6 JULY 2019

NANCY DALBERG - DENMARK 
BORN 6 JULY

Nancy Dalberg was a Danish composer. She grew up on the Danish island of Funen (Fyn) where she learned to play the piano. Her father, a well-off industrialist, refused her wish to study at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. In the end she took up composition because of medical issues that affected her arm. She had private composition lessons with Johan Svendsen, Fini Henriques and Carl Nielsen. Her output was not particularly large and most of her works were written between 1914 and 1935. Her compositions include around 40 songs, orchestral music and chamber works. She was the first Danish woman composer to write a symphony. It was premiered to critical acclaim although it was noted with surprise and perhaps a touch of condescension that Dalberg was a woman. The two strongest influences that can be heard in her music are those of Svendsen and Nielsen although she writes entirely with her own voice.

Her chamber music has received the most attention and one of her three string quartets, her Second String Quartet in G minor, Op.14 has entered the repertoire of many Scandinavian ensembles and was recorded on a Dacapo CD in 1999. (Dacapo 8.224138) The parts and score to this work were republished by Edition Silvertrust in June 2007.

Writing of Dalberg's String Quartet No.2 in Walter Willson Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Wilhelm Altmann, one of the most respected chamber music critics, states:

“Nancy Dalberg published this work without giving her forename, and, had I not learned by chance that it was composed by a woman, considering also the austerity and native strength of her music, it would never have occurred to me that it was a woman speaking to us. Her mastery of the technique of composition is remarkable, and she has something definite to say.”

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Capriccio by Nancy Dalberg  

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MARIA HOFFER - AUSTRIA   

BORN 6 JULY

Maria Hofer was a renowned organist, pianist and composer. The daughter of an accomplished female singer, she was born in Amstetten, Lower Austria. Already as a child she was learning the organ, and within a few years was permitted to participate in church services as organist.

Maria Hofer’s later musical education took place at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she studied piano teaching. She also began an organ study, but soon resigned because she did not get along with her teacher. According to Maria Hofer's Curriculum Vitae written in 1966/1967 and other auto/biographical documents her tutors included Franz Schmidt, Hermann Graedener, Ernst Ludwig, and Richard Stöhr. Her ability to improvise at the organ was fostered by the organist of St. Stephan's Cathedral, Victor Boschetti; she began to compose in earnest during the First World War.

One of Maria Hofer's non-performing roles was to advise the Viennese publishing-house Universal Edition about organ works; she herself described the post as important for her musical development, since it brought her into contact with many prominent artistic figures, including Maurice Ravel, Alexander Zemlinsky, Darius Milhaud, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Alfredo Casella, Alma Mahler, Franz Werfel, and Stefan Zweig.

Universal Edition also published some of her compositions, including the 'Toccata für Orgel' (1937). This work was dedicated to the composer's long-time friend, Yella Hertzka, the wife of UE's director Emil Hertzka and an active feminist. Between 1926 and 1938, in fact, Maria Hofer lived in the house of the Hertzkas. Yella Hertzka was also a leading member of the Austrian branch and the international executive committee of the 'Women's International League for Peace and Freedom' (WILPF), which Maria Hofer joined at Friederike Zweig-Winternitz's suggestion, and for which she created a 'peace anthem' in 1925.

After end of war Maria Hofer’s work got the deserved appreciation: Contract compositions, concerts, radio broadcastings and publications contributed to the distribution of her works.

Influenced by the personality of Maria Hofer, an active musical life developed in Kitzbühel during the two decades after 1945. For the glockenspiel the composer had initiated, she wrote a number of pieces. With these works in numerous concerts, alternating with organ concerts, she addressed the native as well as the foreign audience. A multitude of liturgical compositions and church service on the organ for decades complete the picture of this exceptional woman.

Absolutely impoverished and disappointed, Maria Hofer distanced herself especially from her early works and shortly before her death destroyed many of her compositions.

A comprehensive appraisal of the compositional work of Maria Hofer is difficult because of the only fragmentary tradition. The Toccata for Organ is one of the few completely passed down compositions for this instrument. The completion of fragments, for example an organ fugue over the theme of the Andreas Hofer song, is intended.

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Balada for cello and piano by Maria Hoffer 

5 JULY 2019

ANGÉLICA NEGRÓN - PUERTO RICO 
BORN 5 JULY

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”. Angélica has been commissioned by the Albany Symphony, Bang on a Can All-Stars, A Far Cry, MATA Festival, loadbang, The Playground Ensemble and the American Composers Orchestra, among others. Her music has been performed at the Kennedy Center, the Ecstatic Music Festival, EMPAC, Bang on a Can Marathon and the 2016 New York Philharmonic Biennial and her film scores have been heard numerous times at the Tribeca Film Festival. She has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, The Knights, Face the Music and NOVUS NY, among others and is a founding member of the electronic indie band Balún. Angélica is currently a doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studies composition with Tania León and focuses on the work of Meredith Monk for her dissertation. 

She's a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program and Lincoln Center Education working with learners of all ages on creative composition projects. Angélica is currently an artist in residency at National Sawdust working on a lip sync opera titled Chimera for drag queen performers and chamber ensemble exploring the ideas of fantasy and illusion as well as the intricacies and complexities of identity. She is the composer in residence for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2018-2019 season.

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Gone by Angélica Negrón 

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ADELAIDE PEREIRA DA SILVA - BRAZIL    

BORN 5 JULY

Adelaide Pereira da Silva was born in Sao Paulo. She started studying piano with her mother from an early age, and later with Nair de Souza. She became a well-accomplished pianist, when she took advanced interpretation classes with Professor Hans Bruch. According to the renowned pianist Gilberto Tinetti, she was one of Bruch's most talented students (along with Isolde Bass - Bruch's wife - , Gilberto Tinetti himself, Rudolf Frisch, Elisa Capocchi, Arnaldo Antunes, Maria Elisa Figueiredo, and Roberto Delollio). In her thesis as well as in an article about Adelaide Pereira da Silva's compositions, Maria Mati Sakamoto quotes Gilberto Tinetti, who referred to Prof. Pereira da Silva's "exuberant sonority" as a pianist.

Initially, Adelaide Pereira da Silva studied composition with Dinorah de Carvalho and Osvaldo Lacerda. Later, she was Camargo Guarnieri's student, and became one of the major figures of his composition school, along with famous composers such as Osvaldo Lacerda himself, Almeida Prado, Sérgio Vasconcelos Correia, Nilson Lombardi, Lina Pires de Campos and Kilza Setti. She began working as a music teacher in 1960, and was also a Professor at Santa Marcelina College and Belas Artes College. She composed a number of works based on Brazilian folk themes. Her knowledge and expertise in Brazilian folk music were acquired through studies developed under Rossini Tavares de Lima's guidance.

Professor Pereira da Silva was one of the founders of the "Brazilian Pro Music Society" (Sociedade Pró-Música Brasileira).

As a composer, Adelaide Pereira da Silva was awarded many prizes, decorations, distinctions and honors:

- First prize by the Gazeta Burajiruforukurore Association composition competition with "Três canções sobre temas do folclore brasileiro" (Three songs based on Brazilian folk themes)

- Second prize in Santos Composition Contest (Secretaria Municipal da Cidade de Santos) for the song "É tão pouco o que desejo" (based on a poem by renowned writer, Vicente de Carvalho).

- Medal - José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (awarded by Sociedade Brasileira de Heráldica - Brazilian Heraldry Society)

- Medal - Marechal Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (awarded by Sociedade Geográfica Brasileira - Brazilian Geographic Society)

- Medal - Legião Joana D'Arc (Sesquicentenário da Independência do Brasil - 150th Anniversary of Brazilian Independence) - Medal - Ana Neri (awarded by Sociedade Brasileira de Educação e Integração - Brazilian Society for Education and Integration)

- Medal João Amos Comenius (awarded by Academia Brasileira de Letras - Brazilian Literary Academy)

- Decoration (The Great Rondon) - Silver Jubileum - Marechal Cândido Rondon and its founding president Agenor Couto de Magalhães

- Medal - Euclides da Cunha (Clube dos Estados - State Club) - Spring Medal - Agenor Couto de Magalhães (awarded by Sociedade Geográfica Brasileira - Brazilian Geographic Society - Campaign for ecological protection)

- Medal - José Vieira Couto de Magalhães ( awarded by Sociedade Geográfica Brasileira - Brazilian Geographic Society

- Decoration - Carlos Gomes (Highest honor for Cultural Merit).

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Various piano pieces by Adelaide Pereira da Silva  

4 JULY 2019

LEONORA D'ESTE - ITALY

BORN 4 JULY

Eleonora d'Este was a Ferrarese noblewoman. She was the first daughter of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and his second wife Lucrezia Borgia - as his first daughter, Alfonso named her after his mother Eleanor of Naples.

She was brought up in Ferrara and her mother died when she was four - her father had two more children with Laura Dianti. Eleonora was the only one of Alfonso and Lucrezia's daughters to survive both their parents. She became a nun at the Corpus Domini Monastery and was buried there alongside her mother and other members of her family.

In 1543, Girolamo Scotto of Venice published a collection of 43 religious motets under the title Musica quinque vocum motetta materna lingua vocata. There is no indication in that publication as to who the composer might have been.

Laurie Stras, professor of music at Southampton University, has argued that Leonora may have been the composer. Leonora was triply disqualified from being named in those days: being a woman, and a princess, and a nun.

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Musica quinque vocum : Iste est Johannes(Attrib. to Leonora d'Este)

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MARIE-VÉRA MAIXANDEAU - FRANCE

BORN 4 JULY

Marie-Véra Maixandeau was a French composer and organist.

Marie learned organ, counterpoint and harmony with Émile Bourdon, organist at Monaco Cathedral, and Alfredo Wyld. From the age of 12, she composed and performed (at the piano) in concerts, and is considered by her teachers and critics of the time as a very talented child, especially for composition. Confident in her abilities, her master Emile Bourdon made sure to introduce her to Marcel Dupré and André Marchal, organists to whom she visited in Paris in March 1944, aged 14: St Sulpice for the first, and St Germain des Prés for the second.

At the age of 16, she was sent to Paris to join the Conservatoire National de Paris, where she studied from October 1945 to June 1951, in the class of Jean Gallon, Noël Gallon, Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen. In 1951, she won the first prize for composition for her concerto for piano and orchestra, in Tony Aubin's class.

In 1957, at the age of 28, Marie-Véra discovered her vocation. She then entered the convent of Our Lady of Life in Venasque, but came out some time later. She regularly retired to Notre-Dame du Laus or the convent of Évry Petit-Bourg, at the house of the nuns of Notre-Dame de Sion, then committed to the Auxiliary of the Heart of Jesus. It is part of the current of the charismatic renewal. In the early 1980s, she became a consecrated virgin.

Since the 1960s she taught at the National Institute of Young Blind, in Paris, as a teacher of piano and solfège.

She regularly performed as an organist, notably at the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Church in Paris or at Monaco Cathedral, where she replaces Bourdon. She finished her life holding the chapel of the hospital Lariboisière.

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Lied et Rondo by  Marie-Véra Maixandeau  

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3 JULY 2019

WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH - GERMANY 
BORN 3 JULY

Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia (Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine; 3 July 1709 – 14 October 1758) was a princess of the German Kingdom of Prussia (the older sister of Frederick the Great) and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, and granddaughter of George I of Great Britain. In 1731, she married Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. The baroque buildings and parks built during her reign shape much of the present appearance of the town of Bayreuth, Germany.

The margravine's memoirs, Memoires de ma vie, written or revised in French between 1748 and her death, are preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin. They were first printed in two forms in 1810: a German translation down to the year 1733 from the firm of Cotta of Tübingen; and a version in French published by Vieweg of Brunswick, and coming down to 1742. There have been several subsequent editions, including a German one published at Leipzig in 1908. An English translation was published in Berlin in 1904. For the discussion on the authenticity of these entertaining, though not very trustworthy, memoirs, see G. H. Pertz, Uber die Merkwürdigkeiten der Markgrafin (1851). See also Arvede Barine, Princesses et grandes dames (Paris, 1890); E. E. Cuttell, Wilhelmine, Margravine of Baireuth (London, 2 vols., 1905); ' and R. Fester, Die Bayreuther Schwester Friedrichs des Grossen(Berlin, 1902). Writer William Thackeray recommended the memoirs to "those who are curious about European Court history of the last age".

In addition to her other accomplishments, Wilhelmine was also a gifted composer and supporter of music. She was a lutenist, a student of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and the employer of Bernhard Joachim Hagen. 

Musical Works: 

Keyboard Concerto in G minor

1. Allego, G minor. 2. Cantabile, B flat major. 3. Gavottes I & II, G minor. Cembalo, Fl, Strings

The obbligato flute part could have been played either by her brother or her husband, as both were flautists (and pupils of Quantz). Each movement takes wing from solid and vigourous openings. There is a stubborn insistence about the first tutti's repeated octave jumps, offset by the buoyancy of its striding sequences. She has a Bach-like flair for phrase extensions, which is also evident in the final gavotte where the solo shadows the orchestra and emerges to take the lead. Some of the ideas in the 34 bar slow movement are more son-of-Bach in style; and in the D minor second gavotte, which serves as a central 'trio' to the first, there is a delicate episode of rather French, languishing descents.

Argenore - opera c. 1740. 7 soloists (3 sop., 1 mezzo-sop., 2 alto, 1 bariton (or mezzo-sop.), & orchestra (1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 trumpets, strings, continuo). Performed in 1740 for her husband's birthday.

Cavatinen - short songs; voice, strings, harpsichord.

Flute Sonata - flute & keyboard, c. 1730.

Some chamber music still survives.

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Concert for harpsichord and strings by Wilhelmine v. Bayreuth

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LUCREZIA ORSINA VIZZANA - ITALY  

BORN 3 JULY

Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana (also "Lucretia") was an Italian singer, organist, and composer. She entered the Camaldolese convent of S Christina in Bologna in 1598. She was taught by her aunt, Camilla Bombacci, who was the convent organist, and by Ottavio Vernizzi, who was the unofficial music master. Vizzana's works are influenced by stile moderno (seconda prattica) music, especially the works of Claudio Monteverdi.

Vizzana's motets were published in Componimenti musicali de motetti concertati a l e più voci in 1623, the only collection of music ever published by a Bolognese nun. There are ten solo motets, eight duets, one trio, and one quartet all with continuo. The works feature other characteristics of the stile moderno. Furthermore, many convents used motets for double choir as a way of exploiting the musical gifts of the nuns in reaction to the decree from the Council of Trent that nuns must be confined within a convent. Vizzana's O invictissima Christi martir is an example of this. This piece along with Sonet vox tua in auribus cordis mei; Usquequo oblivisceris me in finem; O magnum mysterium; Ornaverunt faciem templi; Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile; and Protector noster can all be found in Martha Furman Schleifer and Sylvia Glickman's Women Composers: Music through the Ages. However, Vizzana's music also reflects a much older practice of female spirituality stretching back to the later Middle Ages as opposed to the new post-Tridentine religious traditions for women. Most of her motets were created for feast days, reflecting many liturgical, artistic, and devotional moments in convent life. However, other motets allude to the inner strife in the convent and its decline from 1620 onward.

In 1622, an anonymous letter was sent to the Cardinal Archbishop Ludovico Ludovisi in Rome reporting many scandals and issues in the convent, especially the issue of conflict within the convent. These allegations were followed by a long investigation of the convent that caused much inner strife amongst the nuns. It was revealed that much of the inquietude and rivalries amongst the nuns resulted from the musical life of the convent. It is often believed that the stress of the turmoil led to Vizzana's early retirement from music and mental instability.

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Sonet vox tua by Lucrezia Orsini Vizzana

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2 JULY 2019

PRINCESS NATALIA IVANOVNA DE KUKARINA - RUSSIA 
BORN 2 JULY

Princess Kurakina was born in 1766 into a wealthy, upper class family and as a young child, she was considered to be somewhat of a musical Protégé recognized for being talented at playing the guitar and the harp. Princess Natalia Ivanova Kurakina was also very talented and highly respected female composer in St. Petersburg, Russia. She is said to have been the second most prominent male or female composer in 17th century Russia. In 1783, at 16, she married Prince Aleksei Borisovich Kurakin, who became Procurator General, which was one of the highest government positions in all of Russia. Through her marriage she became a noblewoman, where she lived in the court of Tsar Paul 1 and became heavily involved in country music, which also allowed her access to the upper class/intellectual thinkers in Russia at the time.

Princess Kurakina represents the rise of the intellectual level of women during 18th century Russia and their presence in the salons. She was also a pioneer because she really paved the road, so to speak for other Russian women composers to put their work out there. In addition, she used her musical talent to put her into the center of Russian salons and the intellectual social scene:Princess Kurakina was a critical female figure in the development of Russian social life, so much so,that, in 1797, she was pronounced as a Dame of Lesser Cross of the order of St. Catherine, which was an award bestowed upon women in Russia.

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Je vais donc quitter pour jamais by Natalia Ivanovna de Kukarina

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MARGARET HUBICKI - UK 

BORN 2 JULY

Margaret Olive "Peggy" Hubicki MBE  was an English composer and teacher of musical harmony, who invented the Colour-Staff method to help people with dyslexia to read music.

Hubicki was born Margaret Mullins in Hampstead, London on 2 July 1915. Her mother was Scottish and her father English. She studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, winning the gold medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, and at her graduation recital in 1934 performed a sonata of her own composition.

At the Academy she met fellow-student Bohdan Hubicki, a Canadian violinist of Ukrainian descent, and they married in July 1940. Three months later Bohdan died when their house was bombed; Peggy sustained severe injuries. Thereafter she devoted much of her life to music education. She did not remarry.

Hubicki devised the Colour Staff method to help people with dyslexia to read music by using colour. "Its particularly distinctive characteristic is that it enables musical notation to be taught in a multi-sensory way". She was one of the founders of the British Dyslexia Association, and involved in the Council for Music in Hospitals.

Hubicki was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music until she retired in 1986; her students included composer Sir John Tavener, flautist James Galway, pianist Jeremy Menuhin and singer Annie Lennox. She was also one of the first teachers, and a governor, of the Yehudi Menuhin School.

She was appointed MBE in December 1986 in recognition of her service to music in hospitals.

An album of her compositions, Dedication in Time, was released on the Chandos label in 2005 to celebrate her 90th birthday.

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Irish Fantasy by Margaret Hubicki

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1 JULY 2019

SANSAN YU CHIEN -TAIWAN
BORN 1 JULY

Sansan Chien (Chinese: 簡郁珊; pinyin: Jiǎn Yùshān) was a composer of contemporary classical music. Chien was well known in Taiwan for her teaching of music theory and composition.She was born 1 July 1967 in Changhua, Taiwan, and grew up in the Taichung area. When she was fifteen, her family moved to the United States, settling in Sylvania, Ohio where she completed her high school education. She then earned a bachelor of music degree in piano performance from The University of Toledo Department of Music (1989), a master's degree in music composition from the Ohio University School of Music (1991), and a doctor of music degree in music composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (1997). During the time of her studies at Indiana University she became a naturalized US citizen, but opted to retain her ROC (Taiwan) citizenship as well.

Dr. Chien was a full-time assistant professor of music theory and composition at the National Kaohsiung Normal UniversityDepartment of Music from 1997 to 2011. Previously, she was a part-time instructor of music composition at The University of Indianapolis and an associate instructor of music composition and related courses at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She was much appreciated by the many students she taught, especially those at National Kaohsiung Normal University. She was also instrumental in helping to organize the music curriculum at NKNU and dramatically improved the level of music theory and music composition instruction there. Together with her husband, Paul San Gregory, a composer and professor of music, they created an intense and encouraging learning environment that has benefited many NKNU graduates. For many years they also created and directed the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at NKNU, which was the only university-run new music ensemble in Taiwan at the time.

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Dolly's Family by Sansan Yu Chien

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ALICIA TERZIAN - ARGENTINA 

BORN 1 JULY

Born in Córdoba, Argentina, , Alicia Terzian is a composer, conductor and musicologist of Armenian origin.

She studied in the National Conservatory of Music and Drama of Buenos Aires with the musicians Alberto Ginastera, Gilardo Gilardi, Roberto García Morillo, Floro Ugarte, Pedro Saenz, the poet Pedro Miguel Obligado, where she graduated in piano (1954) and was awarded the First Prize and Gold Medal in composition in Alberto Ginastera´s professorship (1959).

In 1962 she travelled to Europe to study the religious medieval Armenian music from IVth to XIIth centuries with Father Dr. Leoncio Dayan at the Mekhitarist Monastery in Saint Lazaro, Venice. She finished her musical studies of orchestra conducting with Mariano Drago and later on, electronic music.

Her activities as composer, conductor, musicologist and promoter of contemporary music has given her – since her youth – the acknowledge not only in her country but also abroad.

She was the recipient of numerous prizes, among the most important are the Orchestral Composition First Prize by the Municipalidad of Buenos Aires City (1964); ‘Francisco Solano’ Prize for her promotion of the Argentine music (1968), the Outstanding Young Yearly Award by the Junior Chamber of Buenos Aires (1970); National Funds for the Arts for her work Atmósferas and Concert for Violin and Orchestra (1970); the First National Prize of Music for her work Voces (1982); the International Prize Gomidas by the Composers Association of Armenia (1983); the Academic Palms by the Government of France; the Saint Sahak and Saint Mesrop decorations and the Papal Bull by Pope Vazkén Ist of the Armenian Church (1992); the ‘Alberto Castilla’ Medal of Colombia (1994); the Miró-Picasso Medal given by the General Director of the Unesco (1995).

Terzian has also developed her activities in the field of superior and university education in the Municipal Conservatory, the National Conservatory of Music (IUNA) in Didactic of Music, Pedagogy, Harmony, Instrumentation, Orchestration and Counterpoint; the Superior School of Fine Arts of the National University of La Plata (History of Music); Superior Institute of Arts of the Colón Opera House ( History of Opera); The History of Music in Argentina in the programme Introduction to the Argentine Culture of the Foreing Affairs Service of the Argentine Republic, and for the National Institute of Public Administration (INASP) of the Government of the Argentine Republic.

Her activities as lecturer are also remarkable, which she has developed in Europe, Asia and the Three Americas thanks to her fluency in French, English, Italian, Armenian and Spanish.

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Toccata Op. 4 by Alicia Terzian 

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