GLADYS SMUCKER MOSKOWITZ - USA
BORN 25 JANUARY
Gladys Smuckler Moskowitz is an American singer, composer and teacher. She graduated from Brooklyn College with bachelor's and master's degrees, and worked as a teacher, choir director and composer. As Gladys Young she performed in the United States and Europe as a folk singer. In 2003 her chamber opera The Fountain of Youth, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," won a special commendation at the Nancy Van de Vate International Opera Competition for Women.
Gladys began her musical career as a singer. She received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and under her professional name, Gladys Young toured the United States, Europe, and Israel, as a folk singer-instrumentalist. She has composed the music and written the libretto for “The Masque of the Red Death,” a Renaissance-style music drama in two acts, story by Edgar Allan Poe; “The Fountain of Youth,” a chamber opera in one act, story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne; and a satirical chamber opera “Chicken Little,The Sky is Falling,” based on the well-known children’s story. Each opera has received a workshop performance. Individual arias and excerpts have been sung at concerts in New York and Europe. Among the composer’s dramatic settings of Art Songs by American poets “Grass” by Carl Sandburg has been sung in Europe by soprano with piano accompaniment and in New York by tenor with chamber orchestra accompaniment. In May 2008 Three Love Songs on Poems by Sara Teasdale, “Joy,” ”Advice to a Girl,” and “Gifts” were premiered at Renee Weiler Concert Hall in NYC. Her most recent work (2009) consists of “Three Songs of Passion” poems by Cheryl Yuzik: “Life Sentence,” composed for voice and piano ( and tenor saxophone or violin), “Utopia” A Tango of Love, for voice and piano, and “Manic Screaming” for voice, piano, and cello.
Ms. Moskowitz’s style is eclectic, employing classical, folk, and jazz elements to create music that glorifies the beauty of the human voice! Her music is performed internationally.
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Aria: I was a prosperous Merchant" by Gladys Smuckler Moskowitz (b. 1928)
BORN 25 JANUARY
Marguerite Roesgen-Champion was a Swiss harpsichordist and composer; b. Geneva, Jan. 25, 1894; d. Paris, June 30, 1976.
She studied composition with Bloch and Jaques-Dalcroze at the Geneva Cons., but devoted herself mainly to harpsichord playing, giving numerous recitals in Europe. Her own works, couched in the neo-Romantic vein, include Faunesques for Orch. (Paris, 1929), Concerto moderne for Harpsichord and Orch. (Paris, Nov. 15, 1931, composer soloist), Aquarelles, symphonic suite (Paris, Nov. 26, 1933), Harp Concerto (Paris, March 28, 1954), 5 harpsichord concertos (1931–59), including No. 1, Concerto moderne (Paris, Nov. 15, 1931, composer soloist), Concerto romantique for Piano and Orch. (1961), a number of pieces for flute in combination with the harpsichord and other instruments, and a curious piece for Piano, 4-Hands, entitled Spoutnik (1971).
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