Composers of the day: October 22

COMPOSERS OF THE DAY:

OCTOBER 22

PASCALE LAZARUS - FRANCE

Born 22 October

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HELEN BUCHHOLTZ - LUXEMBURG

Born 22 October

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22 OCTOBER 2019

BORGHILD HOLMSEN - NORWAY

BORN 22 OCTOBER

Borghild Holmsen (22 October 1865 – 4 December 1938) was a Norwegian pianist, music critic and composer.

Borghild Holmsen was born in Kråkstad (now Ski), Akershus, Norway. When she was 7 years old, her family settled in Christiania (now Oslo). She studied piano with Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Otto Winter-Hjelm, and continued her studies with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig and Albert Becker in Berlin.

She made her debut in 1890 in Christiania, afterward touring as a concert pianist in Europe and the United States. After ending her concert career, she became a teacher at the Bergen Music Conservatory, where Harald Sæverud was one of her pupils. She wrote as a music critic for the newspapers, Bergens Aftenblad and Bergens Arbeiderblad.

Selected works include: Violin Sonata, Op. 10; Barcarolle, Op.1, No. 1; Scherzo, Op. 1, No. 2 and others.

Source: Wikipedia

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Romance Norvegiènne op.17 by Borghild Holmsen

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THÉRÈSE BRENET - FRANCE
BORN 22 OCTOBER

Thérèse Brenet (born 22 October 1935 in Paris, France) is a French composer. She studied at the Conservatoire de Reims and since 1954 the Conservatoire de Paris. Among her teachers were Maurice Duruflé, Henri Dutilleux, Darius Milhaud, and Jean Rivier. In 1965 she won the Prix de Rome for her Les Visions prophétiques de Cassandre; a prize which enabled her to pursue further studies at the French Academy in Rome. She went on to win the Halphen Prize for fugue and composition and won the Coplay Foundation of Chicago's composition prize. She is also an honorary member of the National Academy of History in Reims.

She retired from the Paris Conservatory in 2000 and has since devoted her time to musical composition. She uses both tonal and atonal musical language, which she uses to suit her personal style. Her works are strongly influenced by literature, by painting and by science (especially astronomy). She believes that a composer should use all technical means at his or her disposal and use them rather than be used by them.

Her first commission from the French National Radio, Clamavit, for Narrator, Chorus and Orchestra which was premièred by the Orchestre Lyrique de l'O.R.T.F., under the direction of André Girard, with Michel Bouquet as the Narrator, was selected to represent France in the Composer's Forum of 'U.N.E.S.C.O., and was performed in many countries. Many other works have also been performed outside of France in countries such as Switzerland, England, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Libya, Canada, Uruguay, Japan and the United States and others.

Source: Classic Music Now and Wikipedia

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Three preludes for piano by Thérèse Brenet

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