26 AUGUST 2019

SALLY BEAMISH - UK
BORN 26 AUGUST

Sally Beamish (born 26 August 1956) is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in the field of music theatre, film and television, as well as composing for children and for her local community.

Sarah F Beamish was born on 26 August 1956 in London, to Tony and Ursula Beamish. She studied viola at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she received composition lessons from Anthony Gilbert and Lennox Berkeley. She later studied in Germany with the Italian violist Bruno Giuranna.

Beamish won a 'Creative Scotland' Award from the Scottish Arts Council which enabled her to write her oratorio for the 2001 BBC Proms – the Knotgrass Elegy premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sir Andrew Davis.

Other works include three viola concerti, two string quartets, two percussion concerti (the second of which was written for Colin Currie with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Stanford Lively Arts and the Bergen Symphony Orchestra and premiered in 2012), and works for traditional instruments, including a concerto for clàrsach and fiddle concerto premiered by Catriona Mackay and Chris Stout in 2012.

In 2012, and again in 2015, she was featured as BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week. Also she has a series of recordings on the BIS label.

In March 2016, Beamish was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy for science and the arts. In December 2017 Northern Ballet premiered The little mermaid, a full length ballet with her orchestral score.

Beamish was presented with the 'Award for Inspiration' at the 2018 British Composer Awards.

Source: Wikipedia and Sally Beamish Official Website

♫ LISTEN

Galla Water by Sally Beamish

➺ Find Scores by Sally Beamish

IDA GOTKOVSKY -  FRANCE
BORN 26 AUGUST   

Ida Rose Esther Gotkovsky (born 26 August 1933) is a French composer and pianist. She is currently a professor of music theory at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in France.

Gotkovsky was born on 26 August 1933 in Calais, France. Her father was the violinist Jacques Gotkovsky of the Loewenguth Quartet and her mother also played the violin. Both her brother Ivar (a pianist) and her sister Nell (a violinist) became accomplished musicians. Gotkovsky began composing at the age of eight. She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger.

Gotkovsky’s output includes chamber music, symphonies, instrumental music, vocal music, ballets, and operas. Notably, she has contributed many solo and chamber pieces for the saxophone. Her Concerto for Trombone (1978) has been compared to Messiaen, and her Suite for Tuba and piano (1959) reveals influence of Hindemith. She is also recognized for having written important works for band.

Gotkovsky's music credo is: "To create a universal musical art and to realize the oneness of musical expression through the ages by means of a contemporary musical language with powerful structures."

Source: Wikipedia and Gotkovsky Official Website

♫ LISTEN

Poem du Feu by Ida Gotkovsky

➺ Listen to more works by Ida Gotkovsky

21 AUGUST 2019

KATE FANNY LODER - UK
BORN 21 AUGUST

Kate Fanny Loder, later Lady Thompson, (21 August 1825 – 30 August 1904) was an English composer and pianist.

Kate Loder was born on 21 August 1825, on Bathwick Street, Bathwick, within Bath, Somerset where the Loder family were prominent musicians. Her father was the flautist George Loder. According to Grove, her mother was a piano teacher born Fanny Philpot, who was the sister of the pianist Lucy Anderson. Kate was also the sister of conductor and composer George Loder, and the cousin of composer Edward Loder.

Kater Loder studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her performance of Mendelssohn's G minor piano concerto at the Hanover-square Rooms on 27 May 1843, when she was aged 17, may have been her public debut. The following year, in 1844, aged just 18, she became the first female professor of harmony at the Royal Academy. On 16 December 1851 at St Marylebone Church, Westminster, she married Sir Henry Thompson and soon afterwards, at her husband's insistence, gave up her public performing career. She remained active in music, continuing to compose, and taught pupils including Sarah Louisa Kilpack who nowadays is better known as an artist.

On 10 July 1871, the first British performance of the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms took place privately at Loder's home in Wimpole Street, London. It was performed using a version for piano duet accompaniment which became known as the "London Version" (German: Londoner Fassnung) of the Requiem. Brahms based it on an 1866 arrangement for piano of his first, six-movement version of the Requiem. The pianists were Kate Loder and Cipriani Potter (who was then 79 years old; he died that September).

She died on 30 August 1904 at Headley Rectory, Headley, Surrey.

Source: Wikipedia and Unsung Composers

♫ LISTEN

Pensée Fugitive by Kate Fanny Loder

➺ Find Scores by Kate Fanny Loder

LILI BOULANGER -  FRANCE
BORN 21 AUGUST   

Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (21 August 1893 – 15 March 1918) was a French composer, and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.

As a Parisian-born child prodigy, Boulanger's talent was apparent at the age of two, when Gabriel Fauré, a friend of the family and later one of Boulanger's teachers, discovered she had perfect pitch. Her parents, both of whom were musicians, encouraged their daughter's musical education.

In 1912, Boulanger competed in the Prix de Rome but during her performance she collapsed from illness. She returned in 1913 at the age of 19 to win the composition prize for her cantata Faust et Hélène, becoming the first woman to win the prize. The text was written by Eugene Adenis based on Goethe's Faust. The cantata had many performances during her lifetime. Because of the prize, she gained a contract with the publisher Ricordi.

Nadia Boulanger had given up entering after four unsuccessful attempts and focused her efforts upon her sister, who, after studying with her sister, studied with Paul Vidal, Georges Caussade and Gabriel Fauré—the last of whom was greatly impressed by her talents and frequently brought songs for her to read. Boulanger was greatly affected by the 1900 death of her father; many of her works touch on themes of grief and loss. Her work was noted for its colorful harmony and instrumentation and skillful text setting. Aspects of Fauré and Claude Debussy can be heard in her compositions, and Arthur Honegger was influenced by her innovative work.

Source: Wikipedia

♫ LISTEN

Sour Sur La Pleine by Lili Boulanger

➺ Find scores by Lili Boulanger

18 AUGUST 2019

PAULE MAURICE - FRANCE
BORN 18 AUGUST

Paule Charlotte Marie Jeanne Maurice (29 September 1910 – 18 August 1967) was a French composer.

Maurice was born in Paris to Raoul Auguste Alexandre Maurice and Marguerite Jeanne Lebrun. Registration lists at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris report that her father was an office worker and state only that the two were married.

Her most famous composition is the suite Tableaux de Provence pour saxophone et orchestre written between 1948 and 1955 dedicated to saxophone virtuoso, Marcel Mule. It is most often heard as a piano reduction. It was premiered on 9 December 1958 by Jean-Marie Londeix with the Orchestre Symphonique Brestois directed by Maurice's husband, and fellow composer, Pierre Lantier.

Maurice's other compositions include Suite pour quatuor de flûtes, Volio, Cosmorama, Concerto pour piano et orchestre, Mémoires d'un chat, Trois pièces pour violon, and many more. There are more titles catalogued in the library of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where Maurice studied and spent her professional life. She received first prize of harmony in 1933, second prize of fugue in 1934, and in 1939 received first prize in composition. In 1942, Maurice was appointed Professor of Déchiffrage (sight-reading), and in 1965 became Professor of Harmonic Analysis at l'École Normale de Musique. Maurice taught many students who became professors to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with some winning the Prix de Rome (saxame.org).

Maurice and Pierre Lantier wrote a treatise on harmony entitled Complément du Traité d'Harmonie de Reber that became an important reference work in France and abroad. It was intended to be used in conjunction with the 1862 treatise of Napoléon Henri Reber entitled Traité d'Harmonie. The impact of Stravinsky, Debussy, and Ravel had created the need to update harmonic analysis.

Paule Maurice died at age 56 in Paris.

Source: Paule Maurice Official Site and Wikipedia

♫ LISTEN

Tableaux de Provence by Paule Maurice

➺ Find Scores by Paule Maurice

GIOVANNA DOUGLAS SCOTTI -  ITALY
BORN 18 AUGUST   

Giovanna Douglas Scotti is a composer who was completely erased from the history of music. There only a few precious publications that have allowed us to bring her back to history with this CD that, for the listeners and for the composer herself, is a priceless unique moment. In fact, Giovanna Douglas Scotti Della Scala was born in an aristocratic family from Romagna in the Forlì of 1889, the year in which the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated and that the Napolitan pizzaziolo Raffaele Esposito dedicated the Margherita tricolor pizza Margherita (white mozzarella, tomato red, green basil) to Queen Margherita di Savoia. Remaining orphan she moved to Milan to live with her paternal aunt Corona Douglas Scotti, wife of the painter Leonardo Bazzano (not to be confused with the 16th century Sicilian homonym) who lived between 1853 and 1937, who started teaching her to paint some portray and small landscapes on oil paintings. 

While learning ceramics’ technique, Giovanna Douglas Scotti also have piano and singing lessons. She also falls in love with the work of Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy, which she studies thoroughly. She was engaged with the Pavese painter Alessandro Gallotti (1879-1961), but never married, preferring the freedom of the artistic life. In Brera she exhibited his works in 1918 and 1920 and she is quoted as the author of the Primavera dell'Alpino inspired on the landscapes of Stresa, very popular with the artistic world on the slope of Mottarone, where she had been for many years with her boyfriend. 

Source: Drama Musica Website 

♫ LISTEN

Serenata by  Giovanna Douglas Scotti

➺ Listen to more works by Giovanna Douglas Scotti

5 AUGUST 2019

BETSY JOLAS - FRANCE  
BORN 5 AUGUST

Betsy JOLAS  is the daughter of translator Maria Jolas and poet and journalist Eugène Jolas, founder of the well known literary magazine "transition", in which the "Finnegans Wake" of James Joyce was published under the heading "work in progress". She came to the U.S. in 1940, completed her general schooling, then started studying composition with Paul Boepple, piano with Helen Schnabel and organ with Carl Weinrich. After graduating from Bennington College, Betsy Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies with Darius Milhaud, Simone Plé-Caussade and Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris.

Prize winner of the International Conducting Competition of Besançon (1953), she has since won many awards, including Copley Foundation of Chicago (1954), ORTF (1961), American Academy of Arts (1973), Koussevitsky Fondation (1974), Grand Prix National de la Musique (1974), Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1981), Grand Prix de la SACEM (1982). Betsy Jolas became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983.

In 1985 she was promoted to Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992 she received the Maurice Ravel Prix International and was named "Personality of the Year" for France. In 1994 she was awarded the Prix SACEM for the best première performance of the year for her work "Frauenleben". She was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995 and made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1997.From 1971 to 1974 Betsy Jolas replaced Olivier Messiaen at his course at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris and was appointed to the faculty in 1975.

She has also taught at Tanglewood, Yale, Harvard, Mills College (Darius Milhaud chair), Berkeley, USC and San Diego University, to name a few.Her works, written for a great variety of combinations, have been Widely performed throughout the world by first class artists such as Elisabeth Chojnacka, Kent Nagano, William Christie, Claude Helffer, Kim Kashkashian... and by leading groups : The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the) Concord Quartet, the Domaine Musical, the Percussions de Strasbourg, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Philharmonia, etc. Twelve of her works have been recorded for EMI, Adès, CRI, Erato, Barclay, several of which have been the recipients of grand prize gramophone awards.

♫ LISTEN

Petite Suite Varieé by Betsy Jolas

➺ Betsy Jolas' Website

TERA DE MAREZ OYENS - NETHERLANDS 
BORN 5 AUGUST   

Tera de Marez Oyens was a Dutch composer. She studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with a major in piano, studying the instrument with Jan Odé, and graduated in 1953 (Metzelaar n.d.). Here, her talent for composition was discovered as she wrote her first pieces. These included chamber music and song cycles. After that she came in contact with youth groups, for whom she also wrote individual pieces.

She then became the cantor of the Reformed church community of Hilversum. Because of this she was very busy with church music. She wrote 14 melodies for the church songbooks that appeared in 1973. The lyrics for these songs were supplied by, among others, Muus Jacobse, Willem Barnard and Ad den Besten, whom she knew personally.

In the 1960s she became interested in electronic music, and studied with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht (Metzelaar n.d.). Sound and Silence (1971) and Mixed Feelings (1973) are pieces of electronic music she composed, and Pente Sjawoe is an example of a work in which the tone poem plays an important role.

In 1978 she became an instructor at the conservatory in Zwolle, where she taught until 1988. Her lessons focused especially on the development of the student's own style. But she wanted to continue to write her own pieces and after the death of her second husband she became a full-time composer. At that time she wrote The Odyssey of Mr. Good-Evil (1981). In 1988 she contributed pieces to the international cello competition in Scheveningen, and in 1989 she was composer in residence at the Georgia State University in Atlanta.

She wrote over 200 works of music, many commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and various broadcasting networks. In 1995 she was asked to write a piece (Unison) for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

She had been married to Gerrit de Marez Oyens and Menachem Arnoni. Despite the fact that she had become seriously ill, in 1996 Tera de Marez Oyens married the renowned cartoonist Marten Toonder. She died on 29 August of that year in Hilversum. 

Introduzione by Tera de Marez Oyens  

➺ Find Scores by Tera de Marez Oyens

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 

➺ Find Scores by Amélie-Julie Candeille

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.

♫ LISTEN

Duo for Cello and PIano by Carmella Mackenna 

➺ Find Scores by Carmela Mackenna

20 JULY 2019

CAROLYN STEINBERG - USA 
BORN 20 JULY

Carolyn Steinberg’s compositions have been performed in concerts and festivals in the U.S. and Europe including Tanglewood, Darmstadt, and Donaueschingen. Works have been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, Southwest German Radio Orchestra, and numerous chamber ensembles such as Emerald Trio and Duo Navona. The 1990 recipient of the Goddard Lieberson Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Ms. Steinberg studied composition in the U.S. with Bernard Rands and Lumila Ulehla, and in Europe with Franco Donatoni and Brian Ferneyhough. She holds degrees in music composition from The Juilliard School (Doctor of Musical Arts) and Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music), and the University of North Texas (Bachelor’s Degree in music theory).

For eight years, Carolyn was Artistic Director of the Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra, presenting an annual concert of new music in Narrowsburg, New York. With the organization's mission of providing performance opportunities to local composers and performers, Carolyn built programs that combined professional ensembles (Dorian Wind Quintet, Sweet Plantain String Quartet, and others) playing separately and together with local musicians, and premiering works by both professional and semi-professional composers. Featured composers included Lee Hoiby, Ricky Ian Gordon, David Tcimpidis, Thermon Barker, and Sergio Garcia-Marruz. 

As a flutist, Carolyn's repertoire ranges from Bach to Debussy to Latin jazz. With the Delaware Valley Opera, she played orchestral flute parts in La Perichole, Cosi Fan Tutte, and Norma. Ms. Steinberg currently performs Latin jazz with her husband, Chacho Ramirez, in their band, La Banda Ramirez. She also works with pianist/composer Jeff Dawson, Dr. Mambo, Jack Glottman, and on tour with Latin jazz pianists Chris Villanueva and Daniel Wyman. Her twice-monthly gigs at Paris Blues in Harlem attract such guest artists as the renowned singer “El Conde” Sonero Pichardo, and trumpeter Richie Vitale. 

♫ LISTEN

Danzon Macabre by Carolyn Steinberg

➺ Carolyn Steinberg's Website

DAME MARGOT - FRANCE

Dame Margot (fl. 13th century) was a trouvère from Arras, in Picardy, France. One extant work of hers is jeu parti, a debate song, in which she debates Dame Maroie. This song, "Je vous pri, dame Maroie," survives in two manuscripts, which each give separate and unrelated melodies. In another jeu parti she is a judge, opposing Jehan le Cuvelier d'Arras and Jehan Bretel. She is listed as a member of the Puy d'Arras. In two manuscripts she is credited with a fragment of a song, "Mout m'abelist quant je voi revenir.

♫ LISTEN

➺ Find scores by Dame Margot

18 JULY 2019

PAULINE VIARDOT - FRANCE
BORN 18 JULY

Pauline Viardot was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent.

Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Pauline Viardot", it most commonly appears in association with her maiden name García or the unaccented form, Garcia. This name sometimes precedes Viardot and sometimes follows it. Sometimes the words are hyphenated; sometimes they are not. She achieved initial fame as "Pauline García"; the accent was dropped at some point, but exactly when is not clear. After her marriage, she referred to herself simply as "Mme Viardot".

She came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer.

Viardot began composing when she was young, but it was never her intention to become a composer. Her compositions were written mainly as private pieces for her students with the intention of developing their vocal abilities. She did the bulk of her composing after her retirement at Baden-Baden. However, her works were of professional quality and Franz Liszt declared that, with Pauline Viardot, the world had finally found a woman composer of genius.

Having as a young girl studied with Liszt and with the music theorist and composer Anton Reicha, she was both an outstanding pianist and a complete all-round professional musician. Between 1864 and 1874 she wrote three salon operas - Trop de femmes (1867), L'ogre (1868), and Le dernier sorcier (1869), all to libretti by Ivan Turgenev - and over fifty Lieder. Her remaining two salon operas - Le conte de fées (1879), and Cendrillon (1904; when she was 83) - were to her own libretti. The operas may be small in scale; however, they were written for advanced singers. 

♫ LISTEN

Havanaise by Pauline Viardot 

➺ Find Scores by Pauline Viardot

NKEIRU OKOYE - USA

BORN 18 JULY

Composer Nkeiru Okoye [in KEAR roo oh KOY yeh] creates works that are “emotionally charged and musically sublime” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). A native New Yorker of African American and Nigerian descent, her music is a patchwork quilt stitching together diverse musical styles.

Hailed as “Sublime” by the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, Nkeiru Okoye’s compositions are a musical quilt that draw inspiration from a dizzying range of influences—Gilbert & Sullivan, the Gershwins, Sondheim, Copland, gospel, jazz, and Schoenberg. Her theatrical works have been presented by American Opera Projects, Oberlin Opera Theater, Cleveland Opera Theater, the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, and Hartford Opera Theater. Her symphonic works have been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and countless regional orchestras. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA Art Works grant for her opera, HARRIET TUBMAN: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom; and a Female Composers Discovery Grant from Opera America, for her comedy, We’ve Got Our Eye On You.

♫ LISTEN

I am Moses by Nkeiru Okoye 

➺ Nkeiru Okoye's Website

15 JULY 2019

HEDWIGE CHRÉTIEN - FRANCE 
BORN 15 JULY

Hedwige (Gennaro)-Chrétien  was a French composer. She was appointed a music professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1889 where she had previously been a student from 1874, studying with Ernest Guiraud. In 1881, she won first prize in harmony, counterpoint and fugue. She also won first prize in piano and in composition in other concours which she entered. She was a prolific composer, yet not much else is known about her life. Her compositions, about 150 in all, consist of pieces for piano, orchestral and chamber works, songs, two ballets and two one-act operas.

One of the most extensive collections of her work in the United States is held in the University of Michigan’s Women Composers Collection, which is available on microfilm from there and other libraries.

Wind Quintet by Hedwige Chrétien

➺ Fins scores by Hedwige Chrétien

LUCILE GRÉTRY - FRANCE 

BORN 15 JULY

The composer Angélique-Dorothée-Louise Grétry, who would be known as Lucile Grétry, was born in Paris on July 15, 1772, and named after the heroine in an opera written by her father, the composer André Grétry. He would teach her counterpoint and declamation, while Jean-François Tapray would teach her harmony. At age 13, Lucile composed the vocal parts, as well as the bass and a harp accompaniment for Le mariage d'Antonio which her father later orchestrated. The full score, published in 1786, was performed 47 times between 1786 and 1791, during the tumultuous French Revolution, and many music critics commented on the work's freshness. She also composed Toinette et Louis which had only a single performance. Both Lucile and her two sisters had contracted tuberculosis in childhood, the disease which was responsible for her early death.

Le Mariage d'Antonio by Lucile Grétry

➺ Find scores by Lucile Grétry