22 JUNE 2019

CLARA FAISST - GERMANY 
BORN 22 JUNE

Clara Mathilda Faisst was a German pianist, composer and writer.

Faisst was born in Karlsruhe, Baden. She studied music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory and later traveled to Berlin, then in Prussia, to study under the noted pianist Max Bruch (1838 – 1920). After completing her studies, she worked as a pianist, music teacher and composer.

During World War II, Faisst conducted house concerts. She was a prolific composer, producing over a hundred separate works, including ballads, choral pieces and sonatas for violin and piano. She corresponded with Albert Schweitzer and the two became good friends. Faisst never married and died in Karlsruhe at age seventy-six. As she had no family, her possessions were put out as trash, but some of her letters and music were rescued and preserved.

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BEATRIZ CORONA - CUBA 

BORN 22 JUNE

Beatriz del Carmen Corona Rodríguez is a composer, choir director, arranger and musical producer. She is one of the most solid and prestigious composers of Choral Music in Cuba as well as one of Cuba's most prolific contemporary composers.  Her catalog of choral works as well as her arrangements for voices in different formats define her as an important choral music composer of today.

As a composer she has managed to offer a vast musical production with a catalog with around 200 choral works of different formats: orchestral music, chamber music, religious works, incidental music for movies (for the films Amor Vertical and Sabor Latino), (the latter with her brother Kiki Corona).

Her interest in the human voice predominates in her compositions as insurmountable sound medium.
Beatriz'music nourishes the repertoire of almost all the choirs of our music schools, that of choral, symphonic and chamber ensembles such as the Exaudi, National choirs, and the Schola Cantorum Coralina. The Santiago de Cuba Symphony Orchestra and the D'Camera Trio conducted by the pianist Marita Rodríguez.

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21 JUNE 2019

BEATRIZ FERREYRA - ARGENTINA
BORN 21 JUNE

Beatriz Mercedes Ferreyra is an Argentine composer.

Ferreyra was born in Cordoba, Argentina, and studied piano with Celia Bronstein in Buenos Aires. She continued her study of music with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and Edgardo Canton, Earle Brown and György Ligeti in Germany.

In 1963 she took a position in the research department of the Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise (ORTF), working with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales(GRM) directed by Pierre Schaeffer. She assisted with Henri Chiarucci's and Guy Reibel's Rapport entre la hauteur et la fondamentale d'un son musical, published in 1966 in Revue Internationale d'Audiologie and Pierre Schaeffer's Solfège de l'Objet Sonore. During this time she also lectured at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.  She worked with Bernard Baschet and his Structures Sonores in 1970, and served residencies in electronic music with Dartmouth College in 1976 and in 1998.

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Canto del loco by Beatríz Ferreyra

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JUDITH BINGHAM - UK 

BORN 21 JUNE

Born in Nottingham, and raised in Mansfield and Sheffield, Judith Bingham began composing as a small child, before studying composition and singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her composition studies there with Alan Bush and Eric Fenby were later supplemented by lessons from Hans Keller. She was awarded the Principal's prize in 1971, and 6 years later the BBC Young Composer award. Recent composition prizes include: the Barlow Prize for a cappella music in 2004, two British Composer Awards in 2004 for The Christmas Truce (choral) and Missa Brevis: The Road to Emmaeus (liturgical), one in 2006 for My Heart Strangely Warmdand the instrumental award in 2008 for Fantasia. She was once again nominated for an award in 2009 for Shakespeare Requiem, a Leeds Festival Chorus commission.

Although Bingham's output is notable for the number and variety of its choral works, she has always been seen as an all-rounder and the scope of her activities has included pieces for brass band, symphonic wind ensemble and various chamber groups and solo instruments, concertos for trumpet and bassoon and tuba, and several impressive works for large orchestra. Beyond Redemption (1995) was a BBC commission for the BBC Philharmonic and The Temple at Karnak (1996) was commissioned by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Chartres, a significant work for large symphony orchestra, was performed to great acclaim by the BBC Philharmonic under Jane Glover in 1994, and was recently conducted by James MacMillan in Liverpool Cathedral as part of the BBC/Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Encore' project. She has written a substantial body of pieces for organ including Jacob's Ladder, a concerto for Stephen Cleobury and Philip Brunelle. A CD of her organ music performed by Tom Winpenny was released on the Naxos label in 2010. The Ivory Tree, a music-drama for soloists, chorus and ensemble, had its first complete performances in Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral in May 2005. A carol God would be born in thee was performed at the King's College Cambridge Nine Lessons and Carols at Christmas 2004 and was released by EMI on the CD On Christmas Day. Her works in recent years have included See and Keep Silent for the BBC Singers and Guy Johnston, performed on Good Friday at King's College Cambridge, and Shadow Aspect for choir, organ and timpani, written for the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. A set of solo violin pieces called The Lost Works of Paganini was performed by Peter Sheppard Skaerved on Paganini's violin in Genoa and London.

Recent premieres include Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, a new piece for Girl’s Voices (SSA) commissioned by the City of London Festival and first performed on 28 of June, 2014, by the girls’ choirs of Southwark and Guildford Cathedral, in Southwark Cathedral, London. This piece sets the words of Elizabeth Cook that describe the Camargue legend of Mary Jacobus and Mary Salome (two of the Marys who witnessed the crucifixion) being put in a boat without oars and ending up in the Camargue in Southern France where they spread the gospel.

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Water Lilies by Judith Bingham 

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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  

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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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19 JUNE 2019

KAREN YOUNG - CANADA
BORN 19 JUNE

Karen Young is a singer, lyricist, composer and arranger from Quebec, Canada who has explored several different musical styles. Starting in folk music with a medium chart hit Garden Of Ursh (1971) in the late 1960s, she switched to jazz in the mid-1970s with the successful bebop vocal group, Bug Alley. She was a member from 1975 to 1979. She played lead roles in the musical theatre productions Mata Hari and Angel, written by David Rimmer and Edward Knoll, in the early 1980s. In the later 1980s, she was part of the renowned bass and voice duo, Young and Donato. Their album Young & Donato was nominated for a Juno Award 1985. The following album Contredanse won a Félix Award in category Best jazz album in Quebec in 1988. The duo had 4 times 1987-90 tours in France and 1989-90 in the USA, and also some gigs in 1989 in England. She played lead roles in musicals Mata Hari and Angel, written by David Rimmer and Edward Knoll, in the early 1980s.

Her eclecticism and familiarity with world, classical and jazz styles allow her to present works ranging from traditional, Latin and contemporary jazz to, more recently, medieval (album Âme, corps et désir, 2007 ) and electro jazz (album Electro-Beatniks, 2009). Young established her own independent record label in 1991, Les Disques URSH. Since then, she has released nine records featuring combinations of artists from different musical backgrounds and traditions.

Young composed the musical soundtracks for Joseph’s Daughter, a film by Ilana Schwartz, The Road from Kampuchea by Anne Henderson and for Revoir Julie by Jeanne Crepeau. She was awarded another Félix Award in 2008 for Âme, Corps et Desir in the category "best classic vocal album". She has been touring also with jazz musicians Michel Donato (bass), Norman Lachapelle (bass), Éric Auclair (bass).

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Sanz cuer m'en vois, dolens et esploures by Karen Young 

KAREN FREMAR - USA

BORN 19 JUNE

American composer Karen Fremar is a recognized composer of works for accordion, orchestra, chamber ensemble, accordion orchestra, string quartet, brass ensemble, woodwind quintet, solo voice, choir, piano, and electronically prepared tape. She holds the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Theory from the University of Kansas, Master of Music-Philosophy from KU, Master of Music-Composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Bachelor of Music-Accordion Performance (with distinction) from the same institution. Dr. Fremar studied composition with Gerald Kemner, John Pozdro and Milton Babbitt. She was an Assistant Instructor of Music Theory at KU and an instructor in the Electronic Music Studio headed by Dr. James Rothwell at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Karen began playing the accordion at age two, as a student of her mother, Margie Fremar, and first performed publicly at the age of 2½. Her family operated the Fremar Music Studio for over 50 years training more than 500 music students in Fort Scott, Kansas. Karen is also an accomplished pianist and percussionist, and has taught students in accordion, piano, and percussion. While very young, she began writing arrangements for the Fremar Music Studio ensembles, and made her television debut at age 14 in New York. She first toured internationally at age 16, as featured accordionist and percussionist with the All-Students Groups U.S.A., sponsored by the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia. 

Fremar performs regularly on accordion and keyboards, is active in the recording studio, and has written and produced two albums with the mixed ensemble, Vivant! She is a member of A.S.C.A.P. and the American Federation of Musicians. Her compositions have been performed worldwide. She often serves as an adjudicator for several musical organizations. Fremar gave the New York premiere of her American Accordionists' Association commissioned work, Herricks Road, to honor Faithe Deffner, and has premiered and performed her composition, Night at the Pla-Mor, commissioned by the Courtney S. Turner Trust, on tour in the Midwest.

Dr. Fremar is Chairman of the Board and President of the Fremar Foundation for Accordion Arts, a Kansas City based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports accordion performance, new works for the instrument, and historic preservation of the instrument's heritage. She is listed in the World Who’s Who of Women-Fifth Edition, Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, Who’s Who in American Music, and the Dictionary of International Biography.

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Fantasy Opus 57 by Karen Fremar 

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18 JUNE 2019

JOAN TRIMBLE - UK 
BORN 18 JUNE

Joan  Trimble was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland. She studied piano with Annie Lord at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and music at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1936, BMus 1937) and continued her studies at the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, until 1940 (piano with Arthur Benjamin and composition with Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams).

She first gained notice as part of a piano duo with her sister Valerie (1917–1980), earning a first prize at a Belfast music competition as early as 1925. Joan also composed a number of works for two pianos which the duo performed. A 1938 recital at the RCM, at which they performed three of them, was their breakthrough. Other composers wrote works for them, too, including Jamaican Rumba by Arthur Benjamin, which became a signature tune for the duo. Trimble's Phantasy Trio (1940) won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music. The sisters also performed modern music, including works by Stravinsky, Dallapiccola, Arthur Bliss and Lennox Berkeley and continued to perform in public until 1970. Trimble married in 1942 and had children, which restricted her compositional output. In 1957 her opera Blind Raftery was the third opera commissioned by the BBC for television, and the first television opera written by a female composer. Between 1959 and 1977 she taught piano at the RCM, with the years since 1967 travelling from Northern Ireland.

Joan Trimble's music is conservative for her time. She combined the impressionist harmonic language she had learned since her studies with Annie Lord with melodic and rhythmic inflections derived from Irish traditional music. Her arrangements of Irish airs for two pianos do not differ stylistically from her original compositions. Her most advanced music will be found in the Sonatina for two pianos (1940) and the impressive song cycle The County Mayo (1949). Trimble's music is always melodic, tastefully written, and rewarding for performers.

After her father's death in 1967 she went to work on his newspaper, The Impartial Reporter in Enniskillen, and cared for her husband who was severely ill for decades. She regained some attention in the 1990s when she was commissioned for a new composition  and the first recordings of her music appeared. 

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Phantasy Trio by Joan Trimble by Galina  Ustvoskaja

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LINA PIRES DE CAMPOS - BRAZIL  

BORN 18 JUNE

Lina Pires de Campos was born in São Paulo, Brazil, the daughter of Italian luthier Angelo Del Vecchio. She studied piano with Ema Lubrano Franco and Léo Peracchi and music theory and composition with Furio Franceschini, Caldeira Filho and Osvaldo Lacerda. Later she studied composition with Camargo Guarnieri.

Pires de Campos worked as assistant to Magda Tagliaferro and in 1964 founded her own piano school. She won awards as a composer including in 1961 the Roquete Pinto medal and the second place composition prize from Radio Mec. Her works have been performed internationally.

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Ponteio e Toccatina by Lina Pires de Campos

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17 JUNE 2019

GALINA USTVOLSKAJA - RUSSIA 
BORN 17 JUNE

Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya, was a Russian composer of classical music. From 1937 to 1947 she studied at the college attached to the Leningrad Conservatory (later renamed the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory). She subsequently became a postgraduate student and taught composition at the college. Her composition teacher Dmitri Shostakovich, said of her:

"I am convinced that the music of G. I. Ustvolskaya will achieve world fame, and be valued by all who hold truth to be the essential element of music."

On several occasions Shostakovich supported her in the Union of Soviet Composers against opposition from his colleagues. He sent some of his own as yet unfinished works to Ustvolskaya, attaching great value to her comments. Some of these pieces even contain quotations from his pupil’s compositions; for example, he employed the second theme of the Finale of her clarinet trio throughout the Fifth String Quartet and in the Michelangelo Suite (no. 9). The intimate spiritual and artistic relationship between the two composers has been compared to that of Schoenberg and Webern.

She was a pupil of Shostakovich from 1939 to 1947 but retained little influence of his style from the 1950s onwards. As a modernist, she had few public performances; until 1968 none of her works were performed other than patriotic pieces written for official consumption. Until the fall of the USSR, only the violin sonata of 1952 was played with any frequency, but since then her music has been increasingly often programmed in the west.

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Concerto for piano, timpani and strings by Galina  Ustvoskaja

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ELLEN FULLMAN - USA 

BORN 17 JUNE

Ellen Fullman has been developing her installation, the Long String Instrument, for over 30 years; exploring the acoustics of large resonant spaces with her compositions and collaborative improvisations. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies including: Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2015); Center for Cultural Innovation Grants (2008 and 2013); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin residency (2000). Fullman has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument.

The Long String Instrument (Superior Viaduct, 2015) was first issued on Apollo Records in 1985 and was selected as the number one reissue for 2015 by the Wire. Her work was cited by Alvin Lucier in his Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music (Wesleyan University Press, 2012). Ellen has served on the faculty of the Milton Avery School of the Arts Summer MFA Program at Bard College and was invited to give the Distinguished Alumni Lecture at the Kansas City Art Institute.

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Past the Angels by Ellen Fullman 

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