22 JULY 2019

EVE BEGLARIAN - USA 
BORN 22 JULY

According to the Los Angeles Times, composer and performer Eve Beglarian “is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” A 2017 winner of the Alpert Award in the Arts for her “prolific, engaging and surprising body of work,” she has also been awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation.”

Beglarian’s chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Sequitur, loadbang, the Guidonian Hand, Newspeak, the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Sarah Cahill, Lauren Flanigan, Marya Martin, and Mary Rowell.

Highlights of Beglarian’s work in music theater includes music for Mabou Mines’ Obie-winning Dollhouse, Animal Magnetism, Ecco Porco, Choephorai, and Shalom Shanghai, all directed by Lee Breuer; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater’s production of The Bacchae, also directed by Chen Shi-Zheng.

She has collaborated with choreographers including Ann Carlson, Robert LaFosse, Victoria Marks, Susan Marshall, David Neumann, Take Ueyama, and Megan Williams, and with visual and video artists including Cory Arcangel, Anne Bray, Vittoria Chierici, Barbara Hammer, Kevork Mourad, Shirin Neshat, Matt Petty, Bradley Wester, and Judson Wright.

Performance projects include Brim, Songs from a Book of Days, The Story of B, Open Secrets, Hildegurls’ Ordo Virtutum, twisted tutu, and typOpera.

♫ LISTEN

The Garden of Cyrus by Eve Beglarian

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KAREN BUCKWALTER - USA

BORN 22 JULY

Karen Buckwalter, a distinguished organist, pianist, and composer served as a full time Minister of Music for 37 years in Hanover, PA. She served from 2002 until retiring in 2014 as Associate Minister of Music at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, in Hanover, where she directed the handbell program, coordinated the Saturday blended worship and was privileged to play a 231 rank Austin organ, the 8th largest church organ in the world.

Ms. Buckwalter is a 1974 graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ where she received her Bachelor of Music Education degree. She is also a 1977 graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied organ with John Weaver and earned the prestigious Artists Diploma in Organ Performance. In 2005, she returned to the classroom to study theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, PA and was commissioned (2007) as an ELCA Associate in Ministry. This gave her the opportunity to assist the St. Matthew ministerial staff with additional preaching/visitation and led her to create a shawl ministry that reached beyond the church membership to serve a women’s shelter, a pregnancy clinic and the forensic unit at Hanover Hospital. In 2012, Ms. Buckwalter recorded a piano CD entitled, “How Sweet the Sound” which served as a fundraiser for the church/organ renovation and in 2013 she learned to play a lever harp to enhance her visitation ministry.

Internationally known in the field of handbell composition, Mrs. Buckwalter composed her first published work, “Danza” in 1982. Recognized for her original compositions such as “Soliloquy for Bells” and “Nocturne in a minor,” she now has over 70 bell/choral compositions in print. She has earned enthusiastic praise for her creative compositions, her colorful harmonies and her use of chromatics that have raised the musicality in handbell music as a genre. Sought after as a handbell conductor/clinician for workshops and festivals throughout the US, in 2013, she was festival conductor for the West Midlands Festival in Hereford, UK. Her works have been recorded in the United States, Estonia and Japan and they are frequently selected at area and national handbell conferences throughout the country.

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21 JULY 2019

JUDITH CLOUD  - USA 
BORN 21 JULY

Composer Judith Cloud’s gift for vocal writing was born out of her own rich experiences as an accomplished mezzo-soprano soloist. Born in 1954 in Reidsville, NC, Cloud sang with her musical family in church services, where her first mentor, Dr. Ruth Graham, introduced her to music ranging from Bach to Britten. Later, Cloud entered the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied voice, conducting and composition. Her composition studies were with Robert Ward and Roy Johnson. Vocal instruction was with Janice Harsanyi, a champion of 20th-century American composers and an amateur composer, herself.

Cloud’s music, built on romantic principals, is at once lyrical, rhythmically challenging and harmonically intriguing. Her catalog includes numerous vocal, choral and instrumental works. Most notable is her cantata "Feet of Jesus” set to poems by Langston Hughes. In 2009 she was awarded first place for the Sorel Medallion in Choral Composition with her piece for chorus and guitar, “Anacreontics.” Cloud has created a niche for herself in the pantheon of American composers of art song.

Dr. Cloud is Professor of Voice at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she has taught since 1989. 

♫ LISTEN

The Waking by Judith Cloud 

➺ Judith Cloud's Website

JULIA USHER - UK 

BORN 21 JULY

Julia Usher is an English musician, project animateur and composer, and is known for musical theater. Besides composing, she also works as a music therapist.

Julia Usher began music studies at York University and Cambridge, and studied under Robert Sherlaw Johnson. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree and afterward lived and worked in London.

In 1980 Usher set up the composer-publishing firm Primavera with Welsh composer Enid Luff. Usher was a founding member of Women in Music in 1987, and she has worked with ensembles including Sounds Positive, the New London Wind Ensemble, the Nash Ensemble, E2K, Ivor Bolton and Inter Artes. In the 1980s, Usher collaborated in a series of cross-arts projects with the sound sculptor and painter Derek Shiel.

In 1999 Usher moved to Colchester and since 2001 has concentrated on developing works within community arts projects in North Essex. Usher has worked as Composer in Residence with the Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra. As part of the Lullaby Project in Colchester she recorded, transcribed, and translated songs (with the help of the contributors) to provide English versions of traditional folk songs from different cultures. Her compositions have won awards including the Wangford Festival Prize and a British Clavichord Society prize. Recordings of her work have been issued on CD/DVD,  and she has conducted music therapy sessions for Nordoff-Robbins.

♫ LISTEN

What is the price of expereience? by Julia Usher 

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20 JULY 2019

CAROLYN STEINBERG - USA 
BORN 20 JULY

Carolyn Steinberg’s compositions have been performed in concerts and festivals in the U.S. and Europe including Tanglewood, Darmstadt, and Donaueschingen. Works have been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, Southwest German Radio Orchestra, and numerous chamber ensembles such as Emerald Trio and Duo Navona. The 1990 recipient of the Goddard Lieberson Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Ms. Steinberg studied composition in the U.S. with Bernard Rands and Lumila Ulehla, and in Europe with Franco Donatoni and Brian Ferneyhough. She holds degrees in music composition from The Juilliard School (Doctor of Musical Arts) and Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music), and the University of North Texas (Bachelor’s Degree in music theory).

For eight years, Carolyn was Artistic Director of the Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra, presenting an annual concert of new music in Narrowsburg, New York. With the organization's mission of providing performance opportunities to local composers and performers, Carolyn built programs that combined professional ensembles (Dorian Wind Quintet, Sweet Plantain String Quartet, and others) playing separately and together with local musicians, and premiering works by both professional and semi-professional composers. Featured composers included Lee Hoiby, Ricky Ian Gordon, David Tcimpidis, Thermon Barker, and Sergio Garcia-Marruz. 

As a flutist, Carolyn's repertoire ranges from Bach to Debussy to Latin jazz. With the Delaware Valley Opera, she played orchestral flute parts in La Perichole, Cosi Fan Tutte, and Norma. Ms. Steinberg currently performs Latin jazz with her husband, Chacho Ramirez, in their band, La Banda Ramirez. She also works with pianist/composer Jeff Dawson, Dr. Mambo, Jack Glottman, and on tour with Latin jazz pianists Chris Villanueva and Daniel Wyman. Her twice-monthly gigs at Paris Blues in Harlem attract such guest artists as the renowned singer “El Conde” Sonero Pichardo, and trumpeter Richie Vitale. 

♫ LISTEN

Danzon Macabre by Carolyn Steinberg

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DAME MARGOT - FRANCE

Dame Margot (fl. 13th century) was a trouvère from Arras, in Picardy, France. One extant work of hers is jeu parti, a debate song, in which she debates Dame Maroie. This song, "Je vous pri, dame Maroie," survives in two manuscripts, which each give separate and unrelated melodies. In another jeu parti she is a judge, opposing Jehan le Cuvelier d'Arras and Jehan Bretel. She is listed as a member of the Puy d'Arras. In two manuscripts she is credited with a fragment of a song, "Mout m'abelist quant je voi revenir.

♫ LISTEN

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19 JULY 2019

EVELYN GLENNIE - SCOTLAND
BORN 19 JULY

Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie is the first person in history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras, conductors and artists. She fondly recalls having played the first percussion concerto in the history of The Proms at the Albert Hall in 1992, which paved the way for orchestras around the world to feature percussion concerti. She had the honour of a leading role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Evelyn regularly provides masterclasses and consultations designed to guide the next generation. She is also a leading commissioner of over 200 new pieces for solo percussion for many of the world’s most eminent composers. The film ‘Touch the Sound’ and her enlightening TED speech remain key testimonies to her approach to sound-creation.

Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and now has nearly 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. Evelyn continues to inspire and motivate people from all walks of life. Her masterclasses and consultations are designed to guide the next generation.

Evelyn is currently embarking on the formation of the Evelyn Glennie Archive Collection. The vision is to open a centre that embodies her mission to Teach the World to Listen. She aims to ‘improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening. We want to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower’.

♫ LISTEN

➺ Evelyn Glennie's Website

PEGGY STUART-COOLIDGE - USA

BORN 19 JULY

Peggy Stuart-Coolidge began her career as a concert pianist, but turned to composition when a student at the New England Conservatory. Though her early works are for piano, most of her compositions are for orchestra, including many tone poems, works for piano and orchestra, ballets, and incidental music.

Stuart Coolidge was one of the first American women to have an album devoted to her symphonic works, which were internationally recognized during her lifetime. In fact, many of her works were first premiered in Europe.

An active conductor as well as composer, Stuart Coolidge led an all-woman ensemble in Boston, was pianist and assistant conductor of the Women’s Symphony of Boston. She also founded the Boston Junior League Orchestra.

Though a prolific, acclaimed, often commissioned, and internationally recognized composer, her symphonic works are rarely performed and few recordings exist, or are readily available. We were delighted that the Boston Landmarks Orchestra recently performed one of her works, supported by a WPA Performance Grant, and hope to see more of her pieces in concert halls as more ensembles make an effort to include diverse programming. Her papers and manuscripts are held at Harvard University.

♫ LISTEN

New Englad Autumn by Peggy Stuart Coolidge

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18 JULY 2019

PAULINE VIARDOT - FRANCE
BORN 18 JULY

Pauline Viardot was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent.

Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Pauline Viardot", it most commonly appears in association with her maiden name García or the unaccented form, Garcia. This name sometimes precedes Viardot and sometimes follows it. Sometimes the words are hyphenated; sometimes they are not. She achieved initial fame as "Pauline García"; the accent was dropped at some point, but exactly when is not clear. After her marriage, she referred to herself simply as "Mme Viardot".

She came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer.

Viardot began composing when she was young, but it was never her intention to become a composer. Her compositions were written mainly as private pieces for her students with the intention of developing their vocal abilities. She did the bulk of her composing after her retirement at Baden-Baden. However, her works were of professional quality and Franz Liszt declared that, with Pauline Viardot, the world had finally found a woman composer of genius.

Having as a young girl studied with Liszt and with the music theorist and composer Anton Reicha, she was both an outstanding pianist and a complete all-round professional musician. Between 1864 and 1874 she wrote three salon operas - Trop de femmes (1867), L'ogre (1868), and Le dernier sorcier (1869), all to libretti by Ivan Turgenev - and over fifty Lieder. Her remaining two salon operas - Le conte de fées (1879), and Cendrillon (1904; when she was 83) - were to her own libretti. The operas may be small in scale; however, they were written for advanced singers. 

♫ LISTEN

Havanaise by Pauline Viardot 

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NKEIRU OKOYE - USA

BORN 18 JULY

Composer Nkeiru Okoye [in KEAR roo oh KOY yeh] creates works that are “emotionally charged and musically sublime” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). A native New Yorker of African American and Nigerian descent, her music is a patchwork quilt stitching together diverse musical styles.

Hailed as “Sublime” by the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, Nkeiru Okoye’s compositions are a musical quilt that draw inspiration from a dizzying range of influences—Gilbert & Sullivan, the Gershwins, Sondheim, Copland, gospel, jazz, and Schoenberg. Her theatrical works have been presented by American Opera Projects, Oberlin Opera Theater, Cleveland Opera Theater, the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, and Hartford Opera Theater. Her symphonic works have been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and countless regional orchestras. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA Art Works grant for her opera, HARRIET TUBMAN: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom; and a Female Composers Discovery Grant from Opera America, for her comedy, We’ve Got Our Eye On You.

♫ LISTEN

I am Moses by Nkeiru Okoye 

➺ Nkeiru Okoye's Website

17 JULY 2019

LAURA JĒKABSONE - LATVIA

BORN 17 JULY

Laura Jēkabsone (1985) is a composer, artistic director of vocal group Latvian Voices, professional singer, music teacher and a conductor. 

Laura got her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and she has gained experience internationally in many vocal workshops and composition competitions. 

Lauras has composed the majority of Latvian Voices repertoire. Besides Latvian Voices, she is a well-known composer in Latvia and abroad. Her music has been performed by Latvian National Symphonic orchestra, State Choir “Latvija”, Riga Cathedral Choir School girls’ choir “Tiara”, a cappella groups “The Real Group” (Sweden), “Sjaella”, “Amarcord” (Germany), “Magi Ensemble” (USA), “Cantabile Voices” (Taiwan), “Incantare Coro Femenino” (Argentina) etc.

Since 2006 she works as an assistant conductor and vocal coach in one of the best amateur mixed choirs in Latvia - "Maska". Choir “Maska” has released her first author CD titled “Ziema” (Winter).

Laura is the composer of the first ever symphony written for Latvian traditional instrument "kokle”.

♫ LISTEN

Div Düjinas Gaia Skreja by Laura Jēkabsone

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BERTHA FRENSEL WEGNER KOOPMAN - THE NETHERLANDS 

DIED 17 JULY

Bertha Koopman studied composition and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory and continued studying with composer Bernard Zweers and vocal pedagogue Hugo Bellwidt in Frankfurt. After completing her studies, she performed concerts in Germany and the Netherlands.

Koopman married Jolen Frensel Wegener and retired from the concert stage to a career as accompanist, teacher and composer in Haarlem. Koopman's early songs included German lyrics, but after World War I, she wrote her songs in French and English, which allowed her access to markets in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis. Her daughter Emmy Frensel Wegener (1901–1973) was a violinist and composer of chamber music.
♫ LISTEN

Do not go my love by  Julie Lyonn Lieberman