Composers of the day: September 29

COMPOSERS OF THE DAY:

SEPTEMBER 29

ANITA MIEZE - LATVIA

Born 29 September

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MARIA HULD MARKAN SIGGÚSDÓTTIR - ICELAND

Born 28 September

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29 SEPTEMBER 2019

MARIA HESTER PARK - UK

BORN 29 SEPTEMBER

Maria Hester Park (née Reynolds) (29 September 1760 – 7 June 1813) was a British composer, pianist, and singer. She was also a noted piano teacher who taught many students in the nobility, including the Duchess of Devonshire and her daughters.

Her first public appearance was at the age of twenty-two as Maria Hester Reynolds in the Hanover Square concert series with a concerto on the harpsichord. She played a Clementi duet with Jane Mary Guest on 29 April 1783, a concerto at Willis's Rooms in March 1784 and a performance as Mrs Park ("late Reynolds") in May 1791. After her marriage in London in April 1787 to Thomas Park, an engraver turned antiquarian and man of letters, she ended her career as a performer, although she earned even more fame as composer and teacher. 

It has been said of Maria Hester Park that she was "hugely popular in the elegant drawing rooms of eighteenth century England" and that she "made her living composing the sort of music performed by Jane Austen heroines.". She has been described as "one of the most prolific of the 18th century women composers." Her works are varied, competent, and professionally arranged. Her sonatas, according to The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers, are "varied and spirited." Her Sonata in C is stylistically close to Mozart, pleasant to the ear without being overly challenging either to the performer or the listener. Mozartean features apparent in her Sonata in F include a constant bass line of straight eighth notes that form the outlines of chords, and a distinct melody with ornamentation. There are also many basic scale patterns and simple arpeggios, and the majority of her pieces are clean, lacking the melodrama of later romantic works. Her surviving music spans a quarter of a century.

Source: Wikipedia & Spot Colorado

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Concerto pour piano by Marie Hester Park

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PERSIS VEHAR - USA
BORN 29 SEPTEMBER

Hailed by the New York Times for her musical “honesty, clarity and compositional skill”, Persis Parshall Vehar has had works commissioned and performed by leading orchestras, opera companies, ensembles, soloists and schools throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, & and South America. With over 300 compositions ranging from solo song to full orchestral works and operas, Vehar’s works have been performed at many of the leading concert halls throughout Europe and the United States, including the Royal Festival Hall (London), Graz Music Festival (Austria), Copenhagen Hall (Denmark), McMaster & Brock Universities (Canada), Uppland University (Sweden), Ohio State University, Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, NC) and Carnegie Recital Hall (NYC). She is the recipient of 30 annual ASCAP Plus Awards for excellence in composition and seven Meet the Composer Grants and is included in the International Museum’s Collection of Distinguished Musicians in London and the Biblioteque Internationale De Musique Contemporaine in Paris. Among her publishers are C. F. Peters and Boosey & Hawkes. Her compositions are broadcast regularly on National and International Public Radio & Television.

Vehar holds a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and a Master of Music from the University of Michigan, and had three years’ post- graduate study in New York City. Her private composition studies were with Warren Benson, Ross Lee Finney, Roberto Gerhard and Ned Rorem. She had additional advanced composition workshops with Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, Jacob Druckman and John Corigliano. Vehar frequently presents Master classes in composition at such institutions as SUNY Fredonia & Potsdam, Pittsburg State (KS), Austin-Peay State (TN), Wake Forest U. (NC), Syracuse U., and the Eastman School of Music.

Source: Persis Vehar Official Website

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Music of Eleanor Roosevelt Act 2 Scene 3 by Persis Vehar

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