of Travel’ and ‘Doors’.
♫ LISTEN
To Paradise for Onions by Edith Hemenway
To Paradise for Onions by Edith Hemenway
AMY DUNKER - USA
BORN 23 DECEMBER
Amy Dunker is an American trumpeter, educator and composer.
Dr. Dunker received her bachelor’s degree (music education) from Morningside College, a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of South Dakota, a master’s degree in composition from Butler University and a doctorate in composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Major influences in her musical education include Stanley DeRusha, Chen Yi, James Mobberley, and Michael Schelle.
Dr. Dunker’s music resists easy categorization. From avant-garde improvisation to minimalistic sound sculptures to neo-romantic echoings, Amy delves deeply into the nature of human experience. Her works have been performed throughout the United States, Czech-Republic, Italy, Ireland, the Ukraine, France, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, and Puerto Rico.
Amy Dunker is an associate professor of music at Clarke College where she teaches composition, theory, aural skills and trumpet.
Source: Windrep and Amy Dunker Official Website
♫ LISTEN
Ice by Amy Dunker
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