22 AUGUST 2019

EMMA HARTMANN - DENMARK
BORN 22 AUGUST

Amalia Emma Sophie Hartmann  (22 August 1807 – 6 March 1851) was a Danish composer who used the pseudonym Frederick H. Palmer to publish music. She was married to the composer Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann.

Emma Zinn was born into a wealthy merchant family in Copenhagen. Her father Johan Friedrich Zinn had inherited the family's trading house after his father Johann Ludvig Zinn's death in 1802, initially in a partnership with his brother Carl Ludvig Zinn but he died in 1808. Emma studied singing and piano with composer Andreas Peter Berggreen.

Her first published composition was music for a Student Association dance in February 1841.

Five pamphlets with a total of 22 Romances and Songs were later published with lyrics by prominent names such as Christian Winther, Frederik Paludan-Müller, Swedish Johan Ludvig Runeberg and Ernst Weis. The first pamphlet was published in 1848 by Horneman & Erslev but the last two were published posthumously. The title lead featured both her real name and her pseudonym when her collected romances and songs were published in 1892.

Her pseudonym was revealed in 1869 when the Manual of anonymity and pseudonyms in Danish literature was published. She died in Copenhagen at age 44.

The title leaf featured both her real name and her pseudonym when her collected romances and songs were published in 1892. A collection of her piano pieces was published privately by her youngest son Frederik (Fritz) Hartmann in 1908. A new issue was published by DCM in 2003.  

Source: Wikipedia and KbDk

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Sample by Emma Hartmann

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RICA NARIMOTO -  JAPAN
BORN 22 AUGUST   

Born in Wakayama, Japan, Rica Narimoto completed her M.A. and Doctor of music at Aichi University of the Arts graduating at the top of her class and receiving the University's prestigious Kuwabara Prize. 

She is the first person to have received a doctoral degree in the field of composition at that university. Her music has been performed in many countries including Japan, the Netherlands (during the Gaudeamus Music Week), Egypt (The Alexandrina Contemporary Music Biennale), Ukraine (the International Festival of Modern Art, Two Days and Two Nights/2D2N), Germany, France, Austria, the United States, Canada and Finland. 

She has received several awards including the Irino Prize , the Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellowship Award(USA), the third prize at Iron Composer Competition(USA) and the Okuwa Cultural Encouragement Prize. She was invited from Asian Cultural Council as a fellow and lived in New York for researching about American contemporary music and art in 2011. 

At the end of her stay in NYC, she had a highly claimed recital, "Portrait Concert: Rica Narimoto", featuring her own compositions, some of which were performed by herself. Her work combines contemporary music composition techniques with the structures of the 17th Century Japanese Itchu-Bushi form in order to create abstractions of space and time and produce a unique musical signature. She is currently an associate professor in Aichi University of the Arts, and is a lecturer in Kanazawa University and Kinjo Gakuin University.

Source: Rica Narimoto Official Website

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The Sound of Water by  Rica Narimoto

➺ Rica Narimoto's Website

18 APRIL 2019

KEIKO ABE - JAPAN  

BORN 18 APRIL

Keiko Abe is a Japanese composer and marimba player. She has been a primary figure in the development of the marimba, in terms of expanding both technique and repertoire, and through her collaboration with the Yamaha Corporation, developed the modern five-octave concert marimba.

Her compositions, including "Michi", "Variations on Japanese Children's Songs", and "Dream of the Cherry Blossoms", have become standards of the marimba repertoire. Abe is active in promoting the development of literature for the marimba, not only by writing pieces herself, but also by commissioning works by other composers and encouraging young composers. She has added at least 70 compositions to the repertoire. She uses improvisation as an important element in developing her musical ideas which she then uses in her compositions.

In addition to her heavy composing, touring, and recording schedule, Abe has been a lecturer, then professor, at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo since 1970. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993.Her music is mainly published by Xebec Music Publishing and Schott, Japan.

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Prism by Keiko Abe

► KEIKO ABE'S WEBSITE 

MARCELA RODRÍGUEZ - MEXICO  

BORN 18 APRIL

Marcela Rodríguez belongs to a generation of Mexican and Latin American composers which has distanced itself from the regionalism of the nationalistic music of the 20th century and is trying to get into touch with European and Anglo-American music without sacrificing its search for a Latin American musical identity

She studied the guitar and composition with Leo Brouwer of Cuba. She studied for a while in London, and then returned to Mexico City to study with Julio Estrada and Ma. Antonieta Lozano. Rodríguez works have been performed internationally, including the United States, Venezuela, Spain, her opera "Las Cartas de Frida" in Heidelberg, Germany, [Moldavia]] and Greece. She has taught classes of composition for opera, dance and theater in Mexico and Spain, and at the Catholic University of Colombia and the Catholic University of Washington.

Marcela Rodríguez has written works for solo instruments and voices as well as songs, chamber music, symphonies, concertos and operas. Since 1979 she has been writing music for dramas, too, and has worked together with the most eminent Mexican directors. Marcela Rodríguez is unusually well informed in the field of music and uses the resources of the European tradition as well as those of the Latin American one. She studied the guitar under two of its greatest interpreters - the Argentinean Manuel López Ramos and the most important modern composer for the guitar, the Cuban Leo Brouwer. Bothof them made Rodriguez aware of Latin American music and the problem of defining its identity. During a lengthy stay in London, where she completed a course of studying the guitar, she devoted her time mostly to the tradition of European music. Back in Mexico City she continued her studies under the music pedagogue Jesús Estrada and Mario Lavista, the most eminent living Mexican composer.

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Caida by Marcela Rodriguez

 ► MARCELA RODRÍGUEZ'S WEBSITE 

17 APRIL 2019

CLARA EDWARDS - USA 

BORN 17 APRIL

Clara Edwards was born Clara Gerlich in Decoria Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota. She received her education from the Mankato State Normal School and the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago. She married physician John Milton Edwards before finishing her degree, and the couple moved toVienna, where she continued musical studies and had a daughter. In Europe she prepared for a career as a singer, and gave concerts in both the United States and Europe before moving to New York City in 1914. Two years later her husband died, leaving her a single mother in New York city with no steady income.

Out of financial necessity, Edwards began her career as a composer and songwriter in the 1920s, joining the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1925. She toured in Vaudeville at about the same time, and organized the Chautauqua Concert Company in 1934. She often collaborated with Jack Lawrence, but also wrote many of the lyrics to her own songs.

Edwards composed over 100 works and published over 60 songs. Several of her songs are sacred, and she wrote choral arrangements for some of them. She also composed music for solo piano, for children's marionette plays and animated films. Her songs have been recorded and issued on CD and used in film soundtracks and animations.

Her songs were "quickly taken up by publishers", and many famous singers performed them, including soprano Lily Pons and baritones John Charles Thomas and Ezio Pinza. They also became more successful when performed on the popular radio show The Bell Telephone Hour. They are "distinguished for their tasteful and truly lovely melodies" and considered some of the "best of the ballad style concert song[s]". They "successfully blended the styles of art song and the sentimental popular ballad".

Perhaps her most successful song was "With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair", with text by Jack Lawrence. First published in 1930, it became a hit a decade later. Two of her other well-known songs are "By the Bend of the River" and "Into the Night"; the latter is frequently used by voice teachers as a training piece, and is included in several song anthologies.

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Into the Night by Clara Edwards

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KEIKO HARADA - JAPAN  

BORN 17 APRIL

Keiko Harada’s career as composer began with her improvisation on the piano as a child. Studied composition, piano, chamber music and conducting at the Toho Gakuen College of Music.Graduatedin 1993 with Kenkyu-ka Katei (post graduate) in composition. She studied composition with Manabu Kawai, Akira Miyoshi and after college in several international seminar with Brian Ferneyhough, pianowith Michio Mamiya and chamber music (Gyorgi Kurtag’s work) with Gyorgi Kurtag.

Harada’s works have won numerous awards in different form ; The 62nd Japan Awards(1st prize) for chamber work, Yasuda prize, E-Nakamichi Prize(’93), Yamaguchi-Prefectural Governor’s prize(’95),Akutagawa Orchestra Composition Prize (’01), Kenzo Nakajima Music Prize for solo work(’04), Otaka Prize for orchestra (’09) and others. Her international activities have been supported by grants fromThe Japan Foundation, The Nomura Cultural Foundation, The Japan-Canada Fund, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Darmstadt (IMD), Royamont(France), Bartok Seminar and others. In 2002 she worked in NewYork City on a grant of Asian Cultural Council (ACC).

She is currently Associate Professor of composition department at Tokyo College of Music. In addition, she is lecturing at Toho Gakuen College of Music and The National Fine Arts University,Tokyo.

Her works has been published by Zen-On and Tokyo Concerts Inc.(Japan) in addition to Edition Wunn (Germany). Portrait CDs at FONTEC(Japan)and Cypres (Belgium).

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Nach Bach by Keiko Harada 

 ► KEIKO HARADA'S WEBSITE 

7 APRIL 2019

KAREN TANAKA _ JAPAN
BORN 7 APRIL

Karen Tanaka is an exceptionally versatile composer and pianist. She has composed extensively for both instrumental and electronic media. “Her music is delicate and emotive, beautifully crafted, showing a refined ear for both detail and large organic shapes…”, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 

Her works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Kronos Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, BIT20 Ensemble, among many others. Various choreographers and dance companies, including Wayne McGregor and Nederlands Dans Theater, have often featured her music.

In recent years, she has received numerous commissions from, most notably, Radio France, the Canada Council for the Arts for Eve Egoyan, the Arts Council of England for Brodsky Quartet, the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazushi Ono, the Michael Vyner Trust for the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jane Dutcher for Joan Jeanrenaud and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, and the National Endowment for the Arts for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Bay.

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Cristalline II by Karen Tanaka

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NICOLE LIZÉE - CANADA  

BORN 7 APRIL

Called “a brilliant musical scientist” (CBC), “breathtakingly inventive” (Sydney Times Herald, Australia), and lauded for “creating a stir with listeners for her breathless imagination and ability to capture Gen-X and beyond generation” (Winnipeg Free Press), award winning composer and video artist composer Nicole Lizée creates new music from an eclectic mix of influences including the earliest MTV videos, turntablism, rave culture, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Alexander McQueen, thrash metal, early video game culture, 1960s psychedelia and 1960s modernism. She is fascinated by the glitches made by outmoded and well-worn technology and captures these glitches, notates them and integrates them into live performance.

Nicole’s compositions range from works for orchestra and solo turntablist featuring DJ techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™, vintage board games, and karaoke tapes. In the broad scope of her evolving oeuvre she explores such themes as malfunction, reviving the obsolete, and the harnessing of imperfection and glitch to create a new kind of precision.

Nicole was recently awarded the prestigious 2019 Prix Opus for Composer of the Year. In 2017 she received the SOCAN Jan. V. Matejcek Award. In 2013 she received the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. She is a two time JUNO nominee for composition of the year. She is a Lucas Artists Fellow (California) and a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow (Italy). In 2015 she was selected by acclaimed composer and conductor Howard Shore to be his protégée as part of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

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Modern Hearts by Nicole Lizée

► NICOLE LIZÉE'S WEBSITE