14 AUGUST 2019

BEATA MOON - USA
BORN 14 AUGUST

Beata Moon (born 1969) is a Korean-American classical pianist and composer.

Moon was born in North Dakota and raised in Indiana. She made her musical debut at age 8 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Moon trained as a pianist at the Juilliard School with Adele Marcus earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees there. She is self-taught as a composer.

Moon's compositions are compared to post-minimalist, but defy a strict definition of genre.

She released Perigee & Apogee in 2001 on the Albany label and Earthshine on her own label, Bibimbop Records in 2004. In 2007, Naxos Records added a CD of her works for solo piano, performed by Moon herself, to their catalog of important 21st-century composers. Her work has been acclaimed by Kyle Gann, Gramophone, Allmusic, and others.

Moon has frequently collaborated with choreographer Henning Rübsam and his company SENSEDANCE. "After Yet Another Fall" (1992), "Dolphins and Antelopes" (1996), "Moonpaths" (1998), "Dinner is West" (2005) and "Tenancy" (2011) are among her commissions for the company. Rübsam choreographed to other works by Moon, including her "In Transit" from 1999 which was used for the choreographer's "Amaranthine Road" (2007).

She also has gained notability for performing a series of "Whodunit?" concerts at such venues as the Kennedy Center, in which the program notes are not provided until the end of the concert.
Source: Wikipedia and Beata Moon's Website.

♫ LISTEN

Insomnia Tips by Beata Moon

➺  Beata Moon's Website

CELIA SWART -  NETHERLANDS
BORN 14 AUGUST   

Celia Swart (1994, Vlissingen) is a Dutch contemporary music composer and a modern jazz saxophonist.

By playing the saxophone since the age of nine, Celia has been surrounded by pop, jazz and classical music. Growing up, she has played in pop/jazz bands, a big band and a harmony orchestra. Around the age of 14 she took piano lessons and found her love for composing.

In 2018 Celia completed her bachelor degree in composition at the Royal conservatory in The Hague, where she has studied with Guus Janssen, Martijn Padding, Peter Adriaansz, Diderik Wagenaar and John Ruocco.

In her music are narrative- and film influences important parts, and she also creates multi-media works with visuals of her illustrations and stop-motion animation.

In 2018 she was nominated for the Tera de Marez Oyens Award for her composition Boven Hoge Gebouwen, which was written for Kluster5 and in 2019 she is nominated for the International Rostrum of Composers 2019.

Source: Celia Swart Website

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High Hours by Celia Swart

➺ Celia Swart's Website

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  

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3 AUGUST 2019

SABINE ULUBEANU - ROMENIA  
BORN 3 AUGUST

Sabina Ulubeanu is one of the most complex artistic personalities of her generation, as her work comprises composition, photography, musicology, teaching, experimental performance and directing a young international new arts festival.

She was born in Bucharest, 3.08.1979. Studied piano at the George Enescu Music Highschool and then Composition at the National Music University of Bucharest, with Tiberiu Olah and Doina Rotaru (Master in 2004). In 2001/2002 she studied composition with Violeta Dinescu at the Oldenburg University in Germany and in 2011 completed her PhD studies Summa cum Laudae with the thesis „The Function of Memory in the Construction of Musical Time”, a theme that represents the artistic manifesto of the composer.  She is a member of the Romanian Composers Union. 

Her compositions, chamber music, multimedia or symphonic, are being performed in Romania and abroad (France, Germany, US, Lithuania, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ukraine, Ireland, Croatia, Estonia, etc) by artists like Arcadia Quartet, Alexandru Tomescu, Laura Buruiana, Matei Varga, Green Thing Ensemble, Ana Topalovic, Barbara Lueneburg, Sonomania Ensemble, Ensemble for New Music Tallin, Peterson Quartet, etc and received national and international prizes. About her music, the composer confesses:

"To write music is for me a necessity, a must. I need to express my emotions. 

So, my music is first of all intimate and subjective, my vision of the world that I perceive in every moment. The Technique should always be just a mean of transforming the Feeling into Ideas and the Ideas into a Musical Matter that others could understand."

♫ LISTEN

Sonata for Cello & Piano by Sabine Ulubeanu 

➺ Sabine Ulubeanu's Website

MATHILDE WANTENAAR - NETHERLANDS  
BORN  3 AUGUST   

Amsterdam born composer Mathilde Wantenaar (1993) started her studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where she studied classical composition with Willem Jeths and Wim Henderickx. She has written for, and collaborated with, the Dutch National Opera, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dutch Wind Ensemble, the Netherlands Radio Choir, Wishful Singing, the Ferschtman Cello Quartet, Liza Ferschtman, Ralph van Raat, Johannette Zomer and others.

During her composition studies she studied subsidiary subjects piano with Emile Simonis, cello with Maarten Mostert and voice with Maari Ernits. After her first chamber opera premiered during the Opera Forward Festival of the Dutch National Opera she completed her composition studies and was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague to study classical voice with Rita Dams and Noa Frenkel. Mathilde currently divides her time between her composition practice and vocal studies.


♫ LISTEN

Seufzer by Mathilde Wantenaar

➺ Mathilde Wantenaar's website

2 AUGUST 2019

CATHARINA VAN RENNES - THE NETHERLANDS 
BORN 2 AUGUST

Catharina van Rennes was a Dutch music educator, soprano singer and composer.

Van Rennes was the daughter of Jan van Rennes and Marianna Josepha de Jong. Among her tutors were Richard Hol and Johan Messchaert. She made a career as a singer in oratorios and was highly praised for her interpretations of Schumann Lieder. She was also known for vocal compositions. She composed and conducted a cantata for The International Alliance meeting of the women's suffrage movement held in Amsterdam in 1909 which was performed by the Queen's Royal Band.

Van Rennes established her own singing school and developed her own teaching technique. Nowadays she is particularly known for some popular Dutch children's songs such as "Drie kleine kleutertjes die zaten op een hek" (Three little toddlers were sitting on a fence), a translation of a Kate Greenaway verse, and "Madonnakindje" (Madonna child) as well as a religious song Kind'ren van één vader" (Children of one Father).

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3 Quartette by Catharina van Rennes 

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MOYA HENDERSON - AUSTRALIA   
BORN 2 AUGUST   

Moya Henderson is one of Australia's most accomplished composers and instrument designers with a career spanning over four decades.

Moya graduated from the University of Queensland with first class honours in 1972, In 1973 she was appointed Resident Composer to the then Australian Opera during its inaugural season at the Sydney Opera House. She was awarded a DAAD Scholarship and a Travel Grant from the Music Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, which enabled her to continue her studies in music-theater and composition in Germany.

Between 1974 and 1976 Moya attended the Cologne Musikhochschule, in Germany - one of the world's most acclaimed music universities. There she studied music-theater with Mauricio Kagel and composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, two of the most important and interesting composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. In 1974 she attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses for Composition and Performance. The short music-theater piece, Clearing the Air was written during the Darmstadt sessions, and on the strength of it, she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Composition at the course's end. The music-theater piece, Stubble, was a highlight of the 1976 Darmstadt Courses. Moya returned to Sydney, Australia in 1976.

She continues to work as a free-lance and commissioned composer ever since and has developed a broad and significant body of work.

In September 1983 Moya's work for organ and pre-recorded tape, Sacred Site, was given its first performance in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House by David Kinsela. This work was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House Trust to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House.

♫ LISTEN

I lost a world in the other  day by Moya Henderson

➺ Moya Henderson's website

10 JUNE 2019

FANIA CHAPIRO - INDONESIA   
BORN 10 JUNE

Fania Chapiro was born in 1926 in Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies), on the island of Java, in a carefree musical environment. She had a Russian father, her mother was Dutch. Both parents cherished the exceptional musical talent of their only child, making many sacrifices to support this. Fania was half-Jewish and that would affect the course of her career. When she wrote in her diary in early 1935:  “I have decided to become a composer and a wonderful pianist,” she could not expect the war would get in her way. Despite everything, she persevered; her efforts culminated in a beautiful career as a pianist and composer.

Father Naum Chapiro was a violin teacher and Fania, just a toddler, tried to play with his violin. But soon it became clear that another instrument was looming. She put her heart and soul into the piano and already at the age of six, concerts of the young prodigy were featured in the newspapers.  In those days, musicians often included Java on their tours. The renowned pianist, Benno Moiseiwitsch, present at one of Fania’s concerts, was convinced that Paris was the place to be, if she wanted to develop her exceptional talent.  Fania was still just a child when her parents decided to take this huge step in 1934. The pianist Lazare Lévy, a kind and sympathetic personality, became her teacher, and this was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Many of Levy's piano students later had successful careers. He firmly believed in Fania's great talent although she was deterred by setbacks encountered along the way. Her theoretical skills appeared to be inadequate at that time, and at the conservatory she had to work hard to pass the exams. Lévy asked her to compose something for the “sight-reading class,” which she did. But playing the piano was her core objective and her father tried eagerly to introduce his daughter into the Dutch music world.

Fania and her parents spent every summer vacation in the Netherlands with family. Then suddenly  in 1939 there was literally no turning back. The outbreak of the war forced them to move into an apartment in Bezuidenhout in The Hague. Chapiro could no longer exercise his profession. To avoid deportation, he went into hiding in the province of Noord-Brabant. Fania was still too young to realize what this all meant. She was fourteen years old, but as a musician, expected to become a member of the Kultuurkamer, a regulatory cultural agency installed by the German occupying forces during World War II. She refused, with the consequence that performing was over. But music was everything to her; she was “possessed” by music, according to her diary. So she continued playing at underground house concerts in and around The Hague. This clandestine practice actually helped many musicians through the war. During the Dutch famine of 1944-1945, Fania performed only in exchange for food.

It is difficult to say how many works Fania ultimately composed. A large part of her manuscripts consists of sketches, sometimes just a few measures up to half-finished works. In 1944, she wrote about this: "[...] because how many compositions have I started on and left unfinished; that what remains are quick sketches and a huge array of ideas. Simply countless.” Due to her enormous drive, numerous completed compositions have fortunately been preserved.

During the war she composed a lot, using traditional forms and a boisterous virtuosity. The years following her American period seem to be the most productive; her works mature. Yet most of her works are undated, which makes it difficult to exactly determine when and where they were written. Strikingly, in 1988, a completely different musical idiom appears in her art songs. Chromaticism remained, yet there was plenty of stillness in her music. In a letter to her publisher Donemus, Fania explained that Emily Dickinson's poems had “affected me by their timeless, unrealistic atmosphere.” A few years later, she died at the age of 68 in her hometown Hilversum, definitely remembered as a composer and a magnificent pianist.

♫ LISTEN

Sonatina by Fania Chapiro 

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ANN MILLIKAN - USA
BORN 10 JUNE

Ann Millikan's music has been described as "tonally challenging yet emotionally involving" (Joseph Woodard, LA Times), "packed with propellant polyrhythmic textures" (New Sounds, WNYC), and "characterized by high energy and a quirky inventiveness that defies easy categorization...Her scoring is clean and transparent and her felicities of orchestration are among the most attractive elements in her work." (Stephen Eddins, All Music).

Millikan composes concert music for orchestra, chamber ensembles and choir, opera, experimental and interdisciplinary projects involving installation, theatre and dance. Rhythmic vitality is a powerful force in her music, stemming from previous years playing jazz, African and Brazilian music. Her music is expressive and colorful, moving freely between atonal and tonal/modal languages depending upon the overall desired effect. She creates rich orchestral textures that are characterized by layering, rhythmic juxtaposition, and complex counterpoint. Known for her collaborative projects that connect deeply with community – story, history, culture, and science are often an impetus behind her work.

Millikan received her MFA in Composition from the California Institute of the Arts where her mentors were Mel Powell, Morton Subotnick, and Stephen L. Mosko, and her BA in Music–Jazz (piano, voice and composition), Phi Kappa Phi, from San Jose State University. She has studied West African percussion from Senegal and Ghana, and many years of classical voice. 

Her works have been performed in Europe, South America and throughout the United States by Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari, Emanuele Arciuli, ABSTRAI Ensemble, California EAR Unit, Zeitgeist, No Exit New Music Ensemble, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Mankato Symphony Orchestra, Chapel Hill Philharmonia, Citywinds, New Century Players, Oregon Repertory Singers, Grace Cathedral Men's Choir, and Joan La Barbara, among others. Her music is featured on radio broadcasts nationally and internationally.

Ann Millikan is a recipient of the prestigious McKnight Composer Fellowship. She has garnered awards from the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota State Arts Board, California Arts Council, American Music Center, ASCAP, American Composers Forum, Meet The Composer, Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, Jerome Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, Berkeley Civic Arts Program, and Waging Peace Through Singing (Highest Honors).

♫ LISTEN

Xingu by Ann Millikan

➺ Ann Millikan's Website 

12 APRIL 2019

ANNE-MAARTJE LEMEREIS - NETHERLANDS 
BORN 12 APRIL

Anne-Maartje Lemereis is a composer and pianist. For her, composing and performing are inextricably linked. She started her studies at the Utrecht Conservatory as a pianist, but decided to specialize in composing. She obtained both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in this. During her Master of Music, she again focused intensively on her piano studies, and so her two passions melted together.

After a number of preparatory years in the talent class of Schools in Art, Anne-Maartje studied piano for a year at the Utrecht Conservatory. However, her heart was in composing and she decided to focus entirely on that. She studied composition with Jeroen D’hoe and Caroline Ansink. In 2013 she finished her Bachelor with the premiere of her first piano concerto. After this she decided to follow a Master of Composition in combination with piano lessons with Henry Kelder at the Utrecht Conservatory: this is how her passion for composing and performing a contemporary piano repertoire came together. She concluded her Master of Music by composing, producing and co-performing her opera ‘Graaf!’.

Anne-Maartje composes for various musicians and ensembles on assignment. For example, she wrote the mini-opera "Ping" for Ensemble Vonk, "A Requiem in Quotes" for Olga Vocal Ensemble, "Aleksandra" for Podium Witteman and a series of short stop-motion films with music for the Dutch Silent Film Festival.

In addition to her work as a composer and performing pianist, Anne-Maartje has her own teaching practice in Amersfoort and Utrecht. She teaches both piano and composition. In piano lessons, apart from the regular repertoire, much attention is given to improvisation and composition. Since 2017, Anne-Maartje has been organizing workshops and concerts for children and young people who like to compose under the name In de Knop.

♫ LISTEN

A Requiem in Quotes by Anne- Maartje Lemereis

► ANNE-MAARTJE'S WEBSITE 

IMOGEN HOLST - UK 

BORN 12 APRIL

Imogen Clare Holst CBE was a British composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, musicologist, and festival administrator. The only child of the composer Gustav Holst, she is particularly known for her educational work at Dartington Hall in the 1940s, and for her 20 years as joint artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival. In addition to composing music, she wrote composer biographies, much educational material, and several books on the life and works of her father.

From a young age, Holst showed precocious talent in composing and performance. After attending Eothen School and St Paul's Girls' School, she entered the Royal College of Music, where she developed her skills as a conductor and won several prizes for composing. Unable for health reasons to follow her initial ambitions to be a pianist or a dancer, Holst spent most of the 1930s teaching, and as a full-time organiser for the English Folk Dance and Song Society. These duties reduced her compositional activities, although she made many arrangements of folksongs. After serving as an organiser for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts at the start of the Second World War, in 1942 she began working at Dartington. In her nine years there she established Dartington as a major centre of music education and activity.

In the early 1950s Holst became Benjamin Britten's musical assistant, moved to Aldeburgh, and began helping with the organisation of the annual Aldeburgh Festival. In 1956 she became joint artistic director of the festival, and during the following 20 years helped it to a position of pre-eminence in British musical life. In 1964 she gave up her work as Britten's assistant, to resume her own compositional career and to concentrate on the preservation of her father's musical legacy. Her own music is not widely known and has received little critical attention; much of it is unpublished and unperformed. The first recordings dedicated to her works, issued in 2009 and 2012, were warmly received by critics. She was appointed CBE in 1975 and received numerous academic honours. 

♫ LISTEN

Phantasie Quartet by Imogen Holst 

► IMOGEN HOLST'S WEBSITE