Every Friday in 2020 we will post the composers from the last 7 days. In these posts, you can also find the link to the composers we presented in 2019.
Check here the composers from this week (18 to 24 July) and learn more about these amazing women who made/are making history in music!
Alissa Firsova is a British-Russian pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist she gave her Wigmore Hall and Proms debuts in 2009 and has appeared in Dartington, Cheltenham, Presteigne, Messiaen at Southbank, Fuerstensaal Classix and Seattle festivals as well as numerous concert venues throughout UK, Germany, Holland, France, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland and the US. She has enjoyed collaborations with distinguished artists such as Stephen Kovacevich, Tim Hugh, Roman Simovic, Andrew Marriner, Julius Berger and the Dante Quartet. Her debut solo piano CD, Russian Emigres, was released in Aug 2015 on Vivat with music by Rachmaninov, her parents and herself.Since winning the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer competition in 2001, she has received two world premieres at the Proms, both conducted by Andrew Litton: her Bach Allegro was performed by the RPO in 2010 and her Bergen’s Bonfire Op. 31 featured in the Bergen Philharmonic’s 250th Anniversary Prom in 2015.
Her music was also performed by Imogen Cooper, Henning Kraggerud, Tim Hugh, Julius Berger, Dante Quartet, Netherlands Blazer Ensemble, Seattle Chamber Players, Xenia Ensemble, Philharmonia Soloists, Northwest Sinfonietta, Interface Quartet, Tana Quartet and Britten Sinfonia. She was recently invited to Verbier, Asiago and Conques Festivals as composer-in-residence and her music is recorded on CD by Henning Kraggerud and The Sixteen.After completing the postgraduate conducting course at Royal Academy of Music under Colin Metters, Alissa had her triple-debut with the English Chamber Orchestra as director, composer and conductor at the Cadogan Hall in 2013. In 2015 she conducted the Camerata RCO in the world premiere of her Le Soleil de Conques Op. 33.
French/Brazilian composer Heloisa Fleury has lived in Paris since 1980, after obtaining a scholarship from the French Government. At the CNSMP she was trained in Composition and Analysis (with Claude Ballif) and Orchestration (with Serge Nigg), and at the Sorbonne in Musicology. Heloisa Fleury has attended several international composition and contemporary music master-classes and has composed a great number of pieces in the late 20th century style, ranging from post-serialism to spectral music. This includes her orchestral works, such as Briseur d’Images and Vom Lichte getragen. Over time she evolved towards a more “classical”, tonal, and, at the same time, a more modern style, with works such as Germinal, an opera rock, and dozens of songs in English, Portuguese or French. Next she entered a sacred music phase, with works like the Brazilian Mass, Missa Brevis, Requiem, Preghiera Semplice and There the soul dwells, among others.
Heloisa has often performed in Europe and won several awards in composition competitions; some of her scores have been edited in France (Editions À Coeur Joie) and in England (Recital Music).
