17 JULY 2019

LAURA JĒKABSONE - LATVIA

BORN 17 JULY

Laura Jēkabsone (1985) is a composer, artistic director of vocal group Latvian Voices, professional singer, music teacher and a conductor. 

Laura got her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and she has gained experience internationally in many vocal workshops and composition competitions. 

Lauras has composed the majority of Latvian Voices repertoire. Besides Latvian Voices, she is a well-known composer in Latvia and abroad. Her music has been performed by Latvian National Symphonic orchestra, State Choir “Latvija”, Riga Cathedral Choir School girls’ choir “Tiara”, a cappella groups “The Real Group” (Sweden), “Sjaella”, “Amarcord” (Germany), “Magi Ensemble” (USA), “Cantabile Voices” (Taiwan), “Incantare Coro Femenino” (Argentina) etc.

Since 2006 she works as an assistant conductor and vocal coach in one of the best amateur mixed choirs in Latvia - "Maska". Choir “Maska” has released her first author CD titled “Ziema” (Winter).

Laura is the composer of the first ever symphony written for Latvian traditional instrument "kokle”.

♫ LISTEN

Div Düjinas Gaia Skreja by Laura Jēkabsone

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BERTHA FRENSEL WEGNER KOOPMAN - THE NETHERLANDS 

DIED 17 JULY

Bertha Koopman studied composition and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory and continued studying with composer Bernard Zweers and vocal pedagogue Hugo Bellwidt in Frankfurt. After completing her studies, she performed concerts in Germany and the Netherlands.

Koopman married Jolen Frensel Wegener and retired from the concert stage to a career as accompanist, teacher and composer in Haarlem. Koopman's early songs included German lyrics, but after World War I, she wrote her songs in French and English, which allowed her access to markets in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis. Her daughter Emmy Frensel Wegener (1901–1973) was a violinist and composer of chamber music.
♫ LISTEN

Do not go my love by  Julie Lyonn Lieberman 

14 MAY 2019

EMILIE MAYER - GERMANY

BORN 14 MAY

Emilie Luise Friderica Mayer  was a German composer of Romantic music. Emilie Mayer began her serious compositional study relatively late in life, yet she was a very prolific composer, producing some 8 symphonies and at least 15 concert overtures, plus numerous chamber works and lieder. She was the Associate Director of the Opera Academy in Berlin. 

In 1847, after the premiere of her first two symphonies (C minor and E minor) by the Stettin Instrumental Society, she moved to Berlin to continue her compositional studies. Once in Berlin, she studied fugue and double counterpoint with Adolph Bernhard Marx, and instrumentation with Wilhelm Wieprecht
.
She began publishing her works (e.g. lieder and chants, op. 5-7 in 1848) and performing in private concerts. Then on April 21, 1850, Wieprecht led his "Euterpe" orchestra in a concert at the Royal Theatre exclusively presenting compositions by Emilie Mayer. With critical and popular acclaim, she continued composing works for public performance. She traveled to attend performances of her works, including to Cologne, Munich, Lyon, Brussels and Vienna.

Emilie Mayer was initially influenced by the Vienna classic style, whilst her later works were more Romantic. Mayer's harmonies are characterised by sudden shifts in tonality and the frequent use of seventh chords, with the diminished seventh allowing Mayer to reach a variety of resolutions. One defining characteristic of Mayer's music is a tendency to set up a tonal centre with a dominant seventh, but not resolving to the tonic immediately; sometimes, resolution is skipped altogether.
Her rhythms are often very complex, with several layers interacting at once.

♫ LISTEN 

Symphonie N. 5 by Emilie Mayer

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LŪCIJA GARŪTA - LATVIA
BORN 14 MAY

Lūcija Garūta was a Latvian pianist, poet and composer. Lūcija  was born in Riga. From in 1919 to 1925, she studied at the Latvian Conservatory with professor Jāzeps Vītols for piano and others including Jānis Mediņš, Jēkabs Mediņš and Jēkabs Kārkliņš. During her studies she was the pianist répétiteur at the Latvian National Opera.
After graduation, she worked at Riga Radio from 1925 to 1926. In 1926 she took a position teaching music theory and piano at the Jāzepa Mediņa School of Music. In 1926 she also continued her studies with Alfred Cortot, Isidor Philipp and Paul Le Flem, and in 1928 she studied composition with Paul Dukas at the Paris Ecole Normale de Musique. In 1926 she made her debut in Paris, and afterwards became active as a composer, holding concerts with singers Milda Brehmane-Štengele, Ādolfs Kaktiņs and Mariss Vētra, violinist Rūdolfs Miķelsons and cellist Atis Teihmanis. In 1939 she served on the Latvian music promotion association's board of directors. In the 1920s and 1930s, Lūcija Garūta was one of the most active pianists both as a soloist as well as accompanist, performing in Riga and in all of Latvia. Overall, Garūta performed with more than 100 musicians in chamber music concerts.
In 1940 Garūta took a position teaching composition and music theory at the Latvian Conservatory, where she was elected to professor in 1960. Illness ended her performing career, but she continued to teach.

♫ LISTEN 

The Prayer by Lūcija Garūta

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4 FEBRUARY 2019

ANITRA TUMŠEVICA - LATVIA

BORN 4 FEBRUARY 

The composer and violinist Anitra Tumševica was born on February 4, 1971 in Riga. She studied violin at the Emīls Dārziņš College of Music (Romāns Šnē, 1978–1989) and at the Latvian Academy of Music (Uldis Sprūdžs, 1989–1992). In 2000, she began composition studies with Selga Mence at the Latvian Academy of Music, which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2007, master's degree in 2009. She participated in improvisation master classes with Anto Pett (Estonia) in 2005, in the Český Krumlov 2003 composition master classes with Marek Kopelent, Lasse Thoresen and Helmut Oehring, the young composers’ master classes in Dundaga, Latvia with Klaas Torstensson, Rolf Wallin and John Woolrich in 2006, composition master classes at the JVLMA with Wolfgang Heiniger and John Palmer in 2007.

She has performed in many orchestras, including Rīgas kamermūziķi, the Riga Festival Orchestra, and the New Riga Chamber Orchestra.

♫ LISTEN 

Trio Tendo by and Strings by Anitra Tumševica

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ANN SOUTHAM - CANADA
BORN 4 FEBRUARY 

Ann Southam was a Canadian electronic and classical music composer and music teacher. She is known for her minimalist, iterative, and lyrical style, for her long-term collaborations with dance choreographers and performers, for her large body of work, and, according to the Globe and Mail, for "blazing a trail for women composers in a notoriously sexist field."

Southam's early works are lyrical atonal pieces written in a Romantic style, and lyricism remained an important element of her later electronic scores. She also worked with 12-tone techniques.

Southam has been described as having "composed with exacting technique, intent on coaxing warmth out of her machines and bringing electronic music into new spaces."

Southam's passion for electronic music began in the 1960s, and she built a home studio with synthesizers, tape recorders, a mixer and a what she called a "minimum of sound equipment," including Electronic Music Studios synthesizers such as the AKS.

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Glass Houses Revisited by Ann Southam

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