19 APRIL 2019

GERMAINE TAILLEFERRE  - FRANCE  

BORN 19 APRIL

Marcelle Germaine Tailleferre was born to a family living in the outskirts of Paris on April 19, 1892. Despite having exposed young Germaine to music from an early age, Tailleferre's parents considered music to be an inappropriate activity for a young lady, and it was not until her twelfth year that Tailleferre convinced them to allow her to pursue serious studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where she studied accompaniment, harmony, and counterpoint, eventually taking first prizes in each. During the years following her graduation she also received a few informal lessons in orchestration from Maurice Ravel.

While a student at the Conservatoire, Tailleferre met composers Auric, Milhaud and Honegger, and after the premiere of her String Quartet in 1918, she was invited to join the Nouveaux Jeunes, a group of young composers who identified with the aesthetic of satirical composer Erik Satie and playwright Jean Cocteau which, with the addition of Tailleferre, Durey, and Poulenc, soon became known as Les Six, though not by their own choosing. Tailleferre married twice: following a brief marriage (in 1926) to American author Ralph Barton, she married Jean Lageat, a French lawyer. In 1974, she released an autobiography, Mémoires à l'emporte pièce.

Tailleferre's commitment to progressive musical ideas during the early 1920s earned her a measure of notoriety throughout the Parisian musical establishment. Nevertheless, her music never abandoned its allegiance to the traditional French "voice" as passed down from Fauré through Ravel, and the seductive grace and charm of her work are perhaps best summed up by Cocteau's famous assessment of Tailleferre as the musical equivalent to painter Marie Laurencin. The Chansons françaises for voice and piano (1930), and the well-known Overture for orchestra (1932) are sparkling and quintessentially French in their lighthearted, rather humorous use of modernist techniques. In later years, she experimented with serialism; however, these works are not regarded as highly as her earlier compositions.

♫ LISTEN

Jeux de plein aire - Germaine Tailleferre for 2 Pianos 4 Hands

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YARDENA ALOTIN - ISRAEL   

BORN 19 APRIL

Yardena Alotin, composer, pianist and teacher, was born in Tel Aviv Oct. 19, 1930 and died in New York Oct. 4, 1994. She studied at the Tel Aviv Music Teachers' College (1948-1950) and at the Israel Music Academy (1950-1952) with A. U. Boskovich (theory), M. Seter (harmony, counterpoint), P. Ben-Haim (orchestration), I. Vincze-Kraus (piano) and O. Partos (composition, privately).

Alotin's works (including didactic and commissioned works) are based generally on baroque and classical forms. Changing meters and rhythms, so typical for her, appear already in her first work Yefei Nof for mixed choir, which won the Nissimov Prize and was premiered by the Rinat Choir, of which she was a member, in Tel Aviv and at the Paris International Festival, 1956. In addition to the above, Biblical canticles appear in her Cantata for choir a cappella (1958), performed at the Perugia Religious Music Festival, 1960 and in her frequently performed Sonatas for violin and piano (1960) and for cello solo (1976; MII-CD-07). In several of her works Alotin used polyphonic techniques (Lament for string trio [1960]; Piano Trio [1979]), heterophony can be found in others (Festive Song for mixed choir [1984], commissioned by the Tel Aviv Foundation for Culture and Art on the 75th Anniversary of Tel Aviv). Her Yefei Nof for solo flute (1978; IMI 6543) was commissioned and often performed by James Galway. Rich lyric melodic lines, dramatic developments and natural optimism characterize most of Alotin's music.

In 1998, Mr. Yohanan Riverant, Alotin's husband, donated a fund after her name for the support of Israeli music performance. Thanks to his donation, one concert in each season is dedicated to the performance of Alotin's music, together with works written by other Israeli composers

♫ LISTEN

Sonate für Violine und Klavier - IV. Vivace by Yardena Alotin

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18 APRIL 2019

KEIKO ABE - JAPAN  

BORN 18 APRIL

Keiko Abe is a Japanese composer and marimba player. She has been a primary figure in the development of the marimba, in terms of expanding both technique and repertoire, and through her collaboration with the Yamaha Corporation, developed the modern five-octave concert marimba.

Her compositions, including "Michi", "Variations on Japanese Children's Songs", and "Dream of the Cherry Blossoms", have become standards of the marimba repertoire. Abe is active in promoting the development of literature for the marimba, not only by writing pieces herself, but also by commissioning works by other composers and encouraging young composers. She has added at least 70 compositions to the repertoire. She uses improvisation as an important element in developing her musical ideas which she then uses in her compositions.

In addition to her heavy composing, touring, and recording schedule, Abe has been a lecturer, then professor, at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo since 1970. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993.Her music is mainly published by Xebec Music Publishing and Schott, Japan.

♫ LISTEN

Prism by Keiko Abe

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MARCELA RODRÍGUEZ - MEXICO  

BORN 18 APRIL

Marcela Rodríguez belongs to a generation of Mexican and Latin American composers which has distanced itself from the regionalism of the nationalistic music of the 20th century and is trying to get into touch with European and Anglo-American music without sacrificing its search for a Latin American musical identity

She studied the guitar and composition with Leo Brouwer of Cuba. She studied for a while in London, and then returned to Mexico City to study with Julio Estrada and Ma. Antonieta Lozano. Rodríguez works have been performed internationally, including the United States, Venezuela, Spain, her opera "Las Cartas de Frida" in Heidelberg, Germany, [Moldavia]] and Greece. She has taught classes of composition for opera, dance and theater in Mexico and Spain, and at the Catholic University of Colombia and the Catholic University of Washington.

Marcela Rodríguez has written works for solo instruments and voices as well as songs, chamber music, symphonies, concertos and operas. Since 1979 she has been writing music for dramas, too, and has worked together with the most eminent Mexican directors. Marcela Rodríguez is unusually well informed in the field of music and uses the resources of the European tradition as well as those of the Latin American one. She studied the guitar under two of its greatest interpreters - the Argentinean Manuel López Ramos and the most important modern composer for the guitar, the Cuban Leo Brouwer. Bothof them made Rodriguez aware of Latin American music and the problem of defining its identity. During a lengthy stay in London, where she completed a course of studying the guitar, she devoted her time mostly to the tradition of European music. Back in Mexico City she continued her studies under the music pedagogue Jesús Estrada and Mario Lavista, the most eminent living Mexican composer.

♫ LISTEN

Caida by Marcela Rodriguez

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