JACQUELINE FONTYN - BELGIUM
BORN 27 DECEMBER
Jacqueline, Baroness Fontyn is a contemporary Belgian composer, pianist and music educator. She was born in Antwerp, and has received the title of baroness from the King of Belgium in recognition of her many artistic contributions.
Jacqueline Fontyn was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and began piano studies at the age of five years with Ignace Bolotin. At nine years old, she began to compose small pieces, and at the age of 14, she decided to be a composer. She continued her piano studies with Marcel Maas and studied music theory and composition with Marcel Quinet in Brussels and with Max Deutsch in Paris. She also studied orchestra conducting in Vienna with Hans Swarovski and graduated in 1959 from the Belgian Chapelle Musicale Elisabeth.
Working in Antwerp, Fontyn founded a mixed choir Le Tympan and directed it for seven years. She conducted the Symphonic Orchestra of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium for two years.
From 1963 to 1970 she taught counterpoint at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp. From 1970 to 1990 she was a professor at the Conservatory of Brussels where she taught first counterpoint and later composition. She also taught at Georgetown University, the American University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland, and worked as a music teacher in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Cairo, Seoul and Tel Aviv.
Jacqueline Fontyn has received numerous honors and awards including the Prix de Rome, the Oscar Esplanada prize in 1962 in Alicante, Spain and Prix Honegger in 1988. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Poetry and the Fine Arts of Belgium. Jacqueline Fontyn is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy and in 1993 the King of Belgium granted her the title of baroness in recognition of her artistic contributions.
♫ LISTEN
Battements d'Ailes für Klarinettenquartet by Dina Appeldorn
Battements d'Ailes für Klarinettenquartet by Dina Appeldorn
MERCEDES ZAVALA GIRONÉS - SPAIN
BORN 27 DECEMBER
The composer Mercedes Zavala Gironés was born in Madrid 1963. She studied Piano and Composition at the Madrid Music Conservatoire, subjects she studied further with various teachers, especially in the fields of performance of 20th century piano music, teaching and composition. She has been a pupil of Malcolm Singer (Guildhall School teacher and headmaster of Yehudi Menuhin School at London), a main figure in her development like composer.
Her works has been played first in England and then in the rest of Europe: Wien (1995: premiere of Cómo es y del Diario (íntimo) de Sara-Clarabella Max), France (2001:Aujourd`Hui Musiques at Perpignan) and Germany (2002: Contemporary Spanish Music in Europe), Italy, Israel, etc.. In 1995 The Western Illinois University (USA) comissioned to her a work for the Hispanic Culture Festival, inviting her to give some lectures and recitals where he premiered her own works.
Beyond Mercedes Zavala dedication to Composition are important activities in Teaching and Research. In 1990 she translated the Traité de Fugue de André Gedalge and became Teacher at Madrid Conservatory, where today she stays on teaching Analysis, Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition and XXth century Music. Also in this year she starts to work at Grupo Secuencia, playing piano and exploring theatrical and sociological aspects of musical performance. She has made researches on African Music, travelling to Senegal in 1996 to study percussion with Professor N’Diaye (Louga, Cercle de la Jeunesse). In 1997 she graduated in Philosophy, studying after a postgraduate related to Aesthetics. In 2005-2008 she has been in charge of cultural activities at Conservatorio Profesional Teresa Berganza de Madrid. In 2007 she has worked for Radio Nacional de España (Radio Clásica) making the program Álbum de Canciones, dedicated to Concert Songs and Lieder.
She has spent a lot of time and efforts to the study and diffusion of historical repertory of Women Composers, doing several Lectures and Workshops. Between them: Música y mujeres a lo largo de la Historia (2005), for Teachers at Comunidad de Madrid for General Education and Music Schools and Conservatories. Mujeres, Sonido y Virtualidad: Lenguajes que envuelven (Cursos de Verano 2006 de El Escorial, Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Género y expresión estética en la música (Master en Feminismo y Género at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 2005-2008). She belongs since 2002 to the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas, at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Institute for Feminist Research), being active in diffusion of Women Music. From 2007 to 2010 she was in charge of Asociación Mujeres en la Música (Spanish Women in Music Society).
♫ LISTEN
Remanso by Mercedes Zavala
Remanso by Mercedes Zavala
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