31 JULY 2019

AMÉLIE-JULIE CANDEILLE - FRANCE 
BORN 31 JULY

Amélie-Julie Candeille was a French composer, librettist, writer, singer, actress, comedian, and instrumentalist.

Contemporary discussions of her music highlight the supremacy of melody and use of simple harmonies used throughout her works. She composed in the style of Grétry, whom she greatly admired. Her works for keyboard, which she composed for her personal performances, are virtuosic – her surviving musical works include a concerto for keyboard, three keyboard sonatas (some with violin accompaniment), and a duo for piano. Many other works are lost, including additional keyboard sonatas, duos, fantasias and variations. Modern editions of the concerto for keyboard, three arias and the overture from Catherine are available through Hildegard Publishing. 

- Three sonatas for harpsichord, with violin accompaniment.
- Concerto for piano and strings.
- Two great-sonatas for piano, opus 8 (under the name Julie Simons).
- Fantaisie for piano (dedicated to Mme Rivière).
- Nocturne for piano (fantaisie n. 5, Op. 11).

♫ LISTEN

Sonata in G: II. Adagio con espressione by Amélie-Julie Candeille 

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CARMELA MACKENNA 
BORN 31 JULY   

Carmela Mackenna Subercaseaux  was a Chilean pianist and composer. Born in Santiago, Chile, to Alberto Mackenna Astorga and Carmela Subercaseaux, she was the great-granddaughter of Chilean hero Juan Mackenna and aunt of composer Alfonso Leng. She studied music theory with Bindo Paoli in Santiago and continued her studies in piano and composition with Conrad Ansorge and Hans Mersmann in Berlin. in 1934 she made her debut as a composer in Berlin with Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Carmela showed an early inclination towards creative expression, including painting, writing and music. In 1917, for example, after a piano recital presented by Bindo Paoli’s students, she was lauded in the press for having the “soul of an artist.” Nevertheless, years earlier she had determined that pursuing a career in the arts was inappropriate for someone of her social standing. After brief periods in Great Britain and Uruguay, in 1926 she and her husband settled in Berlin where they lived for a number of years. In addition to her duties as a diplomatic official, while in Berlin Carmela also continued studying the piano with Conrad Ansorge (1862-1930) and began studying composition with Hans Mersmann (1891-1971). While in Europe, the couple separated. Carmela continued in her role as cultural attaché until 1939; later, she visited Paris, Brussels, Cairo and New York. Returning to Santiago, she did not join the active musical life of that city; rather, she fell into an isolation that lasted until her death.

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Duo for Cello and PIano by Carmella Mackenna 

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8 JUNE 2019

LENI ALEXANDER  - POLAND 

BORN 8 JUNE

Helene Alexander Pollak was born in Breslau, and her family lived in Hamburg and then emigrated to Chile in 1939 to escape the Nazis. 

She studied piano under the Montessori system of music and received a diploma in 1942 for teaching and worked with youth and disabled children while developing an interest in composition. Between 1949 and 1953, she studied with Fré Focke, Rene Leibowitz, and Olivier Messiaen. Between 1963 and 1968, she also studied electronic music and wrote a number of electronic pieces.

She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1969 and lived for several years in Paris and Cologne. Besides new music classical compositions and musical theater, Alexander was active in composition for television soundtracks and composed for soap opera. In her later years, she composed several "hörspiel" pieces, or "plays for listening", several of them for the WDR Radio of Cologne. 

Alexander's compositions were mainly instrumental and were performed by orchestras in countries including Chile, Italy, France and the United States.

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Méralo by Leni Alexander 

MARGARET BUECHNER - USA    
BORN8 JUNE

Margaret Buechner was a German-born American composer.

Born in Hanover, she emigrated to the United States in 1951 and became an American citizen in 1961. She had studied composition and composed chamber music before the war; after she came to America, her teacher, Otto Luening, encouraged Buechner to write symphonic music. 

During the 1950s, her compositions emphasized ballet music scored for large orchestra. Her later compositions were dramatic symphonic and choral works, often with historical or patriotic themes. Her works include the ballets Phantomgreen and Elizabeth, along with tone poems The Old Swedes Church and Erlkönig(based on the Goethe poem). Other major works are two related to her adopted country: Liberty Bell for chorus and orchestra, which incorporates a 1959 recording of the actual bell by Columbia Records, and the "symphonic trilogy" The American Civil War. She died in Midland, Michigan, at the age of 76.

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Immensee/Elizabeth by Margaret Buechner