3 APRIL 2019

KIM HEDÅS - SWEDEN
BORN 3 APRIL

Kim Hedås studied composition and EAM at Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1991-97 with Pär Lindgren as her head teacher. In 1998–2000 she was composer in residence at Swedish Radio P2 and wrote, among other works, Diorama for the Swedish Radio Symphony orchestra. Hedås started to write almost only EAM but nowadays her production is more varied and includes orchestra, chamber and choir music. In 1994 her electro acoustic work Good Morning, Love - It's Springtime In My Heart! was awarded with Grand prix internationaux de musique electracoustique in Bourges, France. She also received an honourable mention at Stockholm Electronic Arts Award, the same year. In 2002 her children's opera Junker Nils av Eka was premiered at the Gothenburg's Opera with text by Astrid Lindgren. For the opening of Vara concert hall in 2003, Hedås composed Vindla for Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. 

She has also written for soloists such as Helen Jahren, Fredrik Ullén, Anita Agnas, the percussion ensemble Kroumata and the chamber ensemble Pärlor for Svin. Her music has been performed in numerous countries. In the late 80's Hedås made two shows with Swedish author/actor Jonas Gardell, Kim å Jonas klang- och jubelkavalkad, 1988, and Kim å Jonas går igen,1989. Since the 80's she has also written music for several theaters, for example for the city theatres in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and for Riksteatern, Dramaten, and Swedish Television. Her piece Princess Bat with the Underground Stars was commissioned by the Canadian record label Diffusion in MedDIA and was released on two of their records. In 2011 Hedås collaborated with artist Petra Gripp on a composed sculptural composition, an installation at Kivik Art Centre in Österlen, Sweden.

♫ LISTEN

Signs by Kim Hedås

► KIM HEDÅS' WEBSITE 

ELISABETTA BRUSA - ITALY 

BORN 3 APRIL

Defined as “a brilliant Anglo/Italian composer with a meticulous sense of orchestral colour and appealingly lyric gifts”, Elisabetta Brusa is a pioneer of a growing number of modern composers who have elected to write music in a tonal style that communicates with the public, while avoiding some of the clichés that so often lie in wait. Her idiom is always fresh and her music covers a wide range of expressions.

The third volume of orchestral works released in March 2015 on the Naxos label features her Symphony No. 1 and Merlin – Symphonic Poem, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

The first two volumes of her orchestral works were recorded and released in 2002 also on the Naxos label with 11 works for small and large orchestra performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo. Both CDs were received with glowing reviews [When so much “new” music is merely a collection of scrapes and blasts or a series of computer-generated shrieks and blips, it is a completely refreshing surprise to come across a composer who can write for an orchestra with an original voice that is worth hearing. Such a voice is that of Italian born Elisabetta Brusa. Educated in Milan, London and the United States Ms. Brusa is an inspired composer who has found some interesting things to say through the medium of the traditional orchestra.

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Simply Largo by Elisabetta Brusa

► ELISABETTA BRUSA'S WEBSITE 

29 MARCH 2019

ROSANNA SCALFI MARCELLO - ITALY  

Rosanna Scalfi was a gondola singer of Venetian arie di battello, and was taken as a singing student by Italian nobleman, magistrate, writer, and composer Benedetto Marcello about 1723. The two were secretly wed in a religious ceremony on 20 May 1728, when she was twenty-four years old.However, this marriage to a commoner was unlawful and they never completed the civil requirements. After Marcello died of tuberculosis in 1739, the marriage was declared null by the state, and Rosanna was unable to inherit his estate. Left destitute, she filed suit in 1742 against Benedetto's brother Alessandro Marcello, seeking financial support, but her claims were rejected. She appeared as Arbace in Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli’s Artaserse at St. Salvatore during the Ascension season that same year.

She composed twelve cantatas for alto and basso continuo, writing most if not all of the texts, as well.The manuscript volume, Twelve Cantatas for Alto Voice and Basso Continuo (ca. 1730), has been published in modern edition by Deborah Hayes and John Glenn Paton (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan Editions, 2012). The editors' preface includes a biography of the composer, notes on the cantata lyrics and music, and guidelines for performance. The edition also contains continuo realizations, poetic rendering of the lyrics in Italian, and English translation.

 
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Cantata In questo giorno by Rosanna Scalfi Marcello 

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SARA WENNERBERG-REUTER - SWEDEN    

DIED 29 MARCH

Sara Margaret Eugenia Eufrosyne Wennerberg-Reuter was born 11 February 1875 in Otterstad, Västergötland, and died 29 March 1959 in Stockholm. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm 1893−95, at the conservatory in Leipzig 1896−98, and at the Music Conservatory in Berlin 1901−02. 1906−46 she was the organist at Sofia Church in Stockholm (with a permanent position from 1918). In 1921 Sara Wennerberg-Reuter was elected to the Society of Swedish Composers and in 1931 she was awarded the royal medal Litteris et artibus.

Sara Wennerberg-Reuter’s major works show influences of, not least, her teacher Max Bruch. Like him, she witnessed the style they both represented become obsolete with the passage of time. Despite her conservativeness, she seems to have taken this with equanimity: ‘I write old-fashioned music!’ In an article from 1916, without naming any names, she clearly distances herself from contemporary late romaticism and expressionism, retaining the ideals from her youth throughout her whole life.

Sara Wennerberg-Reuter was at her finest when she composed solo songs, choral music and men’s quartets, although sometimes her choice of lyrics appears to be somewhat problematic. She often wrote music to lyrics written by her personal acquaintances − one cannot escape the reality that their poetry was not always of high caliber.

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Motett, "Stilla komme och välkomna vare dagens slut och lön by Sara Wennerberg-Reuter

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28 MARCH 2019

KATHARINE PARKER - AUSTRALIA

BORN 28 MARCH

Katharine Parker was an Australian composer, perhaps best known for her piano piece "Down Longford Way". She was also an accomplished pianist and accompanist.

Kitty Parker was born 'Catherine Parker' at 'Parknook'Lake River, near Longford, Tasmania. Her mother was Florence Agnes Parker [née Leary]; her father was Ernest James Rainey Parker. Florence was a superb pianist and gave many concerts. She made sure her daughters were musically trained. Kitty was the most successfully renowned. From 1904 to 1906 she studied for a diploma in Music in Melbourne. At the inaugural Australian Exhibition of Women's Work she won the Piano Solo Gold Medal. She travelled to London to study with Percy Grainger, who had very high praise for her work and kept in touch with her for many years.

Through Grainger, she met the English tenor Hubert Mortimer Eisdell, whom she married on 16 June 1910 at St Mark's Church, Hamilton Terrace, London. They had one son Michael (1912-1986). In 1911 she made her London concert début as a soloist. 

Her work consists mainly of songs for voice and piano and solo piano works. At least one of the latter (Nocturne in F-sharp minor) was published under the name "Kitty Parker".

 
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Arc-en-ciel by Katharine Parker 

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KARIN  HÖGHIELM - SWEDEN    

BORN 28 MARCH

Karin Höghielm was born and raised on Gotland and is a Swedish composer and singer. Studies in composition, different vocal techniques, classical piano, cello and flute. 

She have written several works for choir, soloinstruments, organ and chamber ensembles and her works has been performed in Sweden, Europe and USA by leading ensembles.

As a singer she is strongly influenced by classical singing and folk music, using wordless singing to latin, old nordic, sumerian and coptic and of course english and gotlandish (old swedish accent from Gotland).

Karin is also playing wineglass, bells, bone-flute, lyre, percussion and dulcimer.

She has recorded several CD:s in not so classical environment for chamber ensemble. She has also written music for art works, theatre, film, opera and dance. Her music is mostly tonal with strong melodies, often inspired by nature, different cultures and Early music and she is often using self-recorded sounds from nature, knitting machines in Norköping, Falu mine bell, Halla Church bell and scrap irons in her compositions.

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Så som det susar i säven by Karin Höghielm

► KARIN HÖGHIELM'S WEBSITE 

25 MARCH 2019

TEBOGO MONNAKGOTLA - SWEDEN 

BORN 25 MARCH

Tebogo Monnakgotla was born and raised in Uppsala. At the age of ten, Tebogo started to play the cello in the town music school. 1994 she started to study composing and cello-playing at Piteå college of music, in 1999 continuing her studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, were she finished her postgraduate diploma studies in 2006.

Tebogo Monnakgotla has composed mostly for orchestra and chamber-ensemble but has lately been focusing on opera, with a recent piece - Jean-Joseph - for the Royal Opera in Stockholm and other stage works in progress with, amongst others, Swedish poet Athena Farrokzhad. Monnakgotla is currently writing a piece for baritone Luthando Qave and The Swedish Chamber Orchestra, which will be premiered at Örebro Concert hall the 3rd of March 2018.

Tebogo is especially fond of using poetry in her music and this has led to a longer co-operation with poet Li Li. She also worked with poetry by, Oliveira Silveira, late Malagasies poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and others.

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Endings by Tebogo Monnakgotla

► TEBOKO MONNAKGOTLA'S WEBSITE 

JULIA AMANDA PERRY - USA
BORN 25 MARCH

Julia Amanda Perry was a prolific composer of neoclassical music during her relatively brief life. Born on March 25, 1924 in Lexington Kentucky, she spent most of her early years in Akron, Ohio. Her father, Dr. Abe Perry, was a doctor and amateur pianist, who once accompanied the tenor Roland Hayes on tour. Her mother, America Perry, encouraged her children’s musical endeavors; both Julia and her sisters studied violin from a young age, Julia switched to the piano after two years of violin.

Upon graduating from Akron High School, Perry attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey from 1943 to 1948, where she graduated with a bachelors and masters in music. Her master’s thesis, Chicago, inspired by the poetry of Carl Sandberg, was a secular cantata for baritone, narrator, mixed voices, and orchestra. She continued her musical training at the Julliard School of Music and she also spent summers at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. Her first major composition, the Stabat Mater, appeared in 1951. Three years later in 1954 her opera, The Cask of Amontillado, was first staged at Columbia University. She also wrote Homage to Vivaldi for performance by symphony orchestras.

By the late 1960s her works had received wide acclaim and were performed by the New York Philharmonic and other major orchestras. The classical record label, Composers Recordings, released several of her compositions in 1969; she also won awards and accolades from the National Association of Negro Musicians, the Boulanger Grand Prix, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, among others.

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Study for Orchestra by Julia Amanda Perry 

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12 MARCH 2019

ALICE CHARLOTTA TEGNÉR - SWEDEN   

BORN 12 MARCH 

Alice Charlotta Tegnér was a Swedish music teacher, poet and composer. She was recognised as a foremost composer of Swedish children's songs during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Born Alice Sandström in Karlshamn, Sweden, she was the daughter of Eduard Sandström (1829–1879), a ship captain. She was very musical and began taking piano lessons early. She attended seminars in Stockholm (Högre lärarinneseminariet) and trained as a teacher. After graduation, she served as governess. Alice Tegnér was a teacher at Djursholms samskola and cantor in Djursholms chapel where Natanael Beskow was a preacher.

In 1885 she married Jakob Tegnér (1851–1926). Jakob Tegnér was a lawyer, and later secretary of the Swedish Publishers' Association and editor of Svenska Bokhandelstidningen.

Alice Tegnér wrote many well-known children's songs in Swedish, most notably Mors lilla Olle. It was published during 1895 in volume 3 of Sjung med oss, mamma!.

In addition to children's songs, Alice Tegnér wrote many other types of music in classical genres such as chamber and sacred music together with choral music, cantatas, cello and violin sonatas. Her songs and compositions were inspired by both folk and art music. Her well-known hymnbook Nu ska vi sjunga, with illustrations by Elsa Beskow, was published in 1943.

♫ LISTEN

Violin Sonata in A minor by Alice Tegnér

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GLORIA WILSON SWISHER - USA   

BORN 12 MARCH

Gloria Wilson Swisher (born 1935) is an American composer, music educator and pianist.

Gloria Wilson Swisher was born in Seattle, Washington. She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where she received a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, Mills College in Oakland, California, where she earned a Master of Music in composition and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1960. She studied composition under John Verrall, Darius Milhaud, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson. She is a member of The International Association of Women in Music, the Darius Milhaud Society and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. She was awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American prize for her composition Salutations for oboe and piano. Swisher was the subject of a 2009 University of Washington dissertation, The choral music of Gloria Wilson Swisher, by Robert Bigley.

Swisher has taught at Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Shoreline Community College (1969–1998) in Seattle, and the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a Professor Emerita of Music at Shoreline Community College, and often performs as a duo pianist with Nancy Matesky. She is a founding member of Ars Nova Press, Inc., a non-profit corporation that promotes and reprints the work of quality composers.

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Clarinet Concerto - 2nd Movement by Gloria Swisher   

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1 MARCH 2019

LAURA NETZEL - FINLAND 
BORN 1 MARCH 

Laura Constance Netzel (née Pistolekors), b. 1 March 1839 in Rantasalmi, Finland, d. 10 February 1927, Stockholm, grew up in Stockholm and was both pianist and composer (from 1874 onwards using the sobriquet ‘Lago’). She studied composition under Wilhelm Heintze in Stockholm and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris. For many years she also worked as a concert arranger and orchestral director. Most of her compositions are in late Romantic, chromatic style, with touches of contemporary French music, and her work received coverage not least in French music journals.

Netzel was active in social causes, including support for poor women, children and workers. In 1866 she married professor Wilhelm Netzel of the Karolinska Institute. She died in Stockholm.

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Cello Sonata in E minor Op. 66 by Laura Netzel

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LAURA KARPMAN - USA
BORN 1 MARCH  

Four-time Emmy winning composer and composer of the Grammy-winning album ASK YOUR MAMA, Laura Karpman maintains a vibrant career in film, television, videogame and concert music. Her distinguished credits include the series UNDERGROUND, in collaboration with Raphael Saadiq and John Legend, STEP, a Sundance 2017 favorite, Eleanor Coppola’s PARIS CAN WAIT starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin, Kasi Lemmons’ BLACK NATIVITY starring Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker, Steven Spielberg’s miniseries TAKEN, the Showtime series ODYSSEY 5, and MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION for which she received Emmy nominations. She contributed to Sophia Coppola’s 2017 THE BEGUILED.

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, she collaborated with soprano Jessye Norman and The Roots on ASK YOUR MAMA, a multimedia opera on a text by Langston Hughes, which received its sold out premiere at Carnegie Hall in March 2009, and its West Coast premiere at The Hollywood Bowl and was revived at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Laura has been commissioned by the Glimmerglass Festival and is developing an opera BALLS, a collaboration with NY Times columnist Gail Collins, with Yuval Sharon’s The Industry.

♫ LISTEN

Scatt 1: Dream Boggie by Laura Karpman

►LAURA KARPMAN'S WEBSITE

25 FEBRUARY 2019

DOROTHY HOWELL - UK   

BORN 25 FEBRUARY

Dorothy Howell was an exceptional British musician, who composed over 130 pieces during her lifetime. Dorothy was born in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1898. Her five siblings were all musical, and their father, an ironmaster by trade, was a self-taught pianist, who became the Musical Director at their local church. Dorothy’s mother was also musical, an accomplished violinist & soprano. The family used to spend time singing and playing together.

In 1919 Dorothy got her big break. After her first piano recital was particularly well received, a symphonic poem she had written called Lamia, inspired by the Keats poem of the same name, was chosen by Sir Joseph Henry Wood to be played at The Proms! It was performed to great acclaim, and after the initial performance, it was performed four more times. In subsequent years at The Proms Lamia was performed a total of nine times between 1919 and 1940.

As well as her career composing and teaching at RAM, she also taught around the UK, including in her home town at the Birmingham School of Music, and even produced her own training manuals. Her pupils describe her as a wonderful, warm, teacher.

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Piano Concert in D minor by Dorothy Howell

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ANNA CEDERBERG-ORRETEG - SWEDEN  
BORN 25 FEBRUARY

Anna Cederberg-Orreteg, composer and music teacher, born in Stockholm/Sweden 1958. She has a degree from Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Cederberg-Orreteg divides her work between being a composer and as a music teacher in Adolf Fredrik/Farsta, Stockholm.

Her compositions for children and youth choir are widely spread and often used and also her arrangements in pop/jazz style for the amateur ensemble. For professional choir she’s written ”Memories Look at Me” (T. Tranströmer) and ”Sonnet 8 - Music to Hear” (W. Shakespeare) just to mention a few.

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Skisser til Aftonland by Anna Cederberg-Orreteg

►ANNA CEDERGERG-ORRETEG'S WEBSITE

20 FEBRUARY 2019

AMANDA RÖNTGEN-MAIER - SWEDEN 

BORN 19 FEBRUARY

Amanda Röntgen-Maier (19 February 1853 – 15 July 1894) was a Swedish violinist and composer. She was the first female graduate in music direction from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1872.

Maier performed violin concerts in both Sweden and abroad. She continued to study composition with the conservatory teachers Reinecke and Richter in Leipzig and violin from Engelbert Röntgen, concert master at Gewandhaus Orchestra in the same city. During this time she composed a violin sonata, a piano trio and a violin concerto for orchestra. Her violin concerto was premiered in 1875 with Maier as soloist and received good reviews.

In Leipzig she met the German-Dutch pianist and composer Julius Röntgen (1855–1932), her violin teacher's son. The couple married in 1880 in Landskrona and moved to Amsterdam. The marriage ended Amanda's public appearances, but she continued composing, and the couple arranged musical salons and music performances in Europe of Rubinstein, Joachim and Brahms.

In 1887 Röntgen-Maier became ill with tuberculosis. During her illness, the couple stayed in Nice and Davos. Her final major composition was the piano quartet in E minor on a trip to Norway in 1891. She died in 1894 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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Violin Sonata III Movement by Amanda Röntgen-Maier

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DANIELLE BAAS - BELGIUM 
BORN 19 FEBRUARY 

Danielle Baas is a Belgian composer of Dutch origin. After her childhood in Africa, she attended the Jette’s school of music and carried on her studies at the Brussels’ Royal Academy of Music. Always fascinated by creating, she won a fourth prize at an international composition contest in the USA in 1997, as well as a composition contest for carillon.

Her works have been performed in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Bosnia, Spain, Germany, Tunisia, Brazil, China, Russia and the US. In 2001 she created the Mikrokosmos Ensemble aimed at promoting the creating of contemporary works and founded in 2005 the contemporary music Festival Emergence in Brussels. In 2004, the Ensemble receives the Fuga Award for the promotion of Belgian Musical Repertory. In 2005, she organizes a Belgian Contemporary Music festival, chamber music concerts in presence of the composers, the Festival Emergence. 

In 2010-2011, she organized concerts of women music based on the topic of ‘Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt’. In 2013, the Festival Osmose. Prix Fuga 2015 (personal Award).

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Goethe's Tribute by Danielle Baas

►DANIELLE BAASS' WEBSITE