15 SEPTEMBER 2019

LILIAN ELKINGTON - UK

BORN 15 SEPTEMBER

Born in Birmingham in 1900, Lilian Elkington began to learn piano at the young age of four, and gave her first public performance at only six years old. The four works known to be by her include Out of the Mist (1921): a tone poem for orchestra, Little Hands: song, Romance, Op.1: for violin and piano, and Rhapsodie, Op.3: for violin and piano.

Elkington studied composition with Sir Granville Bantock at the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music. She also studied the organ and gained both the LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music and ARCO (Associate of the Royal College of Organists). Her first compositions were heard in 1921 at Harrogate and at Bournemouth. She gave many public concerts and recitals in Birmingham and other cities in England, both as soloist in piano concertos by Beethoven, Grieg, Schumann and others, but also as an accompanist and in chamber music ensembles.

Only one of Elkington’s pieces has been commercially recorded – the short orchestral tone poem Out of the Mist, which depicts the November 1920 voyage of the Unknown Warrior on the HMS Verdun. Despite its relatively short length, the piece is wonderfully evocative and displays Elkington’s striking command of orchestral color, texture, and mood, signaling an inventive musical voice that was cut all too short by societal circumstances.

Source: British Music Collection and Bach Flip Classical

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Out of the mist by Lilian Elkington

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PAQUITA MADRIGUERA - SPAIN
BORN 15 SEPTEMBER

Francisca "Paquita" Madriguera Rodon was a Catalan pianist and composer, based for much of her adult life in Uruguay.

Francisca Madriguera was born in Igualada, Barcelona, the daughter of Enric Madriguera Haase and Francesca Rodon Canudas. Her younger brother was violinist and conductor Enric Madriguera. She was a child prodigy on piano, and studied with Enrique Granados as a girl. At age 11 she gave a concert in Madrid. At age 13 she played at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Madriguera toured American cities in 1916 and 1917, billed as "The Mozart of Spain." A reviewer in 1916 found her "interesting though ridiculously spoiled", explaining that "she is extremely talented, possesses a powerful touch and well-developed technique, and will no doubt be one of the established artists of tomorrow." In 1917 she played at a benefit concert in New York, for the National League for Women's Service. During that same stay in the United States, she gave a joint concert with her brother in Chicago's Aeolian Theatre. She gave another recital at the Aeolian Hall in New York in 1919. Madriguera made piano roll recordings of her playing in the 1910s.

Her promising career was suspended when she married in 1922 and lived in Uruguay. In widowhood in 1932, she moved back to Spain with her three young daughters, and resumed her musical career. She married again, to fellow musician Andres Segovia, and they returned to Uruguay to live in 1937.

Source: Wikipedia and Wikipedia España

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Caprice Espagnol by Paquita Madriguera

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16 AUGUST 2019

ALEXANDRA DU BOIS - USA
BORN 16 AUGUST

Alexandra du Bois (born August 16, 1981) is an American composer, violinist and educator who has received international critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and vocal compositions. She currently lives in Manhattan in New York City.

The music of du Bois appears to consistently attract commissions of commemorative connotation; in honor of the 35th anniversary of the University Chorus at the University of Massachusetts – Boston in 2000, du Bois was commissioned to write Our Eyes for double a cappella choir; in honor of Kronos Quartet's 30th anniversary in 2003, du Bois was commissioned to write her first string quartet. Chosen from among the work of more than 300 composers from 32 countries as the inaugural recipient of the Kronos: Under 30 Project, du Bois wrote String Quartet: An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind for Kronos Quartet which she cites as a protest to the U.S . led invasion of Iraq. New York City's Kaufman Center commissioned du Bois' Cloud Watching in honor of their 50th anniversary in 2004; The Beaux Arts Trio commissioned her first piano trio (L'apothesose d'un reve) in honor of their 50th anniversary in 2004; Bargemusic commissioned Soleil sur Mer as part of their 30th anniversary celebration in 2007; during the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the city of Hanoi in 2010, du Bois' Within Earth, Wood Grows for chamber orchestra was premiered at the Hanoi Opera House by Southwest Chamber Music on March 19, 2010. Du Bois was Composer-in-Residence with Southwest Chamber Music in connection with their Ascending Dragon Music Festival.

More recently, du Bois was commissioned by cellist Wendy Sutter (of Songs and Poems by Philip Glass) for a multi-movement cello work," the Savannah Music Festival for a second chamber work commission featuring violinist Daniel Hope, Present Music and PALS Children's Chorus for choral/instrument works, and the Anchorage Symphony and Cabrillo Festival Orchestra for orchestral works. Alexandra du Bois' compositions have been performed on five continents at venues including Carnegie Hall, New York; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Barbican Hall, London; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Kursaal Centre, San Sebastian; Smetana Hall, Prague; Teatro Gran Rex, Buenos Aires and Hanoi Opera House, Hanoi, Vietnam, De Oosterpoort, Groningen and Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Eindhoven.

Source: Wikipedia and Official Website.

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Noctiluent Song for String Orchestra by Alexandra du Bois

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CONSUELO DIEZ -  SPAIN
BORN 16 AUGUST   

Consuelo Diez has born in Madrid, Spain, on 16th August 1958. She is a Composer and lecturer. She studied at Madrid Royal Music Conservatory with professors like Anton Garcia Abril Roman Alis, C. Bernaola, L. de Pablo and C. Halffter, J. She also studied art history at the Madrid Complutense University, and graduated with a Master of Arts from Hartt School of Music (USA) and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Hartford University (USA). After completing her studies, Diez returned to work as a composer in Madrid. She directed for several years the electroacoustic music program "El canto de los Adolescentes" in RNE-Radio 2 and was musical adviser to TVE. 

She was a founder of the Laboratory of Computer and Electroacoustic Composition of the Community of Madrid from 1988 to 1996 and from 2001 onwards. From 1992 to 1996 she was director of the Conservatory "Adolfo Salazar" (Madrid), where she taught Composition and Electroacoustic Music since 1988. From 1997 to 2001 she was director of the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music and the International Contemporary Music Festival of Alicante (Ministry of Culture). 

In 1998 she was elected to the Executive Committee of the European Conference of Promoters of New Music (ECPNM) and in 2001 she was appointed member of the International Honour Committee of the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica. In 2004 she was appointed director of the International Music Festival of La Mancha (Quintanar de la Orden, Toledo). Since 2006 she is Music Advisor in Ministry of Culture of the Community of Madrid. Her works have been performed in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Portugal and among other countries, having been recorded by various entities such as RNE, TVE, Canal Clásico (TV), CBA, LIEM-CDMC among others and published in Mundimusica, Nadir and Arte Tripharia (Spain).
Source: Wikipedia e Donne in Music

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Cartas a la oscuridad nos 1,2,5 e 6 by Consuelo Diez

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30 JULY 2019

BETTY ROE - UK  
BORN 30 JULY

Betty Roe was born in North Kensington, London, England. Her father was a fishmonger at the Shepherd's Bush Market, and her mother was a bookkeeper. Roe took piano lessons from the age of six with Madam Dorina and began writing music and arrangements in her teens during World War II when she assisted with choirs at the local church. She studied piano with Fiona Addie, Muriel Dale, and Sadie MacCormack, and cello with Alison Dalrymple at the Royal Academy of Music, but left school in 1947 and took a job as a filing clerk. She continued at the Royal Academy in 1949, studying piano with York Bowen, cello with Alison Dalrymple, and voice with Jean McKenzie-Grieve. She continued her study of singing with Clive Carey, Roy Hickman, Peter van der Stolk, and Margaret Field-Hyde, and studied composition with Lennox Berkeley. In the 1950s she became involved with a drama group where she began writing for musicals. She also worked as a sessions singer with London ensembles.

Roe married John Bishop and had three children. She was Director of Music at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1968–78, and founded Thames Publishing with her husband in 1970.  After his death in 2000 Thames Publishing became a division of William Elkin Music Services.

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The Fair Singer bt Betty Roe 

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ELISENDA FÁBREGAS - SPAIN
BORN 30 JULY   

Spanish/American composer Elisenda Fábregas has been praised for writing with an “imaginatively colored … idiom” (The New York Times) and for possessing an “individuality [which] shows through in yearning dissonances, quirky juxtapositions of thematic material and a pervasive sensuality not unlike that of her native Barcelona” (San Antonio Express News). Fabregas’s music has been described as “complex and haunting” (The Washington Post) with abundant “expressive long lines and gorgeous lyricism”(NATS Journal), and for having “an emotionally compelling aura” (The New Mexican News) and a “marvelous sense of progression and development” (American Music Teacher Magazine). In occasion of winning the MTNA Shepherd Distinguished Composer Award in the year 2000, the American Teacher Magazine praised Fábregas for writing with a unique perspective comparing her to the “The Man with a Blue Guitar” (1937) in the Wallace Stevens’s poem:“Fabregas is one gifted with a blue guitar. Her tunes are beyond us, yet ourselves. Indeed they are tunes of things exactly as they are.” Fábregas music covers a wide range of states, from “dreamlike images … and illusive rhythms and harmonies that permeate misty settings” [as in the piano solo ‘Hommage a Mozart,‘] to music described as “notable in its sturdy and arresting generative themes” with “motoric, muscular, exciting fast movements” (San Antonio Express News.).

In the last five years, Elisenda has focused her energies on writing for orchestra. Accents Catalans (2016) for orchestra, commissioned by the Bucheon Philharmonic and premiered by maestro Youngmin Park at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall as part of the Orchestra Festival at SAC on April 10 of 2016; an additional performance took place at Bucheon’s Citizen Hall in Bucheon, South Korea, on September 30, 2016. Elisenda’s working relationship with the Bucheon Philharmonic continues with a new commission to write an orchestral song cycle, Somnis desperts, based on Catalan poetry by J.V. Foix.

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Voces de mi Terra by Elisenda Fábregas

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20 JUNE 2019

SONIA MEGÍAS - SPAIN 
BORN 20 JUNE

Sonia Megías in her own words: 

I was born in Almansa (Albacete, Spain) on June 20th 1982, and I’m immersed in arts and music since I have memory. Thanks to them, to the arts,I can accomplish the mission of connecting people with actions and elements of nature and daily life by sublimating these, and also the goal of bringing the music written by living composers out of the regular elite. And thanks to the support that I receive, not only from my family and friends but also from private patrons and public institutions, I can work in what I love.

Some of those institutions are the Ministry of Culture of Spain, the artists residency Casa de Velázquez (Madrid), the National Orchestra of Jazz of Spain (Madrid), Doce Notas music & dance magazine (Madrid), Gruñidos Salvajes cultural association (Madrid), Fundación Entredós (Madrid), Associazione Nuova Consonanza (Roma), I-Park artists residency (Connecticut, EEUU), Cervantes Institute of New York, United Nations, Erasmus Foundation (for cultural interchange among European countries), Fulbright Commission (for cultural interchange between the USA and the rest of the countries), or New York University, among others.

My music has been performed in different music halls and festivals, underlining the following: Auditorio 400 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art “Queen Sophia” (2012, 2008); Cervantes Institute of New York (2012, 2011); Houston University, at Opera Vista Festival (2011); Consulate of Argentina in New York, at a Tribute to Alfonsina Storni (2009); Embassy of France in Spain (2009); United Nations Headquarters (2008); Carlos Arniches theater, at Festival de Música Contemporánea de Alicante (2009); Corral de Comedias in Almagro, at XXXII Festival de Teatro Clásico; City Museum of Aosta (Italy), at Festival de Cinema Muto Musicato dal Vivo (2005); Town Hall of St. Médard en Jalles (Bordeaux, France), at I Festival des Jeunes Musiciens Européens (2004).

Some of the teachers that have guided my current work are Karlheinz Stockhausen, Juan Mª Solare, Julia Wolfe, Phill Niblock, Esther Ferrer, Arturo Moya or María de Alvear. I live in Madrid since 2012, where I compose, conduct, and invent several creative projects.

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Três pequeñas piezas Nelson Bennet  

➺ Sonia Megías' Website

ANNACHIARA GEDDA - ITALY

BORN 20 JUNE

She studied composition at the Turin Conservatory first with Alessandro Ruo Rui and subsequently with Giorgio Colombo Taccani. In 2012 she graduated with top marks in composition and in 2015 she took a Master’s Degree in composition cum laude.

In 2012 she was chosen to participate in the European Composers’ Professional Development Programme, and was commissioned to write a piece for the Ensemble 10/10 (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) with the final concert at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2012. In 2013 she won the European Project Progetto ECO 2013-2015, and a further commission of a new work for ensemble, which was performed by Ensemble Télémaque in various concerts in Italy and France.

Winner or special mention in several national and international composition competitions (Musica e Spazi – Turin 2010, G.E.R.M.I. Prize – Rome 2012, European Composers’ Professional Development Programme – Huddersfield 2012, Premio AFAM – Milan 2013, Progetto ECO 2013-2015 – Marseille 2013, Musiche in Mostra – Turin 2013, International Composition Competiton Antonio Manoni – Senigallia 2013, International Composition Competiton for orchestra A. Rizzardi – Brescia 2014, International Composition Competiton Città di Udine – Udine 2014, International Composition Competition Egidio Carella – Val Tidone 2014, Risuonanze – Trieste 2015, Premio Veretti – Fiesole 2015, Premio Atzeni – Cagliari 2015, New Made Week – Milan 2015, Arte e Fantasia – Favria 2016, International Composition Competition Valentino Bucchi – Rome 2017, Toru Takemitsu Composition Award 2017 – Tokyo 2017), her works have been performed in Italy and abroad (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan), during various important music festivals and seasons such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Biennale di Venezia (IT), Gmem Festival les Musiques (FR), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Season (UK), Festival Suona Francese (IT), Rondò Concerti (IT), by musicians such as Ensemble 10/10 (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra), Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Télémaque, Ensemble TaG, NED Ensemble, Interensemble, Akiko Kozato, Valentino Corvino, Raphael Negri and Duo Del Noce – Pieri, to mention but a few.

Her piece The Witching Time of the Night, for solo violin, is published by Edizioni Musicali Bèrben, Un éclair…puis la nuit! , for solo guitar, is published by Zedde Editore, Ich rinne Ich bin, for soprano and ensemble is being published by Universal Edition while other works are published by Edizioni Sconfinarte. 

Currently she is the winner of the following scholarship: Master dei Talenti Musicali, Fondazione CRT – Conservatorio Statale di Musica G. Verdi di Torino.

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Hush by Annachiara Gedda 

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29 APRIL 2019

MARGARIDA ORFILA - SPAIN

DIED 29 APRIL

Margarida Orfila Tudurí was a Spanish composer, pianist and music teacher. 

As a child, his family moved to Barcelona. He studied in Barcelona the Municipal Music School of Barcelona with Antoni Nicolau, Joan Lamote de Grignon and Lluís Millet (theory) and Eusebi Daniel and Carles Pellicer (piano). She won the prize for the last year's solemn trials in 1904 and in 1909 she became the first woman to finish the studies of counterpoint and flight of the School with the qualification of "Outstanding." 

She completed his training with Enric Granados, and worked as a pianist until 1913, when she married a fellow professor, Frederic Alfonso and Ferrer. In 1907 she was admitted to the School as an auxiliary lecturer in theory and theory, and she was a teacher for more than fifty years. Her sister Carme, an excellent violinist, also taught her.

As a composer, she left an important collection of pieces for piano, violin, orchestra and voice, which premiered the Catalan and Gracienc orphans. In 1934 the Patxot foundation granted her, ex aequo with Xavier Montsalvatge, the prestigious "Concepció Rabell" prize.

With her husband, Frederic Alfonso, professor and director of the Municipal Music School of Barcelona, ​​Margarida had five children: Frederic, lawyer and poet; Margarida, pianist, composer and music teacher; Joan, violinist and composer; Francisco, cellist; and Carme, a singer.

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Scherzo by Margarida Orfila

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CLAUDIA SESSA - ITALY

Claudia Sessa (c. 1570 – c. 1617/19) was an Italian composer. She was born into the (de) Sessa family, a patrician clan of the Milanese aristocracy. A nun at the convent of S. Maria Annunciata, she composed two sacred works published in 1613. The dates of her birth and death are uncertain.

Claudia Sessa spent her life as a nun in the Santa Maria Annunciata convent in Milan, Italy, but little else is known about her life. Despite restrictions imposed by the Council of Trent barring certain types of music making in convents, Sessa modestly and continuously sang and composed in Santa Maria Annunciata to a full audience. She accompanied others on various instruments with wondrous harmonies. She was “...spirited in her voice, alert and quick in her trills, full of affects." A skilled musician and actress who was quite adept at performing compositions written by others, Sessa remained modest about her talents. She could not even be swayed by an invitation from Queen Margaret to perform at the Spanish court because she preferred the monastery as her only performance venue. Sessa is best known for her two sacred songs, written in the monodic style.

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Occhi io vissi di voi by Claudia Sessa

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22 APRIL 2019

 

MELISSA HUI - HONG KONG

BORN 22 APRIL 

Melissa Hui was born in Hong Kong and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She received her doctorate from Yale University and masters degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Her mentors include Mel Powell, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Morton Subotnick and Earl Kim.

Initially inspired by the haunting music of the African pygmies and Japanese gagaku court orchestra, she strives to create a personal music of ethereal beauty, intimate lyricism, and raucous violence. 

Her commissions include works for the Oregon Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, New Millennium Ensemble and Essential Music (NYC), Ensemble Antipodes (Switzerland), Dogs of Desire (of Albany Symphony), Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal), Melody of China/Citywinds (San Francisco), Tapestry New Opera Works, and a soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square.

She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Aaron Copland Fund, Meet the Composer, Opera.ca, ASCAP and Canada Council. Melissa won the Grand Prize of the CBC Young Composers' Competition and du Maurier/WSO Canadian Composers Competition, first prizes at SOCAN and ProCAN competitions, and was a finalist of the International Gaudeamus Music Competition. Her works are recorded on CRI, UMMUS, Santa Fe New Music, Centredisc, and Nisapa. Her most recent CD of solo and chamber works, And blue sparks burn, was released by Centredisc in 2006. 

Current projects include commissioned works for Ensemble Sospeso (NYC) and an oratorio based on a Cree myth with librettist Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada.

Now living in Montreal, she was a member of the composition faculty at Stanford University from 1994-2004.

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And Blue Sparks burn by Melissa Hui 

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MARIA TERESA PRIETO - SPAIN   

BORN 22 APRIL

María Teresa Prieto was a Spanish composer who lived and worked in Mexico. She was born in Oviedo in 1896 to a middle-class Asturian family. She studied with pianist and composer Saturnino del Fresno in Asturias and Benito de la Parra at the Conservatory of Madrid. She went to stay with her brother Carlos in Mexico in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War where she studied with Manuel Ponce and Carlos Chavez. She also studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1946 and 1947. She returned to Spain briefly in 1958 to receive the Samuel Ross prize for Modal Quartet, but never returned to live there.

Prieto's music was often based on folklore.

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Adagio e Fuga by María Teresa Prieto

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8 APRIL 2019

IRIS LITCHFIELD - UK
BORN 8 APRIL

Iris Litchfield was a mathematician turned composer and possessed a First Class Honours degree in mathematics from London University. She started playing the piano at the age of 5, back in the day when music teachers used to hit the hands of students every time a wrong note was played! In spite of this, Iris passed all the practical exams for the piano and clarinet. 

With her attention turned to composition in retirement, Iris wrote beautiful and timeless contemporary classical piano music. In addition to her compositions released by Salvatori Productions, Iris had music released on CDs in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Holland and Korea. She also had a contract to compose for Northstar Music, UK. 

In her award winning work published by Salvatori Productions, Inc. the Steinway grand piano tracks featured on “Ever Ever On”, “When Evening Falls” and “Romantic Interludes” were recorded at Doz Studio, UK by (late) engineer Ollie Nicholls.  The piano tracks on “The Silence of My Being”, “Dream Clouds” and “Life’s Journey” were recorded at Clowns Pocket Recording Studio, Bexley, Kent, UK by engineer Derek Nash.

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Autumn Colours by Iris Litchfield

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ROSA GARCÍA ASCOT - SPAIN 

BORN 8 APRIL

Rosa García Ascot was a Spanish composer and pianist. From 1914 she began his musical studies at the hands of outstanding teachers such as Felipe Pedrell and Enrique Granados, which was a student until 1916. That same year she began to study with Manuel de Falla. Cadiz teacher was her teacher until 1931 and taught her to appreciate the work of the classical and Impressionist music. Later, during his stay in Paris in 1939, she received lessons from the composer Nadia Boulanger.

She was the only woman in the famed Group of Eight, whose members also included Julián Bautista, Ernesto Halffter and his brother Rodolfo, Juan José Mantecón, Fernando Remacha, Salvador Bacarisse and Jesús Bal y Gay. She married Bal y Gay in 1933. Her more notable compositions include Suite para orquesta (Suite for orchestra), Preludio (Prelude), and the Concierto para piano y orquesta (Concerto for piano and orchestra).

García Ascot was a remarkable interpreter of the piano literature of failure. He/She was responsible for brand new, next to the composer, the version for piano four-hands of nights in the gardens of Spain in the room Paris Gaveaux, and during his stay in England, France and Mexico, took to give recitals by several cities of these countries.

García Ascot was an exponent of Manuel de Falla's music as a concert pianist and is also considered the latter's last disciple. Before studying with de Falla in Madrid, she was a pupil of Felipe Pedrell, and later studied with Enrique Granados. She spent 10 years in the early part of her career actively touring as a concert soloist and recitalist. Afterwards, her public concerts were relatively few and always in very special circumstances. She died almost a month after her 100th birthday.

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Suite de Rosa García Ascot

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