11 AUGUST 2019

ANNIE FONTANA - ITALY
BORN 11 AUGUST

Annie Fontana was born in Milan in 1955 and completed her musical studies at the G. Verdi Conservatory of her city, where she got a bachelor in composition (under the guidance of Renato Dionisi and Bruno Bettinelli), piano (with Carlo Vidusso and Antonio Beltrami) and organ composition (with Luigi Molfino).

Since 1977 she has taught Composition at the A.Peri Musical Institute of Reggio Emilia and currently holds the chair of Composition Elements for Teaching at the C.Pollini Conservatory in Padua.

After performances as a pianist and organist, both in chamber formations and as a soloist, she devoted himself exclusively to composition and didactic activity.

She has written instrumental and vocal compositions and had many great critics and audiences in Italy and abroad. She also recieved national and international awards

Source: Annie Fontana Website

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Te Deum Laudamos by Annie Fontana

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RACHEL LAURIN -  CANADA
BORN 11 AUGUST   

Rachel Laurin was born in l96l, in St-Benoît, Province of Quebec, Canada. After her studies at the Montreal Conservatory, she became Associate Organist of Raymond Daveluy at St-Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal (1986-2002), and from 2002 to 2006, she was Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa. She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master classes and lectures.

Nowadays, Rachel Laurin is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre. She has composed more than a hundred works for solo instruments, voice, instrumental ensembles and orchestra. These works have been performed and recorded in major cities throughout the world. Five complete CDs are devoted to some of her organ compositions and chamber music, on labels ATMA, Acis and Raven. Her compositions are published by Doberman, RCCO Music Publications (Canada), Europart (France), Hinshaw Music (Fred Bock) and Wayne Leupold Editions (USA) where she has been “House Composer” since 2006. She has won many awards, including the « Prix Conrad-Letendre », the Holtkamp-AGO Composition Award in 2008, and the first Prize in the Marilyn Mason New Organ Music Competition in 2009.

Rachel Laurin is a member of the "Comité d'Honneur de la Fédération Francophone des Amis de l'Orgue", since 2016.

Source: Rachel Laurin and Wikipedia

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Etude heroïque by Rachel Laurin

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23 JULY 2019

CASSANDRA MILLER - CANADA 
BORN 23 JULY

Dr Cassandra Miller is a Canadian composer living in London, UK, and is Associate Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her notated compositions (About Bach, Duet for Cello and Orchestra, Philip the Wanderer, etc.) explore transcription as a creative process, through which the expressive vocal qualities of pre-existing music are both magnified and transfigured. Her non-notated compositions (So Close, Tracery) take the form of extended collaborations with solo musicians. Using an approach that combines automatic singing and mimicry, Miller creates vulnerable and hospitable spaces for deep listening.

Honours include the Jules-Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest recognition for composition, which she received twice—for Bel Canto in 2011 and About Bach in 2016. Two recent releases by the Another Timbre label have received wide acclaim, including a four-star review in the Guardian and inclusion on New Yorker’s Ten Notable Recordings of 2018. In 2019, About Bach received a nomination for the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award.

Her works are often written with specific performers in mind, involving their intimate participation in the creative process. Her closest collaborators in this fashion have included soprano Juliet Fraser, the Quatuor Bozzini, conductor Ilan Volkov, cellist Charles Curtis, pianist Philip Thomas, violinist Silvia Tarozzi and violinist Mira Benjamin. Pieces written expressly for them have been toured and performed across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Uruguay, the United States and Canada.

Over the last 15 years she has received over 25 professional commissions from soloists, ensembles and orchestras both in Canada and across Europe. Notable performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus-Minus, the late great Ensemble Kore, Continuum Contemporary Music, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Teaching takes a central role in her artistic life. She has held a faculty position at Guildhall since September 2018, when she was made Associate Head of Composition (Undergraduate). Her teaching philosophy prioritizes inclusivity and diversity, and questions notions of canonization. Previously, she taught composition modules at the University of Huddersfield (2014-16) and the University of Victoria (2008-09).

Miller has been invited to give lectures about her work in the US at Stanford and Columbia Universities; in the UK at the Royal Academy of Music, Bath Spa University Centre for Musical Research, Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Centre for Research in New Music in Huddersfield, and Brunel University; in Canada at McGill University, the Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival, and the Open Space Gallery of Victoria. She has additionally taught masterclasses and workshops at the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting (NL), Brunel University, the University of Manitoba, and the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab

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Leaving by Cassandra Miller

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MRS. PHILARMONICA - UK 

Mrs Philarmonica (fl. 1715) was the pseudonym of an early-18th century English female, Baroque composer. She published a collection of 6 trio sonatas for two violins with violoncello obbligato and continuo, as well as a set of 6 divertimenti for 2 violins, violoncello or harpsichord (or organ) with Richard Meares in London about 1715. Her actual identity is unknown. 

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Divertimento da Camara by Mrs. Philarmonica  

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19 JUNE 2019

KAREN YOUNG - CANADA
BORN 19 JUNE

Karen Young is a singer, lyricist, composer and arranger from Quebec, Canada who has explored several different musical styles. Starting in folk music with a medium chart hit Garden Of Ursh (1971) in the late 1960s, she switched to jazz in the mid-1970s with the successful bebop vocal group, Bug Alley. She was a member from 1975 to 1979. She played lead roles in the musical theatre productions Mata Hari and Angel, written by David Rimmer and Edward Knoll, in the early 1980s. In the later 1980s, she was part of the renowned bass and voice duo, Young and Donato. Their album Young & Donato was nominated for a Juno Award 1985. The following album Contredanse won a Félix Award in category Best jazz album in Quebec in 1988. The duo had 4 times 1987-90 tours in France and 1989-90 in the USA, and also some gigs in 1989 in England. She played lead roles in musicals Mata Hari and Angel, written by David Rimmer and Edward Knoll, in the early 1980s.

Her eclecticism and familiarity with world, classical and jazz styles allow her to present works ranging from traditional, Latin and contemporary jazz to, more recently, medieval (album Âme, corps et désir, 2007 ) and electro jazz (album Electro-Beatniks, 2009). Young established her own independent record label in 1991, Les Disques URSH. Since then, she has released nine records featuring combinations of artists from different musical backgrounds and traditions.

Young composed the musical soundtracks for Joseph’s Daughter, a film by Ilana Schwartz, The Road from Kampuchea by Anne Henderson and for Revoir Julie by Jeanne Crepeau. She was awarded another Félix Award in 2008 for Âme, Corps et Desir in the category "best classic vocal album". She has been touring also with jazz musicians Michel Donato (bass), Norman Lachapelle (bass), Éric Auclair (bass).

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Sanz cuer m'en vois, dolens et esploures by Karen Young 

KAREN FREMAR - USA

BORN 19 JUNE

American composer Karen Fremar is a recognized composer of works for accordion, orchestra, chamber ensemble, accordion orchestra, string quartet, brass ensemble, woodwind quintet, solo voice, choir, piano, and electronically prepared tape. She holds the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Theory from the University of Kansas, Master of Music-Philosophy from KU, Master of Music-Composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Bachelor of Music-Accordion Performance (with distinction) from the same institution. Dr. Fremar studied composition with Gerald Kemner, John Pozdro and Milton Babbitt. She was an Assistant Instructor of Music Theory at KU and an instructor in the Electronic Music Studio headed by Dr. James Rothwell at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Karen began playing the accordion at age two, as a student of her mother, Margie Fremar, and first performed publicly at the age of 2½. Her family operated the Fremar Music Studio for over 50 years training more than 500 music students in Fort Scott, Kansas. Karen is also an accomplished pianist and percussionist, and has taught students in accordion, piano, and percussion. While very young, she began writing arrangements for the Fremar Music Studio ensembles, and made her television debut at age 14 in New York. She first toured internationally at age 16, as featured accordionist and percussionist with the All-Students Groups U.S.A., sponsored by the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia. 

Fremar performs regularly on accordion and keyboards, is active in the recording studio, and has written and produced two albums with the mixed ensemble, Vivant! She is a member of A.S.C.A.P. and the American Federation of Musicians. Her compositions have been performed worldwide. She often serves as an adjudicator for several musical organizations. Fremar gave the New York premiere of her American Accordionists' Association commissioned work, Herricks Road, to honor Faithe Deffner, and has premiered and performed her composition, Night at the Pla-Mor, commissioned by the Courtney S. Turner Trust, on tour in the Midwest.

Dr. Fremar is Chairman of the Board and President of the Fremar Foundation for Accordion Arts, a Kansas City based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports accordion performance, new works for the instrument, and historic preservation of the instrument's heritage. She is listed in the World Who’s Who of Women-Fifth Edition, Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, Who’s Who in American Music, and the Dictionary of International Biography.

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Fantasy Opus 57 by Karen Fremar 

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3 JUNE 2019

LINDSAY STETNER - CANADA 

BORN 3 JUNE

Lindsay Stetner is a composer, performer and educator in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her works have reflected the need for quality and accessible Canadian compositions in not only professional concert halls but also elementary school gyms.

In 1999, she received her Bachelor of Music Composition, from the University of Regina, having studied with Dr. Thomas Schudel. Her Masters’ of Music Composition from the University of Calgary was completed in 2002. While there she studied with Dr. William Jordan, Dr. David Eagle and Allan Gordon Bell. In 2011, her Bachelor of Education After Degree was awarded from the University of Regina and in January of 2011, she began working for Regina Public Schools.

Stetner has a wide variety of works in a wide variety of genres including small ensembles, orchestral, choral, band and on-site theatre productions. Over the years, her works have been played by the Regina Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and university, high school and junior high school bands as far away as Newfoundland.

The blending of composer and educator has allowed Stetner ensure that students are aware that composers are not just a name on the top of a piece of music. Recently, she has begun to think more pedagogically about her writing for young bands by bringing in Canadian First Nations content into choral and band works.

Fragments in time by Lindsay Stetner

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DIANA SYRSE VALDÉS - MEXICO  
BORN 3 JUNE

Diana Syrse is a composer and singer from Mexico City. Her work as a composer involves chamber and choral music, orchestra, electronics, dance and musical theater. "Syrse is an arresting singer, as well as a composer, appear destined to play a defining role the future of Mexican music..." (LA Times, Mark Swed).

Her music has been presented at international music festivals around the world. She won the Musikförderpreise der Landeshauptstadt München, the prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, the Residence at the Banff Center (Canada), the Jóvenes Creadores Program (FONCA) and the Akademie Musiktheater heute. She has been commissioned by organizations such as the Theater Akademie August Everding, the Transatlantic Arts Consortium (TAC), VocalEssence for their program Cantaré and the LA Philharmonic among others.

Her music has been performed by ensembles such as the Sirius Quartet, VocalEssence, the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, IPN Symphony Orchestra, Breakout Ensemble, Túumben Paax, Nemian Dance Company, Oktopus Ensemble, Julliard New Music Ensemble, LA Philharmonic and Isura Madrigal Chor between others. She worked in productions with different stage directors such as Ersan Mondtag, Annalena Maas, and Oscar Tapia. She worked as a resident composer for the Schauspiel Frankfurt, Pinakothek der Moderne (München), Kammerspiele München and Das Berliner Ensemble. The production of the musical theater "Marea Roja" about femicide in Mexico was presented on 2016 at the National Theater of the Arts in Mexico City. In 2014 she was the founder and artistic director of the Breakout Ensemble working as a composer and a conductor of the instrumental ensemble, and on 2015 she was the artistic director of the festival Art in Perspective in Munich. As a singer, she has premiered several compositions from composers around the world. Syrse has participated as composer-performer on festivals and concerts in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Diana Syrse was the first Mexican to present to receive a commission price from the Bavarian Fine Arts Academy and to conduct at the Munich Palace (Residenz, Munich). She lives in Munich. Between her upcoming projects, Syrse will compose an opera for the Staatsoper Hamburg (Opera Stabile), a project supported by the Deutsche Bank Stiftung.

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Principio Universo by Diana Syrse 

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21 MAY 2019

LINDA BOUCHARD - CANADA 

BORN 21 MAY

Born in Québec, Canada, Linda Bouchard has been an active composer, orchestrator, conductor, and producer for over thirty-five years.

Winner of both Composer of the Year from the Conseil Québecois de la Culture and the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 1999, Bouchard just received the Fleck Fellowship from The Banff Centre in fall 2015. Her honors in the United States include first prizes at the Princeton Composition Contest, the Indiana State Competition, and the National Association of Composers USA Contest and a Fromm Music Foundation Award from Harvard University.

Bouchard’s works are heard regularly. Ensembles and performers who have performed Bouchard’s music include the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Bang on a Can, New York New Music Ensemble, Absolute Music Group, Hard Rubber Orchestra, Standing Wave, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ear Play, California E.A.R. Unit, Addleds, Kronos Quartet, Bozzini Quartet, Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, New Music Concerts, Array Music, Continuum, Ives Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, SMCQ, ECM, Bellows and Brass, Ellen Ruth Rose, Aron Kallay, Vicki Ray, Kevin McMillan, Paul Hillier, Dora Ohrenstein, and François Houle.

Her works have been recorded on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean: in Canada by the CBC Label (Orchestre Métropolitain), Analekta (SMCQ), Marquis Classics (National Arts Centre Orchestra), and CMC (Standing Wave); in Germany by ECM (Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky); and in the United States by CRI (several artists) and Bang on a Can.

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Vertige by Linda Bouchard

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MAY AUFDERHEIDE - USA
BORN 21 MAY

May Frances Aufderheide Kaufman was an American composer of ragtime music. She was probably the best known among female ragtime composers. She received training in art music and visited Europe on a grand tour, yet decided to compose in ragtime.

May Aufderheide was a member of the Indianapolis ragtime community that included Paul Pratt, Cecil Duane Crabb, J. Russel Robinson, Will B. Morrison, Julia Lee Niebergall, and Gladys Yelvington. The popularity of her first published rag, "Dusty", convinced her father, Indianapolis loan broker John H. Aufderheide, to enter the music publishing business forming the firm J. H. Aufderheide Music Publisher.

She went on to compose and publish "Richmond Rag", "The Thriller", "Buzzer Rag," "Blue Ribbon Rag", "A Totally Different Rag," "Novelty Rag", and "Dusty Rag," plus a number of waltzes and other songs including "I'll Pledge My Heart To You," and a song version of "A Totally Different Rag" with lyrics by Earle C. Jones. Other songs include: "I Want A Patriotic Girl" with Bobby Jones, "I Want A Real Lovin' Man" with Paul Pratt, and "Dusty Rag" with J. Will Callahan.

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The Thriller by May Aufderheide 

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19 MAY 2019

ALICE MARY SMITH - UK  

BORN 19 MAY

Alice Mary Smith, married name Alice Mary Meadows White was an English composer. Her compositions included two symphonies and some large choral works.

Smith was born in London, the third child of a relatively well-to-do family. She showed aptitude for music from her early years and took lessons privately from William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Macfarren, publishing her first song in 1857. In November 1867, the year of her marriage to a lawyer, Frederick Meadows White, she was elected Female Professional Associate of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Smith was a prolific composer of both large and small scale works. Among her compositions are four piano quartets, three string quartets, a clarinet sonata (1870), six concert overtures and two symphonies. Her first symphony, in C minor, was written at the age of 24 and performed by the Musical Society of London in 1863; the second, in A minor, was written for the Alexandra Palace competition of 1876, but was never submitted. Smith composed two large choral works with soloists: an operetta, Gisela of Rüdesheim which was performed in 1865 at the Fitzwilliam Music Society, Cambridge, and The Masque of Pandora (1875), for which the orchestration was never completed.

In 1880 she turned her attention towards writing large-scale cantatas, all published by Novello and Co. These included Ode to the North-East Wind for chorus and orchestra, Ode to The Passions (1882), her longest work, performed at the Hereford Festival in that year, and two cantatas for male voices in the last two years of her life. The Valley of Remorse, a setting of a poem by Louisa Sarah Bevington for chorus, soloists and orchestra, remained incomplete at her death, and is lost. Of her forty songs, her most popular work was the vocal duet "Maying".

Smith's manuscripts are housed in the Royal Academy of Music Library and two symphonies and two overtures are published by A-R Editions. The Symphony in A minor, Symphony in C minor and the Andante for clarinet and orchestra have been recorded by Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players for Chandos.

In 1884 she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music. The same year, after a period of illness in which she went abroad to try to recover, she died of typhoid fever in London.

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Andante for Clarinet and Orchestra by Alice Mary Smith 

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SYLVIA RICKARD - CANADA  

Canadian composer, Sylvia Rickard moved from Toronto to Vancouver in 1948. After studies in piano and theory for many years, Rickard took a couple of composition courses at U.B.C. with Jean Coulthard. Rickard got her B.A. degree there in French and Russian, 1959. 

After travelling, and living in France, U.S.A., India and West Germany, Rickard began, after 11 years of "absence" from music, private composition lessons in earnest, with Jean Coulthard. Through this marvelous mentor a jump-start to prize winning, CBC radio broadcasts and performances, by star performers, Rickard’s career in music began. At the Okanagan Composers’ Festival, Rickard began to adjudicate compositions of younger composers. Piano composition gave way to songs, strings, solo harp, chamber music-both vocal and instrumental-orchestral and choral music, and cabaret songs. In 1999 Taras and Gaelyne Gabora very kindly invited Sylvia Rickard to be the first resident composer of the (Oberlin) in Casalmaggiore International Chamber Music Festival, in Italy. Since that time, her works continue to be played there. 

Rickard's passion for music is parallel with her passion for animal welfare. A vegetarian, she is a crusader for animals and the world’s green and wild spaces. Her 2007 composition is: SONG FOR THE EARTH, for cello and piano. Lyricism, drama and humour dominate the music of this composer. Her musical output is about half and half: vocal and instrumental. Performances of her music are across Canada, and in the U.S.A., Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Italy, England, and Japan - to date. 

Rickard’s affiliations are: associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre (voting member of B.C. region), League of Composers, SOCAN member, life fellow of the Cambridge International Biographical Society.  In 2007 the Paris Conservatoire’s Bibliothèque Bozidar Kantuser, Médiathèque Hector Berlioz invited Sylvia Rickard to submit scores and recordings to their library. 8 are currently on file there.

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Brise Marine by Sylvia Rickard 

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8 MAY 2019

NANCY TELFER - CANADA  

BORN 8 MAY

Nancy Telfer is a Canadian composer who received her formal education at the University of Western Ontario where she concentrated on music education, composition, piano and voice. She then worked full-time as a composer.

Since 1979, she has composed more than 350 works for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras, bands and choirs, almost 200 of which are published in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her music is performed in many different countries and she has been commissioned by many fine performers. She has also been in demand as an adjudicator and guest conductor.

Nancy's reputation for creative experimentation is linked with the belief that all music should delight the ears, capture the imagination of the mind and feed the soul. In each of her pieces she has attempted to bring some new kind of experience to the performers so that their lives might be more meaningful and more enjoyable.

Ms. Telfer has always been interested in the outdoors and has often drawn inspiration from the beauty of natural environments. She has been strongly influenced by the teaching of conductor Deral Johnson and arranger Kenneth Bray. She lives in Bracebridge, Ontario.

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The Source of the Waters by Nancy Telfer 

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MARY LOU WILLIAMS - USA    
BORN 8 MAY

Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.

She wrote and performed religious jazz music such as Black Christ of the Andes (1963), a hymn in honor of the St. Martin de Porres; two short works, Anima Christi and Praise the Lord. In this period, Williams put much effort into working with youth choirs to perform her works, including mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City before a gathering of over three thousand. She set up a charitable organization and opened thrift stores in Harlem, directing the proceeds, along with ten percent of her own earnings, to musicians in need. As a 1964 Time article explained, "Mary Lou thinks of herself as a 'soul' player — a way of saying that she never strays far from melody and the blues, but deals sparingly in gospel harmony and rhythm. 'I am praying through my fingers when I play,' she says.'I get that good "soul sound", and I try to touch people's spirits.'" She performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1965, with a jazz festival group.

Throughout the 1970s, her career flourished, including numerous albums, including as solo pianist and commentator on the recorded The History of Jazz. She returned to the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1971. She could also be seen playing nightly in Greenwich Village at The Cookery, a new club run by her old boss from her Café Society days, Barney Josephson. That engagement too, was recorded.

In April 1975, she played her highly regarded jazz spiritual, "Mary Lou's Mass" at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. It marked the first time a jazz musician had played at the church.

She had a two-piano performance with avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall on April 17, 1977. Despite onstage tensions between Williams and Taylor, their performance was released on an live album titled Embraced.

She accepted an appointment at Duke University as artist-in-residence (from 1977 to 1981), teaching the History of Jazz with Father O'Brien and directing the Duke Jazz Ensemble. With a light teaching schedule, she also did many concert and festival appearances, conducted clinics with youth, and in 1978 performed at the White House. She participated in Benny Goodman's 40th-anniversary Carnegie Hall concert in 1978.

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Night Life by Mary Lou Williams 

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