Spring 2008 TOC - International Alliance for Women in Music

Table of Contents

ARTICLES

The Transcendentalist: Beata Moon .......................................................... Patrick Durek .......................... 1

Marching to a Different Drummer: Jennifer Higdon’sConcerto for Orchestra ........................................................................ Christina L. Reitz ................... 4

Jennifer Higdon: The Singing Rooms and Concerto 4-3 ........................... Christina L. Reitz ................... 7

Four Romantic Chamber Works by Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) .................. Amy E. Zigler ......................... 8

Canadian Composer Mary Gardiner: Celebrating Her 75th Year .............. Jeannie Gayle Pool ............... 15

Cheryl Foliart, Disney Television Music Executive .................................. Jeannie Gayle Pool ............... 19

IAWM AND AFFILIATE NEWS

President’s Message—Parity Through Momentum ................................... Anne Kilstofte ...................... 21

Pauline Alderman Awards .......................................................................... Elizabeth L. Keathley ........... 22

Call for Nominations .................................................................................. Maryanne Rumancik ............ 23

What a Difference Sending CDs Can Make .............................................. Linda Rimel .......................... 24

Congratulations to Award Winners! ........................................................................................................... 26

Women in Music News from Japan ........................................................... Taeko Nishizaka ................... 27

The Kapralova Society ............................................................................... Karla Hartl ............................ 28

COMPACT DISC REVIEWS

Flute Loops: Chamber Music by Cynthia Folio ........................................ Jamie Caridi .......................... 29

Musica Nova: Romanian Women Composers 2 ......................................... Jennifer Barker ..................... 31

Declarations: Music Between the Wars ..................................................... Margaret Schedel .................. 32

Beth Custer: Bernal Heights Suite ............................................................. Eldonna L. May .................... 33

BOOK REVIEWS

Eileen M. Hayes and Linda F. Williams, eds: Black Womenand Music—More Than the Blues ....................................................... Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner ....... 34

Anne K. Gray: The World of Women in Classical Music ........................... Rona Commins ..................... 36

Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon, eds: The Courtesan’sArts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives ....................................................... Ronald Horner ...................... 37

New and Recommended Books ................................................................................................................. 38

MEMBERS’ NEWS ....................................................................................... Anita Hanawalt ..................... 39

Volume 14, Number 1 (2008)

Cover Image: Ethel Smyth by John Singer Sargent (1901)

IAWM MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

IAWM membership includes a subscription to theIAWM Journal (issued twice a year), access to theIAWM listserv, and eligibility to participate in IAWMscore calls and competitions. Membership is paid onan annual basis, January through December, andmembership categories are $55 for individuals, $30 forstudents and seniors (over 65). A joint membership is$80, and a lifetime membership is $1,000 (may be paidin $200 installments).

Payment, in U.S. funds, may be made by personalcheck, through paypal, or by bank draft made payableto IAWM. Send to the Membership Director:

Mary Lou NewmarkIAWM MembershipP.O. Box 293Pacific Palisades, CA 90272-0293

It is also possible to join online through the IAWMWebsite at www.iawm.org.

BACK ISSUES

For information on back issues, contact ElizabethHinkle-Turner at [email protected].

IAWM ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICEInternational Alliance for Women in MusicDepartment of Music, FA 509University of Maryland/Baltimore County1000 Hilltop CircleBaltimore, MD 21250

IN APPRECIATION

The International Alliance for Women in Musicexpresses its appreciation to the University of NorthTexas and the University of Maryland/Baltimore Countyfor their support in the administration of the IAWM.

Copyright © 2008 by the International Alliance forWomen in Music. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means withoutpermission. Any author has the right to republish his orher article in whole or in part with permission from theIAWM. Please contact the editor.

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Articles

Before submitting an article, please send an abstract(two or three paragraphs), the approximate number ofwords in the article, and a brief biography to the editorin chief, Dr. Eve R. Meyer, by e-mail [email protected]. Most articles range between1,500 and 5,000 words. The subject matter should relateto women in all fields of music, either contemporary orhistorical. If the proposal is approved, the editor willsend detailed information concerning the format,illustrations, and musical examples. For questions ofstyle, refer to the Chicago Manual of Style. Authors areresponsible for obtaining and providing copyrightpermission, if necessary.

Reviews

Compact discs, music, and books for review shouldbe submitted to the Review Editor, Dr. Ellen K.Grolman; 236 Braddock St.; Frostburg, MD 21532.Please contact Dr. Grolman if you wish to be includedon her list of reviewers, and indicate your areas ofspecialization. E-mail: [email protected].

Members’ News

Please send your news items to the Members’ NewsEditor, Anita Hanawalt at [email protected], or2451 Third St.; Laverne, CA 91750. Submissions arealways welcome concerning honors and awards,appointments, commissions, premieres, performances,publications, recordings, and other news items. Werecommend that you begin with the most significantnews first—an award, a major commission orpublication, a new position—and follow that with anorganized presentation of the other information. Up-dated and more detailed members’ news will also befeatured on the IAWM Website.

Reports and Announcements

Reports, announcements, and other informationshould be sent to the Editor, Eve R. Meyer, by e-mail [email protected].

PRESIDENTAnne Kilstofte (08)Surprise, AZ

VICE-PRESIDENTElizabeth Hinkle-Turner (11)Denton, TX

BOARD MEMBERSChristine Ammer, Lexington, MA (09)Carolyn Bremer, Long Branch, CA (10)Julie Cross, Madison, WI (10)Violeta Dinescu, Oldenburg, Germany (10)Linda Dusman, Baltimore, MD (11)Adriana Figueroa, Mendoza, Argentina (11)Jenece Gerber, Buffalo, NY (11)Ying-Chen Kao, Baltimore, MD (09)Cecilia Heejeong Kim, Seoul, South Korea (11)Beverly Lomer, Lighthouse Point, FL (09)Sharon Mirchandani, Princeton, NJ (09)Hasu Patel, Cleveland, OH (10)Ursula Rempel, Winnipeg, Canada (11)Hsiao-Lan Wang, Denton, TX (09)Meira Warshauer, Columbia, SC (10)

Li Yiding, Beijing, China (09)Tao Yu, Paris, France (10)

PAST PRESIDENTSAnna Rubin (2004-06)Patricia Morehead (2003-04)Kristine Burns (2001-03)Sally Reid (1999-2001)Deon Nielsen Price (1996-99)Stefania de Kenessey (1995-96)

ADVISORSChen YiEmma Lou DiemerJennifer HigdonApo HsuTania LeónPauline OliverosJeannie G. PoolMarta PtasznyskaJudith ShatinJudith Lang ZaimontEllen Taaffe Zwilich

EDITOR IN CHIEFEve R. Meyer8355 Sunmeadow LaneBoca Raton, FL [email protected]

PRODUCTION MANAGERLynn Gumert

MEMBERS’ NEWS EDITORAnita [email protected]

REVIEW EDITOREllen [email protected]

The International Alliance for Women in Music is a global network of women and men working to increase andenhance musical activities and opportunities and promote all aspects of the music of women.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTKaren M. Fox

EDITORIAL BOARDKaren M. FoxEllen GrolmanLynn GumertAnita HanawaltDeborah HayesEve R. Meyer

CONTRIBUTING REPORTERSElizabeth Hinkle-TurnerJeannie PoolDeon Nielsen PriceSuzanne Summerville

Board of Directors

IAWM Journal Staff

IAWM COMMITTEES

ADMINISTRATIVEAnne Kilstofte, chairAnna Rubin

ADVOCACYLinda Rimel, chairBeverly LomerShelley OlsonHasu PatelUrsula RempelNaomi StephanHsiao-Lan Wang

AWARDS: CONCERTSScott LockeMaria NiederbergerKatherine Powers

AWARDS: PAULINE ALDERMANElizabeth Keathley, chairChristine AmmerLaurie Blunsom

AWARDS: SEARCH FOR NEW MUSICMary Lou Newmark, chairMargaret Lucy WilkinsCarol Worthey

COMMUNICATIONElizabeth Hinkle-Turner, chairMonique BuzzartéHsiao-Lan Wang

CONGRESSAnne Kilstofte, chairEsther FlückigerPatricia MoreheadDeon Nielsen PriceUrsula RempelLi Yiding

DEVELOPMENTAnna Rubin, chairDeon Nielsen PriceLi Yiding

FINANCEElizabeth Hinkle-TurnerAnna Rubin

MEMBERSHIPMary Lou Newmark

NOMINATIONSMaryanne Rumancik

IAWM Affiliates

Archiv Frau und Musik (Germany)Association of Canadian Women ComposersCID-Femmes (Luxembourg)Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica (Italy)FrauenMusikForum Schweiz/Forum musique etfemmes SuisseKapralova SocietyKorean Society of Women ComposersMu Phi Epsilon, Los Angeles ChapterNational Association of Composers, USANational Federation of Music ClubsNational League of American Pen WomenRomanian Association of Women in ArtSigma Alpha IotaSophie Drinker Institut (Germany)Stichting Vrouw en Muziek (The Netherlands)Suonodonne-ItaliaWomen in Music (United Kingdom)

International Liaisons

Africa: Plaxedes Vimbai ChemugarinaAsia: Jin Hi KimChina: Li YidingEurope: Esther FlückigerKorea: Chan Hae Lee, Cecilia KimJapan: Taeko NishizakaJordan, Middle East: Agnes Bashir-DzodtsoevaMusic Library Association: Robin RauschPhilippines: Corazon C. DioquinoRomania: Mihaela VosganianSouth Africa: Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph

IAWM Committees, Affiliates, and Liasons

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ARTICLES

The first time you heard of Beata Moon you might havebeen struck by her name: Beata, from the Latin “beatus,”meaning “blessed” or “fortunate,” and Moon, the lunarsister of the sun, reflecting the spattered rays of Earth’snearest star. Or perhaps unsure of the pronunciation ofBeata (Bay-AH-tah), you erroneously syllabified it as“beet-ah,” thinking of the beat of a drum. Regardless,upon an encounter with her name alone, you may havehad a visualized amalgam of “blessed,” “moon,” and“beat.” If so, it would not have been an entirelyinappropriate introduction to the composer herself.

After making an acquaintance with her name,perhaps you encountered her Website image—black andwhite, dark sunglasses, black sleeveless shirt, eerily out-of-focus hallway. What should evoke aloofness, apathy,and distance, unexpectedly feels chic, warm, andinviting when nestled within the green-tea and spearmintframes. Or you might have met the Asian girl blowing abubble, frozen in time, lucid among another fuzzybackground—on first glance, a snapshot of child-likeinnocence, until you are confronted with the words“perigee & apogee.” Not exactly youthful words aboutthe moon. And even in this playful photograph (whichserves as the cover photograph for her first CD entitledPerigee & Apogee), there is poise, there is direction,there is a seriousness that warns you thatunderestimating the subject would be perilous. Moondid not arrive here by accident. And she is not a child.

After cogitating about her name, then surveyingthe ageless photographs that adorn her discography(three CDs at the moment), you might have heard hervoice, particularly if you have listened to New York’sprimary public radio station, WNYC. Since 2000,Moon’s voice, usually accompanied by her music, hasgraced its airwaves at least thirteen times. Her voice, aperennially golden timbre, crisp like an autumn mapleleaf, hovers in a steady tessitura, punctuated by frequentgiggles, and is always warm and communicative. Thereis no distance between the listener and the composer.She is an effective exponent for the contemporarycomposer: she hosted the classical music televisionprogram Music New York, is a teaching artist for theLincoln Center Institute, and is an adviser for the“Portraits Project” (in conjunction with the PoliceAthletic League), which “brings musicians and poets

together to serve as mentors for at-risk youth.” Shedeveloped the game-like WHODUNIT?! concertformat, in which the audience receives the concertprogram after the concert, and she released a digital

video of the making of her second CD, Earthshine, onartspass.com. It is not a surprise, given the fact that, inaddition to being an organically energetic and passionatebeliever in classical music education, she is the daughterof a minister. Inspiration is the ingredient that makesideas palatable, and nobody knows this more than Moon.

She was born in North Dakota and raised in Indiana,and her parents would drive her and her sister toChicago’s American Conservatory of Music eachweekend (about an hour away), where she received atypical juvenile classical music tutelage. Moonremarked, “I didn’t know there were women composers;

The Transcendentalist: Beata Moon

PATRICK DUREK

Beata Moon

IAWM Journal Volume 14, No. 1 20082

I didn’t know there were contemporary composers.” Shegrew up in a traditional Asian home, where children“are not given the choice.” She continued, “you just doas you are told, so I just did as I was told.” Since musicwas her destiny, and since hands were the musician’sessential tool, she was not required to do householdchores such as washing dishes and cooking. Instead,three or four hours of piano practice, on school days,was the requirement. The music she listened to includedProtestant hymns and western classical music, but nottraditional Korean music, rock, or pop.

The intensive piano study led her to the JuilliardSchool, where she studied piano performance with theRussian traditionalist, Adele Marcus. In addition tomentoring such legendary concert pianists as StephenHough, Marcus also taught Neil Sedaka and CyColeman. It is curious that two students, albeitPreparatory students, who studied with a world-renowned Russian pedagogue at one of the world’sprestigious conservatories, ended up writing “BreakingUp Is Hard to Do” (the former) and “The Best Is Yet toCome” (the latter). Perhaps fostering artistic rebellionwas something Marcus inadvertently encouraged. If so,Moon, who did not quite do a 180 degree turn-aroundbut, rather, a 90 degree—composing such pieces asAntelope Vamp, for electric violin, vibraphone,percussion, and piano, and Vignettes, for electric guitarand piano—could be added to the list of rebels.

The natural next step on Moon’s path should havebeen an embarkation onto the world concert stage. Itshould have included renditions of Beethoven andBrahms. It should have led to crisscrossing the planetfor nightly recitals at Victoria Hall, Auditorio deTenerife, and the Barbican. But it didn’t. “I was gettingburnt out,” she admits. “I didn’t know why I was there;I had never really chosen music for myself, and I alwaysfelt left out at Juilliard—everyone was just so ‘into it.’They knew so much more about music, they knew somuch more repertoire.” She felt overwhelmed by therealization that what she knew was but a minuscule partof what there is to know: “I know nothing except thefact of my own ignorance,” as Socrates put it. Still, inthat crisis came an epiphany: “I just hadn’t discoveredthings for myself, yet,” she said. “I just needed to figureout what I wanted to do for myself.” Next came a leave-of-absence, a cessation of rigorous practice, a periodof contemplation, a time of searching andexperimenting, and the eventual moment of self-discovery.

Once out of the conservatory, Moon, like most post-college musicians, engaged in many of the typicalauxiliary musical jobs that pay the bills. “At that time, Iwas open to anything,” she confesses. “In order to earna living while I was figuring out what to do, I utilized

my music skills. I taught general music to K througheighth grade in the Bronx, and I worked in the box officeof a concert hall.” And as many life-altering discoveriesarise serendipitously, so did her encounter withcomposition. “I found a job improvising for a moderndance class, the first time I had improvised,” she sayswith understated nonchalance. At the time, a career as acomposer had not crossed her mind. But then achoreographer from Juilliard, who had heard about her“composing” asked her to write some music for him tochoreograph. Then, while working at a summer camp,she collaborated with the theater director, improvisingmusic for a David Mamet play. She commented, “It wasfun, it was just incidental music on the keyboard....”Then another friend asked her to “write something.”After a half decade of proliferating compositionalprojects, Moon finally came to the realization that shewas in fact a composer.

Time was, artistic rebellion meant avant garde, tonaland harmonic complexity, a tangled web of rhythm andmotif. In the late twentieth-century classicalenvironment Moon inhabited, the desire to createcomplicated music still reigned supreme. (Evenminimalism, the other prominent compositional schoolat the time, required an attention span that couldwithstand spinning motives repeated for double-digitminutes—demands made on the listener similar to thosemade by serialism.) But Moon was a pianist trying tofind her role in the artistic realm, not a composer tryingto outwit her fellow composers or confuse her listeners.Her musical heroes were essentially FrenchImpressionists and Romantics—Ravel, Debussy, andCécile Chaminade—not Schoenberg, Stockhausen, andReich. Plus, she entered the compositional scene alreadyhaving written music that had been heard, and liked, byothers. Being drawn into the field by a barrage ofcommissions for utilitarian music is something that most“trained” composers, paradoxically, do not achieve intheir lifetimes. A statement that to Moon iscommonsensical vibrates with irony when I think of howrarely I have heard the latter part uttered by hercontemporary colleagues: “I am doing it for myselfbecause I’m trying to express something, but I wantpeople to be able to hear it, I want it to be played, Iwant it to be listened to, I want it to be enjoyed.Somehow, I would like people to be moved by it.”

Virgil Thomson once described Erik Satie’scompositions as being “as simple, as straightforward,as devastating as the remarks of a child.” Beata Moon’smusic shares this sentiment. It is strikingly palatable, itis transparently tangible, it is without airs or neurosesor pretenses. It is a music that tries to be nothing more,nothing less, than what it is. It is not “deceptivelysimple,” that catch-all cliché used to shield against

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criticism of naïveté, for that would imply somethingsurreptitious, and there is nothing hidden in her musicthat is not meant to be heard. Her music might be called“populist classical”—sophisticated music for thepeople, akin to the music of Bernstein, late Copland,Lou Harrison, Philip Glass, and, yes, Satie. As WilliamJames quipped, “I am against greatness and bigness inall their forms,” and so, too, is Moon’s music, even whenscored for large ensemble. In Transit is the only listedorchestral work on her Website, and Fission and ThreeMovements are for large chamber ensembles. The musicis not foreboding—it is vast like Central Park, not theRio Grande. There is a feeling of busyness, exuberance,delight, joy, bustle, lighthearted jostle. Her music ismetropolitan.

Antelope Vamp, from the Perigee & Apogee CD,for electric violin, vibraphone, percussion, and piano,was my first encounter with Moon’s music. It was anapt introduction. The piece begins with a mellow, lazyvibraphone and piano figure that gently tumbles slow-motion into a smoky cellar den. The vibes could beLionel Hampton, for all you know, or “Mister Rogers’Neighborhood.” But then the piano enters with asyncopated Latin-American ostinato. Then shufflingmaracas. Then a long, drawn-out violin melody coaxesyou like a Caribbean breeze, tugging at your shirt,calling you onto the dance floor. However, you don’twant to dance, you are hypnotized, dreaming,spellbound. Your intellect pounds on your heart, armfull of criticisms, but you don’t let it in. As the violinline morphs into a riff, first jazz, then bluegrass, thenrock, you don’t even care to think. You are in a cartoontrance. This is not classical, but it is also not jazz, rock,pop, or minimalism. And yet, paradoxically, it is. Thisis fresh, composed music. It is an amalgam of all themusic you have ever heard, but not exclusive to anygenre. Label it classical if you will, but this music cannotbe categorized.

If Antelope Vamp displays the euphoric, carefreeside of Beata Moon the composer, Guernica exposesthe contemplative, cerebral side. Like Nietzsche’s quote,“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to givebirth to a dancing star,” Moon took somethingprofoundly disturbing to her, the Iraq War, and usedher emotion to spark a work of art: “I was so upset whenhe [President Bush] decided to go to war that I just feltlike I had to compose something—I didn’t know whatelse to do,” she said. “It was an outlet. Usually, I comeup with titles after composing, but I thought of Picasso’spainting, which gave me something to relate to, and themusic followed.”

Guernica, for solo piano, made its first appearanceon her Earthshine CD, and returns, newly recorded, onher most recent compact disc, Piano Works. The first

half of the three-and-a-half minute piece is predictable(for a piece with such a title), but effective. The chaosof war is illustrated via musical onomatopoeia: abelligerent left hand ostinato punctuated by truculentchords and right hand rolls creates sonic havoc. Freneticmelodic shards constantly interrupt each other in classicStravinsky-like mode. What occurs halfway into thepiece, however, catches you off guard: the barrageceases and a hauntingly sweet melody sings, innocently,alone, apparently unaware of the destruction takingplace around it, as if it were a newborn child. Fromhere onward, the battle is over; displaced melodicmaterial begins to reassemble itself, gradually coalescinginto a steady trudge into the unknown. And just as thebewildered conclusion feels imminent, there enters yetanother twist—an unexpectedly warm fragment of achildren’s song, this time a literal quote: “I wrote thissong for children’s choir called ‘We Are One,’ abouthow we’re all part of this Earth together,” Moon said.“No one will know that it’s in there because no one hasheard the song but me, but that’s how it ends. I was justhoping that there would be a resolution.” Hope it is, notnaïve, not callow, but cautiously optimistic. Like icynails on a coffin, a wide-spaced minor sixth dyad snuffs“We Are One,” only to leave a quarter minute of itsdecaying presence followed by silence. Each listener isleft with a subjective impression, hearing, seeing, whatone wants to hear. Guernica is a mirror.

A major component of Moon’s musical ingenuityis her predilection for devising unorthodox ensembles.It is not unusual for the modern composer to write foratypical combinations (usually a result of commissionsfor such groupings), but it is worth noting some Moon’sgroupings: in addition to the instrumentation forAntelope Vamp, she has written for soprano, piano,violin, and drum; clarinet and violin; marimba,percussion, flute, violin, and piano; two sopranos, stringorchestra, and piano; guitar and baritone; actor, piano,and percussion; brass trio; speaking pianist, piano, andtoy piano; saxophone solo; and electric guitar andelectric piano.

Of the atypical pairings, Vignettes (from theEarthshine CD), for electric guitar and electric piano,is most interesting. The introduction’s simmering,swelling electric guitar arpeggios leave you with nodoubt that what you are hearing is jazz, à la JohnScofield. A half minute later, when the now distortedguitar plays what sounds just like the riff from theBeatles’ “Hey, Bulldog,” you think you are hearingclassic rock. Then the piano plays the same riff, thenthe clean jazz arpeggios are back, then the rock riff.The dialogue intensifies, tension building, releasing,leaving you both excited and wary. Where is it going?This is new terrain, and it is unpredictable. Minimalism

Durek: The Transcendentalist: Beata Moon


enters the room: a series of motives, one sounding likeProkofiev, one sounding like Woody Woodpecker, arebatted back and forth. But not for long; a lengthy pauseleads to a canvas of opaque sonic watercolors—eerie,Japanese, Hawaiian, quasi New Age, beautiful. This isthe eye of the storm, falsely comforting. Over anirregular metered piano ostinato flames a hellish,incandescent guitar line. As soon as it arrives, it is gone,leaving in its wake a fabric reminiscent of Popul Vuh(the ambient early-1970s electronic band whose musicwas featured in many Werner Herzog films). And thatis it. A fervent series of vignettes, organically

manifesting from the bubbling electronic goo, havetaken us through jazz fusion, Yellow Submarine-eraBeatles, minimalism, Prokofiev, cartoons, New Age,Japanese animé, death metal, and Bavarian film. All injust over five minutes. Moon has created somethingcompletely new: a music that transcends genre.

Patrick Durek is a classical guitarist and music journalistwho lives in central New Jersey. His previous composer profilearticle, about Indian-American woman composer AshaSrinivasan, was published in The Home News Tribune. Asimilar article was also featured on Sequenza 21.

Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, along withblue cathedral, propelled her into recognition thatcontemporary composers seldom enjoy. Since its June12, 2002 premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra,under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch, at the newly-opened Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts,Concerto for Orchestra has appeared regularly onsymphonic programs.

The Philadelphia Orchestra celebrated itscentennial in the year 2000, and to commemorate thisspecial milestone, the orchestra commissioned worksby several composers.1 An orchestra member who wasfamiliar with Higdon’s music suggested her for one ofthe commissions.2 Word-of-mouth endorsements remainthe composer’s primary method of promoting her music.Higdon, whose personality is as appealing as her music,humorously describes an incident that occurred about amonth after she received the commission. “I waswalking down the street…and the first flute player,Jeffrey Khaner, was running down the street, jumpingup and down motioning to me. He goes tearing acrossthree lanes of traffic, almost getting hit, and he said,‘The Philadelphia Orchestra is going to commissionyou.’ At which point I promptly fainted. No, justkidding.’”3

The commission was an exciting proposition for ayoung composer fresh out of graduate school, but aninordinate amount of pressure accompanied theopportunity. Recalling her initial period of uncertainty,Higdon remarks, “I was completely horrified. It took awhile for that to sink in. And then panic set in, literally,

Marching to a Different Drummer:Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra

CHRISTINA L. REITZ

for about a year. It was scary.”4 She began work fairlysoon after receiving the commission in 1998; thepremiere was not scheduled for another four years.

Early in the compositional process, Higdon decidedthe work would be a Concerto for Orchestra. Since morethan twenty other composers, ranging from WitoldLutoslawski to Joan Tower and Thea Musgrave, haveutilized the same title, a door may be opened forcomparison between Higdon’s work and those of thepast. Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is the bestknown composition of the genre, and it continues toremain an audience favorite. Because of its prominence,parallels to Higdon’s work are frequently drawn bycritics. Higdon consciously strove to differentiate herwork from that of the Hungarian master, and yet aconcerto for orchestra by any composer will explorethe diverse timbres available in a large ensemble.Higdon affirms that comparisons between her music andthat of other composers are common. She recalls, “Onereporter said, ‘This piece reminds me of Lutoslawskiand Schoenberg and Mozart and Stravinsky.’...All thecomposers [are] completely contradictory and I[thought], ‘What are they saying? I don’t understandwhat this means.’”5 Undoubtedly, such comments makelittle sense, and attempts to compare Higdon’s Concertowith works by other composers are an exercise in futility.

Higdon’s individualistic approach is manifested, inpart, through her professional relationship with manymembers of the orchestra. As an active participant inPhiladelphia’s musical life since her graduate schoolyears, Higdon was familiar with the instrumentalists.

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She recalls, “I could see their faces when I was writing;I knew who’d be playing what part.”6 Higdonintentionally included solos for specific players basedon their musical strengths and personal preferences.7

Composing for particular performers is certainly nothingnew in the world of music, but it is less common in thesymphonic tradition, since most works are not composedfor just one specific orchestra. This aspect of Higdon’sConcerto, with its designated solos and orchestration,separates her work from its predecessors. Thecomposition may be seen as a historically significantcontribution to the legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestrabecause it captures the essence of the ensemble and theindividual players at the turn of the new millennium.

Without question, the Concerto’s immediatesuccess was facilitated by its exposure to members ofthe American Symphony Orchestra League (renamedLeague of American Orchestras). The organization’sannual conference coincided with the work’s premiere,and the professional consequences were considerable,to say the least. Higdon recalls, “There were 3,000orchestra managers there.…If it worked, things weregoing to go great for the rest of my life, if not, it wasgoing to be bad.”8 Her assessment of the situation wasquite accurate; her life and career altered drastically andnearly overnight. The excitement inherent in this andmany of her other works is a contributing factor to thefavorable audience reception, while simultaneously, theskillful orchestration and solo opportunities hold specialappeal for orchestral musicians. The work is filled withthe energetic rhythmic drive often associated withHigdon’s music. As a humorous aside, she cautions,“Three people have gotten speeding tickets listening tothat [Concerto for Orchestra] in the car….one personran a light. I try to warn people, ‘Be careful listening tothis in your car.’”9

Higdon’s inclusion of solo passages forinstrumentalists who rarely experience the limelight isa defining characteristic of her music. One such exampleoccurs in the opening movement in a dialogue scoredfor the divided first desk of the second violins—theprincipal and the assistant principal second violinistspresent the solo material, a most unusual choice. Yetthe composer’s rationale for such instrumentation isquite simple. She comments, “Why not? They’rephenomenal players and don’t get the opportunity.”10

Again, Higdon’s connection with individual membersof the Philadelphia Orchestra provided additionalmotivation for such solo excursions. Regarding thisparticular passage, she remarks, “Kim [Fisher]…is theprincipal second violin of the Philadelphia Orchestra,and I had gone to school with her at Curtis. I couldn’tleave her out. Kim would have been very upset withme.”11 While the instrumentalists in the Philadelphia

Orchestra welcomed these rare opportunities to shine,not all subsequent violinists who have performed thework have been as enchanted. In one instance, amusician jokingly told Higdon that she should be thrown“off a roof” for composing such technically andmusically challenging solos. Always sincere and casual,the composer laughed and said, “I promise I won’t do itagain.”12

The Philadelphia Orchestra is especiallydistinguished for the lushness of its string section, andHigdon planned to feature “the Philadelphia stringsound” in the second movement. Initially, Higdonanticipated a slow tempo in order to bask in the harmonicrichness and aural decadence for which this ensembleis so famous, but during the compositional process, themusical ideas that poured forth appeared only in a livelytempo. She conceded to her instincts and composed anexuberant dance-like movement. Instead of the expectedlyrical themes, she honored the string section with herown compositional signature of energy and intensity.13

Because of the massive length of the concerto,Higdon began by working on the movement for whichshe had the most musical ideas. Typically, whenembarking upon a composition, Higdon starts with aninner movement or section, and with Concerto forOrchestra, she commenced the writing process with themystical third movement. The many instrumentalsolos—the initial seeds of work—were planted withinthis movement. She composed the first movement last,since the opening marks the audience’s initial exposureto the work and is thus particularly significant.14 Bywriting in this manner, she can conceptualize almostthe entire work before starting the first movement.

Jennifer Higdon (photo by Jeff Hurwitz)

Reitz: Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra


Originally, Higdon planned a work in fourmovements, but early in the compositional process, sheexpanded it to five. As such, the structural organizationis an arch-form with a central emphasis on the thirdmovement. Because movements two and four are scoredfor strings and percussion, respectively, theorchestration provides additional balance to the overallstructure. These complementary movements areapproximately the same length, and they furtherstrengthen the arch-form configuration and contributesignificantly to the clarity of the work’s form. Higdonintended that the third movement function as the heartof the concerto, but she did not intentionally devise theoverall structural design. Higdon recognizes instinct asa primary factor in all of her compositions; this neatlybalanced form provides one example of her intuitivecompositional method.

The third movement is the work’s zenith, which isattained by featuring not only individual sections of theorchestra but also solos for the principal players. Thismovement includes more extensive exploration amongthe soloists, the sections, and the full ensemble thanany other movement, and it displays the orchestra’scapabilities under the hands of a master craftsperson.The movement bears the expressive adjective“mystical,” unlike the first two movements, whichprovide only metronome markings. Higdon describesherself as a spiritual person, although she does notsubscribe to organized religion. In the composer’swords, “Writing music feels a bit like prayer.”15 Themovement begins softly to establish a mysticalatmosphere. She explains, “I was trying to createmysterious sounds, and I knew it was like when youwhisper, you draw them in. I knew if I did that in thestrings it would [increase the attention of] the audience.I thought, ‘Let’s create some magic to set up thesolos.’”16 This otherworldly sound is achieved primarilythrough natural harmonics in the strings performed verysoftly. The remainder of the movement features amixture of traditional and unorthodox scoring for avariety of instruments.

Movement four displays the percussion exclusivelyand aptly demonstrates the composer’s interest in thiscontinually evolving section. She recalls, “I did thisbecause the percussion is the one section of the orchestrathat has developed the most in the twentieth century.”17

An additional rationale was simply “because DonLiuzzi, the timpanist, wanted to play percussion.”18 Thefourth movement uses the slowest tempo of the entirework and affords an opportunity for listeners to savorthe multiple timbres possible from the percussionsection. The movement opens with pitched instrumentsperformed with a bow, an accessory typically associatedwith strings. This orchestration provides an additional,

albeit subtle, connection between movements two andfour that further strengthens the arch-form structuraldesign. Regarding this relationship, the composerremarks, “I hadn’t thought of that. It could very wellbe.”19 Higdon neither confirms nor denies suchobservations. Her explanations presume that suchconnections are valid, and she attributes the resultingdesign to her subconscious compositional approach.

Higdon selected the soft dynamic level and slowtempo partly because of conductor Sawallisch. Sherecalls, “He just didn’t want percussion so I [thought],‘If I write really slow at the beginning and it’s reallyquiet maybe he’ll be convinced by it.’ I wanted him tohear that not all percussion was loud. He didn’t want torehearse that movement; in fact, he didn’t rehearse ituntil the dress rehearsal. Then it became one of hisfavorite movements.”20 As the work progresses towardthe finale, Higdon continues to explore the variouspossibilities within the percussionists’ arsenal andsimultaneously builds excitement for the explosion ofinstrumental color and rhythmic intensity in theconcluding movement.

The thrilling finale continues the energy thatoriginated in the preceding movement through anacceleration of the tempo in numerous phases, acomparison Higdon likens to a “Victrola being woundup.”21 She states, “I was fascinated to see if I couldspeed the orchestra up….I thought, ‘Let me see if I canactually make that happen.’ Part of it was just acompositional challenge.”22 As expected, allinstrumental forces combine at the conclusion, whichfunctions as a summation of the entire composition byreintroducing material from the previous movements.

Since its premiere, Concerto for Orchestra hasgarnered performances by several leading orchestras.In 2005, a Telarc recording by the Atlanta SymphonyOrchestra, conducted by the composer’s long-timesupporter and former instructor, Robert Spano, receivedfour Grammy nominations and won the award for BestEngineered Album, Classical. ZAKA (2003), a chamberwork scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, andpercussion is one of the featured works on the compactdisc Strange Imaginary Animals performed by eighthblackbird on the Cedille label. This recording wasawarded a 2008 Grammy for Best Chamber MusicPerformance, and Higdon’s contribution was selectedas a finalist for Best Classical ContemporaryComposition.

The success of Concerto for Orchestra has led toadditional major commissions for Higdon. ThePhiladelphia Orchestra premiered two of her latestworks in January 2008: Concerto 4-3, featuring thestring trio Time for Three, and The Singing Rooms,scored for violin, choir, and orchestra; in the premiere,

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Jennifer Koh was the soloist. Another work for violinsolo and orchestra is scheduled for February of 2009with Hillary Hahn as soloist.

blue cathedral, the composer’s most frequentlyperformed work, may have ignited the proverbial flameof international stardom, but Concerto for Orchestrareveals that she has undoubtedly arrived and plans tomaintain her presence in the contemporary symphoniccircuit. Jennifer Higdon has proven that new life withina centuries-old concerto tradition is possible. At thistime, her star is luminous and continues to rise.

NOTES1. Other commissions include Aaron Kernis’s Color

Wheel, Michael Daughtery’s Philadelphia Stories, andRoberto Sierra’s Concierto para orquesta.

2. Higdon does not know which musician recommendedher music. Jennifer Higdon, interview with author, September19, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia.

3. “Publishing, self-publishing and the internet,”transcript of a Women’s Philharmonic panel discussion,“Composing a Career Symposium,” November 6, 1999;newmusicbox January 2, 2000, at http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=537.

4. Higdon, interview with author.5. Ibid.6. David Patrick Stearns, “Jennifer Higdon,” Andante

Corporation, June 2002, http://www.andante.com/.7. Nick Jones, liner notes, Jennifer Higdon, City Scape

and Concerto for Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,Robert Spano, conductor. Telarc 80620.

8. Andrew Druckenbrod, “Composer Making MusicalHistory,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 2, 2005, p. E-1.

9. Higdon, interview with author.10. David Patrick Stearns, “Jennifer Higdon.”11. Higdon, interview with author.12. Ibid. While this may explain the unorthodox scoring

in this specific example, it should be noted that the secondviolins are never “second” in Higdon’s works. Particularly inher string quartets, the writing for both violinists is equallychallenging from a technical and musical standpoint.

13. Nick Jones, liner notes.14. Higdon, interview with author.15. Jason Victor Serinus, “Interview: The Award-

Winning Jennifer Higdon,” Secrets of Home Theater and HighFidelity, June 2005, at http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_2/feature-interview-jennifer-higdon-6-2005.html.

16. Higdon, interview with author.17. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, “Jennifer Higdon

talks about her Concerto for Orchestra,” http://w w w. p i t t s b u r g h s y m p h o n y. o r g / p g h s y m p h . n s f /c o n c e r t + l i s t i n g s / 2 2 D D 9 3 4 D 4 8 8 A 8 9 5 4 8 5 2 5 703500670D45?opendocument.

18. Higdon, interview with author.19. Ibid.20. Ibid.

21. Nick Jones, liner notes.22. Higdon, interview with author.

Christina Reitz earned a Ph.D. in musicology from theUniversity of Florida with external cognates in women’sstudies and piano performance. Her dissertation, “AComprehensive Analysis of Selected Orchestral Works byJennifer Higdon,” combines her primary research interest:women composers and American music. Currently, she isvisiting assistant professor of music at Franklin & MarshallCollege in Lancaster, PA.

CONCERT REVIEW

Jennifer HigdonThe Singing Rooms and Concerto 4-3

CHRISTINA L. REITZ

In the 2007-08 season, the Philadelphia Orchestrapresented a four-week Leonard Bernstein Festival, butin January, the performance of Bernstein’s music waseclipsed by the premiere of two works by JenniferHigdon. On January 23 and 25, 2008, the programconsisted of Higdon’s The Singing Room (premieredon January 17) and Concerto 4-3 (premiered on January10) plus Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”).With world premieres of the Higdon works occurringearlier in the month and subsequent concerts featuringthe newly composed music, one wonders if perhaps“Higdon Festival” might be a more appropriate title.

The Singing Rooms combines elements of aconcerto and a cantata with its unusual instrumentationfor solo violin (performed by Jennifer Koh), chorus (thevery fine Philadelphia Singers), and orchestra all underthe baton of Christoph Eschenbach. The music, set totexts by Jeanne Minahan, Higdon’s colleague at theCurtis Institute of Music, flows seamlessly from onemovement to the next. In the composer’s introductorywords to the performance, the work “is a journeythrough a house where the violin leads the way.” Theorchestral opening gradually expands in dynamics andinstrumentation to present an image of Higdon openingthe front door of her house to allow the audience toinspect her compositional interior design. The fasterinner movements contain the rhythmic excitement andenergy frequently associated with this composer. Oneof the most poignant and expressive moments of thework occurs in an extended dialogue between theEnglish horn and the solo violin that serves as atransition between movements five and six; the imitativelines offer an intimate chamber-like setting within a largeensemble.

Reitz: Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra


Concerto 4-3, on the other hand, provides a moderndemonstration of combining vernacular traditions(bluegrass) with art music. For those still attempting todefine what American music is, they need look nofurther. Higdon’s upbringing in eastern Tennessee andher familiarity with bluegrass is evident through her useof syncopation, open string sounds, and pitch slidingthat frequents the three movements. Specifically writtenfor the string ensemble Time for Three’s soloists,Zachary De Pue and Nicolas Kendall, violins, andRanaan Meyer, double bass, Concerto 4-3 conveys anextreme energy that complements the music’sexcitement. Between the three poetically-titledmovements (“The Shallows,” “Little River,” and“Roaring Smokies”), Time for Three performed anoptional cadenza that often sounded like an impromptujam session. The first cadenza with its humorous

imitations resulted in audible (and appropriate) laughterfrom the audience, a rare phenomenon in art music. Ofparticular significance was the warmth of the ensemblein the lyrically expansive second movement, offeringsome of the work’s most stunning moments.

Those familiar with Higdon’s music will recognizecompositional traits in both of these new works: thesubstantial percussion section and the unorthodoxscoring—solos composed not only for theconcertmaster, but also for the assistant concertmasterand the third chair of the first violin section. And yet,the musical content of these works recalls little of herprevious oeuvre; the result is fresh and exciting. Thequestion that continues to resurface throughout theworld of art music is how to attract new listeners.Higdon seems to have found the answer: compose in astyle that communicates to a broad audience.

At the end of the nineteenth century, chamber musicwas not a popular genre with either composers oraudiences. In this era of Strauss, Mahler, and Puccini,the genres of choice required large orchestras with awide range of instrumental and vocal colors. It thuscomes as no surprise that the chamber works of EthelSmyth were little known then as they are now.

Smyth achieved considerable success during herlifetime, mainly for her operas, but her works faded fromthe repertoire after her death. She was viewed asmusically conservative and “born too late.” In studiespertaining to Smyth, the music that she wrote oftenserves as just a backdrop for her fascinating biography.1

Despite her British upper-class pedigree, Smyth ran offto Germany to pursue a career as a composer, shunningboth her family’s and society’s rules. Her exuberantpersonality opened doors throughout her life, as she metBrahms, Clara Schumann, Grieg, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky,Bruno Walther, Debussy, Queen Victoria, Kaiser “Bill,”the ex-Empress Eugènie, the Princesse de Polignac,Oscar Wilde, Emmeline Pankhurst, Virginia Woolf, andmany more. She fought for women’s right-to-vote inEngland, for the rights of women orchestral players,and for recognition of her own music.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of her birth,and to commemorate the occasion I wish to bringattention to her chamber works, which, althoughcomposed early in her career, demonstrate the rhythmicpropulsion, chromatic harmonies, contrapuntaltechnique, and melodic gift characteristic of all of hermusic. Smyth’s earliest pieces, as both a student and apublished composer, are chamber works. She attendedthe Leipzig Conservatory from 1877 to 1878, studyingwith Carl Reinecke and others. She also formedfriendships with some of the leading musicians inLeipzig, including the concertmaster of the GewandhausOrchestra, Englebert Röntgen, and a prodigal cellist,Julius Klengel.2 These musicians, along with theirfriends and family members, played sonatas, trios, andquartets as their chief form of entertainment, and invitedSmyth to join them. She also met the Herzogenbergs, aprominent musical couple and known confidantes ofBrahms.3 Heinrich Herzogenberg was a composer andfounder of the Bach-Verein in Leipzig. His wife,Elisabeth (Lisl), was a skilled pianist and former pupilof Johannes Brahms, as well as one of his most trustedmusical advisors.

Four Romantic Chamber Worksby Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)

AMY E. ZIGLER

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The Herzogenbergs became a significant force inSmyth’s life for the next seven years. In 1878 she leftthe conservatory to study composition, harmony, andcounterpoint under the meticulous care of Heinrich.With his wife Lisl as a fellow student, Smyth completedexercises in canonic writing, played through thesymphonies of Brahms at the piano, and copied hisscores, sometimes only days after he had completed apiece.4

But these were not the only influences on Smyth’screativity and musical style. Prior to Leipzig she enjoyedthe music of Beethoven, Bizet, and Wagner and studiedthe orchestration of Berlioz. She also loved to sing andcompose songs. Smyth’s new Leipzig friends did notcare for the music of Chopin, Berlioz, or Bizet butpreferred the more serious style of Brahms, Bach, andBeethoven as well as the occasional Mendelssohn orSchumann.5 Composers such as Dvorak and Grieg werealso part of the group of musicians who descended uponLeipzig whenever Brahms was in town, and Smyth cameto know their music equally well. It is difficult todistinguish between influence and innovation in Smyth’sworks of the 1880s. Her music encapsulates thediverging streams of composition, navigating already-tread waters while trying to find her own way. Theinfluence of Brahms is easily recognizable in her useof hemiolas, polyrhythms, and thick textures. She payshomage to the Austro-German tradition by writingländler-style movements, and perhaps her special useof the Scotch snap stems from the British folk style.

From 1877 to 1887 Smyth wrote a number ofsonatas, trios, and quartets. Of these, only three werepublished in her lifetime: the String Quintet, op. 1, theSonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, op. 5,6 and theSonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, op. 7.7 Thepublishing firms were major companies that rarely tookchances on composers who were not established.8 Inaddition to these works, the unpublished Sonata forCello and Piano in C minor (1880)9 and the Trio forViolin, Cello, and Piano in D minor (1880)10 are thebest examples of Smyth’s writing for chamberensembles. Only the works with piano will be discussedhere, allowing for a more direct comparison of texturesand treatment of instruments. These four worksdemonstrate not only the stylistic elements thatconstitute Smyth’s musical voice but also a maturing ofthat style from the two early student works to the twolater published pieces.11

The reception of these works is limited and varied,but critics do tend to agree in a broad sense on keyelements in Smyth’s music. Smyth scholar ElizabethWood described Smyth’s instrumental music as beingof a Brahmsian style, but “with a particular rhythmicvitality and an originality of unexpected, almost daring

harmonic ideas that stamp the music as her own.”12

Wood, however, does not offer musical examples todemonstrate her ideas. A Grove article in 1980 suggeststhat Smyth’s creativity was sporadic at best, stating that“throughout her work remarkable harmonic conventionslie cheek by jowl with conventional formulae, andstriking thematic ideas are followed by themes that areplainly manufactured.”13 From these statements it ispossible to infer that a significant characteristic elementof Smyth’s music is her harmonic language, althoughdefining innovation in that language is difficult.

It is not possible to compare the reception ofSmyth’s earliest chamber works with her later publishedworks. The Cello Sonata in C minor and the Trio in Dminor were not published in the 1880s, nor were theyperformed publicly. No date appears on the manuscriptof the Cello Sonata, although evidence points to 1880.14

The Trio is dated August 25, 1880 on the manuscriptscore. The Cello Sonata, op. 5 (1887), was most likelypremiered by Julius Klengel in a private performance,since he was the dedicatee, but there is no evidencethat a public performance was given at that time. Thepremiere took place almost forty years later, inDecember of 1926, well after Smyth was establishedas a successful composer. It was performed by MayFussell and Kathleen Long, and a review appeared inThe Times.

The shapes of the themes of the firstmovement may be rather amusingly Brahms-like, but there is individuality too. The trueBrahms disciple of the eighties would havedeveloped those themes laboriously; MissSmyth (as she was then) did nothing of thekind, but treated them with a rather waywardinconsequence which strikes the present-daylistener as characteristic of herself. The slowmovement, too, beginning with a sort of bassoostinato, soon left for something else, hasconsiderable charm, and two out of threethemes of the finale have a light-heartedgaiety which foreshadows the style of theBoatswain’s Mate.15

Smyth described the premiere of the Violin Sonata,op. 7, on November 20, 1887, in her memoirs. FannyDavies and Adolph Brodsky played it at the Gewand-haus Kammermusik hall, but the critics “unanimouslysaid it was devoid of feminine charm and thereforeunworthy of a woman.”16 This was Smyth’s first publicreview and possibly her first direct experience with thegender bias she would face for the rest of her career.

She persisted, however, and the following Marchshe sent the work, along with her Trio in D minor, to

Zigler: Four Romantic Chamber Works by Ethel Smyth


Joseph Joachim. Their friendship extended back to herearly years in Leipzig. His response was unusuallyunfavorable: “In spite of talent here and there, many aclever turn and a certain facility, candour compels meto say that both works to me [are] failures—unnatural,farfetched, overwrought….”17 Consistent with Smyth’sheadstrong personality, she responded by accusing himof playing pieces that had no musical quality but insteadmight garner him patronage and monetary rewards.18

Later critics were a bit more forgiving.Unfortunately, the reviews were written almost fiftyyears later, and by then Smyth had determined that hergender had limited her success. A 1934 review publishedin The Musical Times said of the op. 7 that the listeneris “surprised not by its Brahmsian turns of expression,but by the already recognizable independent nature ofEthel Smyth in a time and scene where Brahms was allpowerful.”19 J. Fuller-Maitland, writing for the firstGrove edition, remarked that these early chamber workswere “performed with success.”20 The similaritybetween this review and the critique of the Cello Sonata,op. 5 is undeniable. As is so often the case indescriptions of Smyth’s music, no musical examplesare given.

One analyst who provided a more detailed analysiswas Kathleen Dale, a British musicologist and themusical executor of Smyth’s works. She noted thedevelopment of Smyth’s contrapuntal writing during theyears in Leipzig as well as her lack of tutoring inorchestration.21 Dale wrote that the Violin Sonata, op.7, had a “sure sense of form” compared to previousworks, but she also described the inability of these earlyworks to conform to the “model” of sonata form.22

“[Smyth’s] compositions in sonata form make theimpression that she had to force herself into followingaccepted traditions. The two sonatas are not free fromstructural uncertainty, but they atone for it by melodicand rhythmic expressiveness, by beautiful colour-effectsand interesting give-and-take between the soloists.”23

Dale’s statements reflect the notion that structureswhich do notconform to theoreti-cal models are in-correctly composed.On the contrary,Smyth’s formalstructures during theentire Leipzig perioddemonstrate non-conformity and asense of experimen-tation with traditionalforms.

Elements other than form can distinguish acomposer’s work. Scholars who have studied Smyth’soperas and vocal works note an emphasis on the lowervoices. The heroine is often a mezzo-soprano in heroperas; in her songs for voice and piano or orchestra,the vocal part is set for mezzo-soprano or baritone.Smyth was an alto, and she frequently sang and playedher works for admirers and potential conductors. Thisinformation suggests a direct connection betweenSmyth’s vocal range and her melodic lines. Her tendencyto emphasize lower voices and timbres extended to thechamber works as well. She wrote two sonatas for celloand only one for violin; the quintet is composed fortwo cellos instead of the standard two violins, and thepiano trio opens with the cello.

As might be expected, each chamber piece is moreadvanced technically than the previous works. The CelloSonata in C minor is the least developed; the structuresare straightforward, the idioms are typical of thenineteenth century, and the melodic style is balancedand predictable. The Trio in D minor presents atremendous creative improvement and growth, althoughwritten just a few months later. Melodic ideas aredeveloped immediately rather than simply restated,structures are expanded, and harmonies are moreinnovative. But the differences are minimal comparedto the evolution of Smyth’s style after seven years oftraining and composing. Both of the published sonatasare significantly more passionate and expressive, withgreater distinction between the themes. The works arealso less dependent upon standard formal structures.

Smyth’s first movements are heavy withexpressions of angst. The principal themes, in duplemeter, always begin with a long tone, either two or threebeats, leading into a moving line over an agitatedaccompaniment in the piano part (example 1). Thedevelopment of motivic ideas begins almostimmediately, moving away from the tonal center andincreasing the amount of emotional tension. Secondarythemes, on the other hand, often draw upon the dance

Ex. 1. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Minor, op. 5, mm. 1-3

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or folk-like material featuring triplets and a lighter ormore lyrical melody in a related major key. Thecontrasting moods, modes, and rhythms are exploitedin the development sections with the use of polyrhythms,hemiolas, and chromatic movement between tonal areas.The recapitulations, however, are measure-for-measuretranscriptions of the expositions. The codas, on the otherhand, release Smyth from creative fetters, containingelements from the main themes and transitional ideasas well as the presence of unusual harmonic or coloristicmoment (example 2). Three of the four openingmovements release the tension built up in the movementthrough a relaxation of the tempo, marked meno mosso,or by a written-out ritardando. Two of the minor-keymovements end in the parallel major.

The slow movements, either andante or adagio,become increasingly complex as Smyth’s style develops.The slow movement of the Sonata in C minor (1880) isa theme and variations in B-flat major. The Trio in Dminor also employs variation form. The variations arenot labeled, but are distinguished by double bars anddistinct changes in articulation, mood, mode, and style.Smyth captioned this movement “The Courage ofSimplicity?!” possibly referring to her own tendency tocomplicate the compositional process.24 The theme,unlike many other “Smythian” themes, is strictlydiatonic except for a brief secondary dominant, but asin the Sonata in C minor, the variations becomeincreasingly intricate or drastically alter the mood.

The slow movements of the 1887 sonatas probablyreflect Smyth’s emotional upheaval at the time. Betweenthe years of 1882 and 1886, Smyth’s relationship withthe Herzogenbergs crumbled. Lisl had broken all contactwith her and many of her Leipzig friends turned fromher as well. She wrote that the winter in Leipzig in 1887was especially “arctic.”25

The Romanze of the Sonata, op. 7, evokes the twomoods that dominated Smyth’s life that year: sorrow atgreat loss of her friends, and joy about happier eventssuch as her sister’s festive wedding. The score andmanuscript of the movement indicate that living inLeipzig with so many memories of the past may havebeen difficult for her. “Dante, Inf. V. 121” is printed atthe top right side of the movement in the publishededition, alluding to a verse in Dante’s Inferno. In themanuscript, Smyth wrote her paraphrase of thisparticularly poignant and relevant passage: “But thetender grace of a day that is dead will never comeagain.”26

With this small piece of evidence, it becomes clearthat this movement, and perhaps the entire sonata,expressed the tumult in Smyth’s life in the years priorto its composition. Although the movement is primarilydiatonic, the minor mode and slowly lilting 6/8 meterconvey deep sadness. The moment of remembrance, ofrehearsing “memories of joy,” occurs at the allegrosection. The folk-like melody is treated with a brief trilland cadences with a Scotch snap figure (example 3).

Ex. 2. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, op. 7, mm. 236-248



The light-heartednature of thismelody is in com-plete contrast to theprevious section,emphasizing theconflicting emo-tions Smyth prob-ably felt at the time.The coda to thismove-ment offersone of those rarecoloristic momentsin her music. In theE minor andantegrazioso section, atmeasure 239, theviolin has reached ahigh C but at apianissimo dynamiclevel. In the nextmeasure, the piano sounds the most ethereal chord inthe entire movement, a D-sharp diminished-ninth chordin closed position with the E as the root and quietlyrolled across the keys. A trilled D-sharp finally resolvesto E in the violin part while the piano plays calmlythrough a series of harmonies leading to the tonic Eminor. The final measures are soft, delicate, and tragic.

The second movement of Sonata, op. 5, adagio nontroppo, contains three themes that repeat with ever morecomplicated accompaniments. Compared to the earlierworks, this movement is more developed in its treatmentof thematic ideas and harmonies. The drawn-outmelodies (set in E minor) in the low register of the pianoand the cello create a mood of a lamentation. The highlychromatic harmonies contribute to the unsettled

Ex. 3. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, op. 7, III, mm. 64-77

Ex. 4. Ethel Smyth, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in D minor (1880), III, mm. 1-16

13

atmosphere. As the sections repeat, the music becomesmore virtuosic; indeed, this movement contains someof the most difficult music that Smyth composed. Thickchords, octaves, and frequent alternations betweentriplets and sixteenth-notes add an element of turbulenceto the largely unaltered themes.

The scherzo movements in the four works offer anescape from the serious nature of the other movements.The Sonata in C minor features a ländler set in a minorkey and exudes the Eastern European style that Smythmay have associated with the music of Dvorak. Therustic nature of the peasant dance is emphasized by thedrone in the cello or piano accompaniment. Theharmonic ambiguity of the opening section, creating anunsettled or anxious emotional effect, is unexpected ina rustic dance movement. Although the key is F minor,the opening ten bars tonicize the dominant-seventhharmony. F minor is briefly heard in measure 11 butonly on the way to D-flat major, the Neapolitan-sixthin the established key area of C. A true sense of F tonalitydoes not occur until measure 18. The trio is predictablylighter and more diatonic, incorporating the Scotch snap.The third movement of the Trio in D minor is a scherzoand trio with irregular five-bar phrasing. The 3/8 meterand presto con brio tempo give the music a rather wild,dance-like character, which the editors describe as a“Spanish flavor” (example 4).31 This lively movementrequires virtuosic skill by all of its players.

The energetic finales of the works from 1880 arein sonata-allegro form, and the published sonatas are inrondo form. The Trio in D minor and the Sonata, op. 5,

are the most rewarding of the four finales. The Sonatamakes effective use of hemiolas and metric shifts todrive to the music to its conclusion with a climacticflourish. It is a lilting movement, in 6/8 meter, but inthe transition to the B section, the meter changes to 3/4while keeping a constant eighth note (example 5). Tothe listener it sounds like quarter-note triplets over aneighth-note bass line rather than a change in meter.

Smyth’s chamber works are exciting andpassionate, tender and tragic, light and playful. Theymay not be avant garde, but they should not be ignoredbecause they have been deemed conservative. They areskillfully-written examples of late nineteenth-centurychamber music and deserve a place in the repertoirealong side contemporary works such as the FranckViolin Sonata in A major or the Brahms Cello Sonata,op. 99.

NOTES1. In recent years, scholarship on Smyth has increasingly

focused on her sexuality, often reading biography into themusic itself. Although feminist musicology has made greatstrides in moving the field of musicology beyond positivism,there is a danger in superimposing too much of the analystand the personal into an interpretation of a work. Smyth’sworks are her creative expression, but the ideas and definitionsof sexuality today were far different than the views of thepast. For examples of this and further reading on the subject,see Liane Curtis, “Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers,” Curves 17,no. 2 (2007); Sophie Fuller, “‘Devoted Attention’: Lookingfor Lesbian Musicians in Fin-de-siècle Britain,” in QueerEpisodes in Music and Modern Identity, ed. Sophie Fuller

Ex. 5. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, op. 5, IV, mm. 19-30



and Lloyd Whitesell (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,2002); Elizabeth Wood, “Lesbian Fugue: Ethel Smyth’sContrapuntal Arts,” Musicology and Difference: Gender andSexuality in Music Scholarship, ed. Ruth A. Solie (LosAngeles: University of California Press, 1993).

2. For further information on these musicians, see EthelSmyth, Impressions That Remained (London: Longmans,Green & Co., 1919; reprint, New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1949), 142; and Margaret Campbell, “Masters of theTwentieth Century,” The Cambridge Companion to the Cello,ed. by Robin Stowell (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1999), 73f.

3. Smyth, Impressions That Remained, 169-173.4. Smyth hand-copied the op. 76 piano pieces by Brahms.

Johannes Brahms: The Herzogenberg Correspondence, ed.Max Kalbeck and trans. Hannah Bryant (New York: E. P.Dutton, 1909), 70.

5. Smyth lamented in her memoirs that her new friendswere not open non-German composers of the time.Performances of French music were ignored; even Wagner’soperas were rarely attended by this Leipzig circle. Most likelyowing to her status as a student and novice, Smyth followedtheir lead, despite her own attraction to dramatic operas andless serious German styles. She presented an assessment oftheir opinions in her first memoir: “But in that school [ofBrahms admirers] Bizet, Chopin, and all the great who talktragedy with a smile on their lips, who dart into the depthsand come up again instantly like divers—who, in fact, declineto wallow in the Immensities—all these were habituallyspoken of as small people.” It is clear from this statementthat Smyth did not agree with them, but for once she did notrebel too much. For further reading, see Smyth, ImpressionsThat Remained, 243.

6. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor,op. 5 (Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 1887).

7. _____, Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, op. 7(Leipzig: J. Reiter-Biedermann, 1887; renewed copyright,Vienna: Universal Edition, 1923).

8. In the past several years, growing interest in Smyth’smusic has led to the publication of previously unpublishedworks and to recordings of the chamber music. In 2001, LianaSerbescu edited and published the piano works (1877-80),and in 2003 Roberton Publications published the Trio forViolin, Piano, and Cello (1880). The above works and anotherunpublished cello sonata from 1880 have also been recordedin the last fifteen years. The remaining works are unpublishedand are held in manuscript at the British Library in Londonand the Durham University Library. This collection includesseveral complete string quartets, as well as single movements,unfinished works, and sketches.

9. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Cello and Piano in C minor,manuscript score, Add MS 45949, Ethel Smyth Collection,British Library.

10. _____, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in D minor(1880) (Tewkesbury, UK: Roberton Publications, 2003).

11. Over the course of her career Smyth would composefour other chamber works. Between 1902 and 1912 shecomposed the String Quartet in E minor, while also composing

her operas and volunteering for the suffragette movement.Sixteen years later, in 1928, she arranged two orchestral worksfor piano trio ensembles, the Concerto for Horn, Violin andOrchestra and the orchestral prelude, Two Interlinked FrenchFolk Melodies, from her opera, Entente Cordiale. That sameyear, Smyth also composed Variations on “Bonny SweetRobin” for flute, oboe and piano.

12. Elizabeth Wood, “Gender and Genre in Ethel Smyth’sOperas,” The Musical Woman, vol. 3 (Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Press, 1990), 494.

13. Michael Hurd, “Smyth, Dame Ethel (Mary),” NewGrove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 17, 425-26.

14. There is no date on the manuscript score held at theBritish Library in London. There is only a letter from Lisl toSmyth dated April 17, 1880: “Send your Cello Sonata quick,quick; she [Julia Brewster] wants to hear something ofyours...” (Smyth, Impressions That Remained, 283). As Smythwrote only two extant sonatas for cello and piano, one ofwhich is the Sonata in A minor for Cello and Piano, op. 5, itis possible to conclude that this letter refers to the earlierwork now found in manuscript at the British Library.

15. Julian Rolton, liner notes to The Chagall Trio, EthelSmyth: Impressions That Remained (Meridian Records,CDE84286, London, 1995).

16. Smyth, Impressions That Remained, 396.17. Ibid, 407.18. Ibid, 399.19. Dr. Whittaker, “Chamber Music,” The Musical Times

(1934), 174.20. Fuller-Maitland, New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians, vol. 7 (1954), 860.21. Kathleen Dale, “Ethel Smyth’s Music: A Critical

Study,” appendix to Ethel Smyth: A Biography, by ChristopherSt. John (London: Longmans, 1959), 289.

22. Dale, “Ethel Smyth’s Music: A Critical Study,” 292.23. Ibid, 292.24. Smyth, Impressions That Remained, 211.25. Ibid, 388.26. Ethel Smyth, Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor,

op. 7, manuscript score, Add MS 45950, Ethel SmythCollection, British Library. The Inferno of Dante, trans. byRobert Pinsky, bilingual edition (New York: Farrar, Strausand Giroux, 1994), 43. In the original: “Nessun maggiordolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice ne la miseria….” (Nosadness is greater than in misery to rehearse memories ofjoy.)

27. Margaret Lucia and Terry King, introduction to

Smyth, Trio for violin, cello and piano in D minor (1880).

Amy E. Zigler is a doctoral candidate in musicology and pianoat the University of Florida. She has presented her researchon the solo piano and chamber music of Ethel Smyth atnumerous conferences, and has recently performed selectionsof Smyth’s chamber works. Zigler will be presenting herresearch on Smyth’s chamber music at the upcomingconference, “Performing Romantic Music: Theory andPractice,” at Durham University, UK.

15

Canadian composer Mary Gardiner is celebrating her75th birthday in 2008 and her 35th year as a professionalcomposer. Her friends and colleagues are taking thisopportunity to honor her for her long career of pianopedagogy and performance, her service in many musicorganizations and projects, and her imaginative “well-crafted” and “honest-without-contrivance”compositions that have been published, recorded,broadcast, and performed across Canada andinternationally. Interviewed at her Toronto, Ontariohome in March2008, she revealedmany fascinatingdetails of her lifeand career. Gardineris wonderfullyreserved andunderstated, yet aformidable artisticvoice.

Mary Gardinerhas been involved inthe women-in-music movementfor many years,realizing thatwomen composersneed to jointogether to createnew opportunitiesfor themselves. Shewas one of the original founders of the Association ofCanadian Women Composers (along with CarolynLomax and Ann Southam), and served as chair of theorganization. She was also president (for 13 years) ofthe Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects(ACNMP’s Contemporary Showcase, a festival ofmusic by Canadian composers for students, is now anational festival). When she stepped down as thepresident of the Alliance, a scholarship was establishedin her name for young performers in the festival. Shehas served as chair on the Council of the Ontario Regionof the Canadian Music Centre (CMC).1 The CMC andthe Canadian League of Composers presented her withthe 2003 Friends of Canadian Music Award. She has

Canadian Composer Mary Gardiner:Celebrating Her 75th Year

JEANNIE GAYLE POOL

been an active participant in international women-in-music events in Boston, Alaska, Los Angeles, andGuelph, Ontario, and she is well known to many IAWMmembers.

Born in Toronto in 1932, Gardiner began her musicstudies with her mother, Viola Rutherford, who taughther to grade eight. Rutherford was a medal-winningpianist and teacher who gave up her aspirations tobecome a concert pianist when she married and hadchildren, as was expected in her day. She played theorgan at church, accompanied the choir and soloists,and could play by ear. “It is fortunate that I inheritedthat ability, too,” said Gardiner, who can play just aboutanything she hears. Gardiner loved the piano, awakeningat six in the morning to practice—she hoped to becomea concert pianist. She composed her first piano piece atage nine and continued composing during her teen years.

Gardiner attended the University of Toronto,graduating with an Honours B.A. degree in Music andEnglish and a Performer’s ARCT diploma in piano. Herprofessors included John Weinzweig, Oskar Morawetz,and Talivaldis Kenins, all among the founders of theCanadian League of Composers (CLC) and theCanadian Music Centre. No wonder Gardiner becameinvolved in these organizations and understood the needfor composer alliances and advocacy efforts. Shelearned from her mentors that if composers were goingto have success they needed to become advocates forthe musical arts. While at university, she played two ofher original compositions. One of them has been lost,but the other one, Footloose, although composed as aconcert work, has become a standard in the conservatorysyllabus piano teaching repertoire for grade nine, andis now in its third printing. This first published worklisted M. Rutherford Gardiner as the composer.2

Gardiner admits that it was years before she feltconfident enough to reveal her full name and face therampant discrimination against women composers ofher generation. She earned a teaching certificate fromOntario’s Faculty of Education and worked briefly as asecondary school teacher of English and music inaddition to teaching piano privately.

In 1955, she met her husband, John Gardiner; theyhad two children, Catherine (1961) and Robert (1963),and she continued to teach privately. She was asked to

Mary Gardiner(photo by Eva Michalak)


conduct the Humbercrest United Church Choir (1969-81), and she recruited her husband to join. JohnGardiner said, “Putting aside the fact that I am marriedto her, I must say, Mary was the best conductor we couldhave for the church choir. Very sensitive to thelimitations of the volunteer members of the choir, shetaught us singing and about music.” She hired Canadiansoprano Eva Michalak as soloist, and they haveperformed together for many years. As an accompanist,Gardiner is especially admired for her performances ofBrahms, Chopin, and Schubert lieder.

Gardiner’s splendid vocal compositionsdemonstrate her joy of working with singers as well asher firm understanding of how to support singers at thepiano and with other musical instruments. In those years,she wrote many pieces for church performancesincluding The Rose, for soprano and flute; Lazarus, forsoprano, flute, and piano; A Pot of Gold, for sopranoand piano (with poetry by Joanne Bersudsky); Hosannafor SATB choir and organ; and Deck Thyself My Soulwith Gladness, for soprano andpiano.

While in mid-life, in the early1970s, Mary Gardiner returned to herstudies in composition with SamuelDolin, who taught on theconservatory faculty and at theUniversity of Toronto. Dolin wasknown as the teacher of manysuccessful Canadian composers, andGardiner credits him with giving herthe compositional tools andconfidence “to strike out” on the nextphase of her career. She commented,“It is too bad that his music is notoften performed and not recognizedas it merits. He was very influentialin my career.” The first piece shecompleted while studying withDolin, Trilos for two flutes andpiano, was an instant success andwas subsequently performed inBoston. Another influential mentorwas Patricia Blomfield Holt, whotaught at the conservatory and wasalso under appreciated, probablybecause she was a woman and wrotein a traditional romantic style. Shegave Gardiner “important insightsand moral support.”

“The musicians for whom Iwrote liked my music and I receivedrequests and commissions,developing my professional career

from those contacts,” Gardiner said. Early musicaladmirers included members of Ardeleana, a chambermusic group that commissioned her to write The Legendof the First Rabbit, based on a Canadian Indian legend(the Mi’kmaz nation). Completed in 1987, the work isscored for narrator, flute, cello, piano, and drum. Thereare two professional recordings of this nineteen-minutework: the first on cassette with Ardeleana and the well-known Stratford Festival (Ontario) actor, Erik Donkin,as narrator; the second on a compact disc, in twoversions, one in English and one in French, producedby Studea Musica.3 A richly-illustrated storybook wasinspired by this composition. The magical story is abouthow a rabbit developed its long slender waist, legs forhopping, a split lip, and a white fur coat in winter and abrown coat in summer—all as a result of his efforts tosave a man who fell in a hole. Despite Gardiner’sbrilliant, imaginative writing, including extendedtechniques and delightful effects, some criticized therecordings because the narrators were not aboriginal

Ex. 1. Mary Gardiner, Out of Ivory Palaces (2005), p. 10

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speakers, and the storybook does not even mentionGardiner’s piece, apparently because it is “not politicallycorrect enough.” A new recording of this splendidchamber work is overdue. Another work commissionedby the Ardeleana ensemble was Gardiner’s arrangementof the Huron Indian Carol, which also uses specialeffects to evoke “the snow-covered wilderness lakewhere howling wolves may be heard, echoing in thehills.”

Gardiner’s avid interest in literature, folklore,aboriginal peoples, and nature inspires many of hercompositions, including art songs with texts byCanadian poets. Flutist Laurie Glencross has said aboutGardiner’s work, “I have always found great personalresonance in Mary’s writing. Her evocative and greatpicturesque music conjures up the scenery and historyof Canadian landscape and culture.” Gardiner hascomposed for piano, voice, choir, chamber ensemble,and string orchestra. Among her works are Short Circuits(1982); Two for D (1990), based on African-Americanrhythms; Synergy (1997); Three Love (?) Songs (1982-1995, published by Alberta Keys Music), an amusingset of songs with extended vocal techniques that has

received numerous performances; Polarities (1998);Turnabout (1999); and Pensées de la Nuit (2001), basedon three poems by Elisabeth Pomès. One of her mostpopular pieces is Spirit Essence for flute, cello, andpiano; it was recorded by Ardeleana on the compactdisc Spinners of Starlight, the first Canadian recordingto feature only Canadian women.

Elaine Keillor, an internationally renowned concertpianist, author, and musicologist, commissionedGardiner to write a work for solo piano—Mosaic, basedon fragments of folk songs—for her recording of themusic of Toronto composers to celebrate the 100thanniversary of the founding of the city (1984). Keillorsubsequently recorded all of Gardiner’s piano works.Gardiner remarked, “I have been blessed with suchtalented musical friends over the years, who encourageme to compose and who have given top qualityperformances of my works. All composers should beso fortunate.”

A few years later, she received another commissionto celebrate a special event in Canadian history.Zhawaninodin, for contralto, baritone, and piano, wascommissioned by the Victoria College Sesquicentennial

Celebration Concert Committee forthe Jessie Macpherson Com-memorative Concert Series in 1987.The work is based on a text byIsabella Valancy Crawford (1850-87), who is regarded as one of thefirst truly Canadian poets. The titlemeans “the south wind” in thelanguage of the Ojibway nation.

One of her more recentcommissions (from Groundswell inWinnipeg, Manitoba) is It’s AboutTime (2002), for speakingperformers, flute, clarinet, bassoon,and piano. According to notes in thescore, the theme of the work is “theinevitable ‘march of time.’ Therandom ‘text’ consists of expressionsusing the word ‘time’ and is bothrhythmically and freely notated asthe music requires. The performersare at liberty to re-assign the phrasesto other parts or to omit some inorder to facilitate the performance.”In 2007, she composed A Resonancein Time, for flute, clarinet, and piano.It was performed in an abandonedmine in a concert entitled “How(e)Sound” at the B.C. Museum ofMining (Britannia Beach) as part ofa CMC-sponsored concert series,Ex. 1. Mary Gardiner, Out of Ivory Palaces (2005), p. 11

Pool: Canadian Composer Mary Gardiner


New Music in New Places. The audience was advised“to dress appropriately.” In February of this year, thesame work was performed by CUBE, the Chicago newmusic ensemble, and broadcast on radio and the Internet.

Two other 2007 commissions included a new workfor flute and piano entitled The Silver Flute of Spring,for the flutist Laurie Glencross, assistant professor atMilliken College in Decatur, Illinois, who premiered itin March 2008. Out of Touch for piano four hands,commissioned by composer Diana McIntosh, exploresmany different ways in which piano sounds are createdby simply changing the touch. Gardiner is particularlylooking forward to a concert in October 2009 to be givenby the Toronto Heliconian Club, a professional women-in-the-arts organization, which will be celebrating its100th anniversary. The program will be devoted entirelyto the works of Mary Gardiner, and she is writing anew composition for the special occasion.

Soprano Eva Michalak made the followingobservations about Gardiner’s compositions:

Having listened to and performed Mary’smusic for more than 30 years, I can say thatshe has come to have her own unique voice,her own musical language—a certain modeof expression that is truly her own. Certainsounds she likes and uses in her compositionsare very much Mary. She is not about bravura,but expressing deeply, heartfelt emotion. Shedoes not show off or use technique for thesake of technique, but expresses herself fromthe heart. She is truly inspired by text andreads voraciously. Everything she has writtenhas been performed and audiences listenintently and are captivated by her work.

In the 1990s, Gardiner was much in demand as aclinician, and in her workshops on contemporaryCanadian music for piano teachers, she performed anddiscussed works by Barbara Pentland, Violet Archer,and Jean Coulthard, among others. Many of theworkshops were hosted by the Ontario Registered MusicTeachers Association with which she has had a life-long affiliation. Gardiner has also adjudicated studentcompetitions over the years.

As an illustration of Gardiner’s special concern forthe next generation of musicians, she told the followingstory. When she was adjudicating a piano competitionat the Winnipeg Music Festival, three young boys whoformed a six-hand piano team were awarded a first prizein their class. When she praised them for theiroutstanding performance, she suggested that theycommission a composer from Manitoba to write a piecefor them. They contacted her and requested that shewrite the piece; she agreed, insisting that they

commission her for $5.00 each, paying half to start andthe balance upon completion of the work. Their paymentof $7.50 arrived and she composed “The Red RiverB’ys” based on North American folk songs. The boysperformed it and won first prize at the followingWinnipeg Music Festival. Her hope is that they willcontinue to commission composers to write new worksfor them throughout their careers, expanding therepertoire for six-hand piano literature. Her work aspresident of the Alliance was dedicated to introducingyoung musicians (and their teachers) to contemporarycompositional techniques and composers.

Gardiner’s compositions for students have gainedher a considerable reputation throughout Canada; forexample, Synergy is on the new Royal ConservatoryMusic Syllabus for grade ten. Recently, she wascommissioned to write twenty-two sight-readingexamples (teaching pieces) for grades one to elevenpiano exams. Each piece helps piano students tackle aparticular sight-reading challenge and improve sight-reading skills. The pieces are as clever as they areinstructive, and will no doubt be enjoyed by youngpianists and teachers alike. The project is sponsored bythe University of Ottawa Music Faculty New PianoPedagogy Research Lab. Currently, Gardiner is

2008 Grammy Awards

Joan Tower was awarded three Grammys for hercompact disc, Made in America (Naxos),performed by the Nashville Symphony under thedirection of Leonard Slatkin. The CD won prizesin every category for which it was eligible: BestClassical Contemporary Composition (acomposer’s award for a contemporary classicalcomposition composed within the last 25 years andreleased for the first time during the eligibilityyear), Best Classical Album, and Best OrchestralPerformance (award to the conductor and theorchestra). Tower was selected for the “Ford Madein America” commissioning program for aconsortium of sixty-five orchestras from all fiftystates. Made in America, a fantasy on “Americathe Beautiful,” was performed by orchestras inevery state in the Union during the 2005-06 season.Other works by Tower on the album are Tamborand Concerto for Orchestra.

The Grammy for Best Chamber MusicPerformance (award to the artists) was won byeighth blackbird for Strange Imaginary Animals(Cedille Records). Jennifer Higdon’s Zaka(nominated for Best Classical ContemporaryComposition) is a featured work on the album.

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collaborating on a project with a former student, LeslieReid, on a series of teaching books, the first of whichwill be published this summer called Tek’n’eek:Passport to Piano Technique: A Musical Journey acrossCanada (www.pianotechnique.com). The series is beingcreated for the Technical Requirements of the RoyalConservatory of Music of Canada.

Unfortunately, many who are not familiar withGardiner’s chamber works may pigeonhole her as an“educational composer.” There is no doubt that shedemonstrates considerable talent in composing for avariety of competency levels for student pianists, but,like many women composers, this is part of thediscrimination she faces. Some critics tend to confinewomen composers who have written teaching piecesfor young musicians to the classroom and the parlor,and keep them off the concert hall stage, and, by allmeans, away from the orchestra. The quality ofGardiner’s teaching pieces makes many of them suitablefor professional concert performance, and she hasbroken through this stereotype to write for orchestra.Her 1977 Concerto for Percussion, Piano, Strings andDrum Set was premiered by pianist Monica Gaylord atthe first women composers’ concert in Toronto; asubsequent performance featured pianist ArthurOzolins, with the Hamilton Strings, in 1985 (bothconcerts were conducted by Marta Hidy). A two-pianoversion of the concerto has been performed on severalconcert programs. In 2005, the In Praise of MusicConcert Series in Los Angeles, California presented theworld premiere of her string orchestra piece, Out of

Ivory Palaces, originally commissioned by the Les Amisconcert series in Toronto, Michael Pepa, director.Gardiner was inspired by the text of Psalm 45 andincorporated fragments from Bach’s Cantata No. 78(“Wir eilen mit schwachen”) in the final section toconfirm that “stringed music makes us glad.” (Seeexample 1.)

Mary Gardiner is a celebrated and muchappreciated composer, music educator, and supporterof organizations devoted to promoting women in music.We congratulate her on her many contributions to thefield, and we wish her a very happy 75th birthday andcontinued success.

NOTES1. The CMC includes a biography of Mary Gardiner on

its Website and makes her scores and recordings available atwww.CanadianMusicCenter.com. You can hear Gardiner’smusic on the Website.

2. It was first published in a collection of grade nineconservatory pieces and republished in 1973 in a new separateedition.

3. A compact disc recording of this piece, released in1999, is available from Studea Musica of Ottawa, Ontario,Canada, with flutist Robert Cram, cellist Julian Armour,pianist Elaine Keillor, and narrators Jim Bradford (English)and Sylvain Landry (French).

Dr. Jeannie Pool is a composer, musicologist, filmmaker, andconsultant for the Motion Picture Music Department ofParamount Pictures in Hollywood, California. She visitsToronto on a regular basis, where she has lectured and heardperformances of her music.

The special guest speaker for the April 18, 2007luncheon meeting of the American Society of MusicArrangers and Composers (ASMAC) was Disney’sCheryl Foliart. She was introduced by her husband,noted Emmy Award-winning composer Dan Foliart (7thHeaven, 8 Simple Rules…for Dating My TeenageDaughter), whom she met while they were students atthe University of Southern California. She was directand refreshingly candid, and generally, she wasoptimistic about the future of live music scoring fortelevision in Los Angeles.

Cheryl Foliart’s career has followed a varied path:from award-winning instrumentalist and graduate ofUniversity of Southern California’s prestigious music

Cheryl Foliart, DisneyTelevision Music Executive

JEANNIE GAYLE POOL

program to music producer and to music executive.During this most recent phase of her career, she hasworked on the music for some of the greatest shows intelevision history. She has been a long-time championof using live musicians in Los Angeles, and she was akey player in returning live recording to television,although there is a problem today with adequate scoringstages.

Beginning at Paramount Pictures in the mid 1980s,Foliart had the opportunity to oversee such televisionfavorites as Cheers, Family Ties, Webster, McGyver,Star Trek: the Next Generation, and the first series madefor cable, Brothers. During her tenure there, she was in-strumental in organizing hundreds of recording sessions,

Pool: Canadian Composer Mary Gardiner


most of which were done at the venerable Stage M (nowclosed, unfortunately). She had the opportunity to workwith the leading composers and musicians of that era.She credits music contractor Carl Fortino, music copyistBob Bornstein, music clearance/rights expert EldridgeWalker, and music editor Jack Hunsaker at Paramountfor her on-the-job training, which she describes as herpost-graduate education in music.

After leaving Paramount in 1990, she became oneof the youngest department heads at the Walt DisneyCompany, where she has served as vice-president since1996. She worked with executive music producer ChrisMontan in TV animation music and then moved intohour-long dramas and musicals. Over the course of herDisney career she has organized and directed the day-to-day activities on thousands of episodes of suchtelevision classics as Home Improvement and the currenthits, including Lost, Desperate Housewives, Scrubs,Grey’s Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, andUgly Betty. Foliart’s music training and background havebeen indispensable in interfacing with composers andmusicians, and her passion for the musical score alongwith her in-depth knowledge of the industry continuesto make her one of the most successful executives inthe business.

She told the ASMAC attendees that she has alwaystried to encourage composers to use as many musiciansas possible and to recognize the power they have and touse it. Lost, for example, uses a thirty-five-pieceensemble. Foliart commented that “synthesizers havetheir limits,” thus many producers and directors todayprefer to use live scoring, if possible. She said that allproducers want brass instruments and that quirky,unusual music is in vogue. When asked about the roleof music supervisors, she commented that it is an all-encompassing title used for a wide variety of musicpeople, but basically music supervisors are the ones whochoose license music, and they should be called “licensemusic supervisors.” The title “music supervisor” ismisleading and does not adequately describe the job.

Foliart advised composers that it does not trulymatter who your agent is—they are all the same; shesaid that if you reach the level of doing professionalTV and film scoring, representation by just an attorneyis not sufficient. She encouraged composers to providesource music for a television show whenever theopportunity arises because of the potential backendroyalties. The use of pre-existing songs may be goodfor the licensors of music but not for composers andmusicians. She also suggested to composers, “Don’tmake anybody mad and be nice to the productionassistants, if you want to work.”

She recommended that composers not be shy aboutmaking connections with people who could be useful

in furthering their careers. Concerning communicationwith studio executives, she commented, “Be persistent,but not too persistent. Be direct and specific about whatyou would like to do.” She said that she and others insimilar positions prefer e-mails that provide updates ona composer’s activity, but she does not appreciateweekly calls asking for work. She made it clear that adelicate balance is required.

Composer and musicologist Jeannie Pool is an Advisor tothe IAWM Board and is a member of the Board of theAmerican Society of Music Arrangers and Composers inHollywood. (For more about the Society, visitwww.asmac.org.) Pool is a consultant at Paramount Picturesin the Motion Picture Music Department.

Athena Festival 2009

Murray State University is pleased to announce thesixth biennial Athena Festival to be held March 10-13, 2009. The festival is a weeklong celebration ofwomen and music. The theme for the festival is“Women, Music and the Twentieth Century” andthe featured composer/scholar is Judith LangZaimont.

The festival is issuing a Call for ChoralCompositions with a $1,000 prize, travel allowanceand festival residency. The choral piece must be acappella, SATB divisi to eight parts, and from fiveto ten minutes in duration. Premiere by MSUConcert Choir during the festival.

Call for Chamber Music Compositions with a$1,500 prize, travel allowance and festivalresidency. The piece must be ten to twenty minutesin duration and conform to the instruments listedon the Athena Festival Webpage. Premiere in MSUFaculty Chamber Music Concert during the festival.

Details of the composition competitions canbe found on the Athena Festival Website atwww.murraystate.edu/chfa/music/festivals.Deadline for submitting compositions is August 1,2008.

In addition to the compositions, the AthenaFestival is issuing a Call for Papers and LectureRecitals. The proposed paper or lecture recital topicshould relate to women and music. The AthenaFestival encourages not only established scholarsand performers, but also students with works-in-progress to submit abstracts for consideration.Guidelines for submitting an abstract forconsideration can be found on the Athena FestivalWebsite. Eleanor Brown is the festival director.

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IAWM AND AFFILIATE NEWS

President’s Message—Parity Through MomentumANNE KILSTOFTE

In spring, amid the cherry and peach blossoms, we makemusic. Many of the greetings from Chinese musicleaders began with words like these: very artful, verycolorful, and filled with peace. In essence, the 2008Beijing International Congress on Women in Music(April 18-22) was a huge success. The InternationalAlliance for Women in Music had musicians from over100 countries and five continents in some of the mostbeautiful concert halls around Beijing. Our openingconcert was held at the National Center for thePerforming Arts, a stunning concert hall in a beautifullydesigned facility surrounded by water. Our concertequaled that of the hall in which we were featured,dazzling the audience with the beauty and power ofwomen’s music. We continued to be dazzled day afterday of the congress. Please be sure to check the pictureson our Website!

The 2008 congress has proven, once again, thatthe international alliance between women and men isstrong and that the congress is at the core of what wedo to share our music, thoughts, friendship, and workand that our gathering together to meet and re-acquaintourselves with each other is central to this process. Thiscongress in particular had many men who attended andparticipated—which strengthens our mission. Ourmission is to focus on one main element—parity of thework of women in music. The more we continue toincorporate those who do women’s music, the more ourmusic and ideas will be incorporated into the mainstreamof music.

Many thanks go to Li Yiding and her Chinesecommittee, to Dr. Deon Price for her indefatigabledevelopment of donations, which allowed manymusicians to perform or hear their music, and to thepresident, the faculty, and the students of the ChinaConservatory of Music and their dedication to bringingthis congress together.

In order to further the future of the IAWM, wehave many needs at the forefront. Without thevolunteerism of the congress, the congress itself wouldnever have happened. We continue to need volunteersto assist in the development of future congresses andannual concerts. If you have an idea for a congress,please send it on to me or one of the congress committee

members so that we may begin to plan for the future.We also need a producer of our annual concerts in theUnited States. Lin Foulk, our last annual concertorganizer, had such a success with the 2007 annualconcert held at CSU-Fullerton that we not only receiveda preview in the Los Angeles Times but also a review inthe Orange County Register. Her hard work surely paidin great dividends, and she will be hard to replace.

The work of IAWM members was also recentlyseen and heard at the Women’s Festival of Music-International, held atIndiana Universityof Pennsylvania,hosted by Drs. SusanWheatley and SarahMantel. Many paperswere given and muchmusic was heard atthis three-day longfestival, now cele-brating its eighteenthyear.

The IAWM willcontinue to incor-porate our work withother musical eventsacross the globe,while we advocate for parity, but we shall continue toproduce events so that our work can be seen and heard.We are again expanding our Search for New Music witha new award this next year, possibly with two newawards, in new genres. It is imperative that we recognizework that furthers our mission and our members/peersin all areas of expertise. Having mentioned what wehave expanded, I regret to inform you that we are losinga publication, Women and Music, at the request of ourprevious publisher. WAM can still be found throughlibraries that subscribe to Project Muse. The IAWMJournal will continue to be published through theIAWM.

I have heard young women ask what joining theIAWM can do for them. I have found that this questionis raised only by Americans because the answers areobvious to those in other countries. We help all women

Anne Kilstofte


Pauline Alderman Awardsfor Outstanding Scholarshipon Women in Music (2007)

ELIZABETH L. KEATHLEY

The International Alliance for Women in Music ispleased to announce the winners of the 2007 PaulineAlderman Award for Outstanding Scholarship onWomen in Music. The prize honors pioneering musi-cologist Pauline Alderman, late founder and professorof the Musicology Department at the University ofSouthern California. The award honors exemplaryscholarly works focused on women in music in threecategories: book, journal article, and reference work.

Awards were made to winners for works publishedduring 2006 as follows: Susan Rutherford, for herbook, The Prima Donna and Opera, 1815-1930(Cambridge University Press); Elizabeth Eva Leach,for her article, “‘The Little Pipe Sings Sweetly as theFowler Deceives the Bird’: Sirens in the Middle Ages”(Music and Letters, vol. 87, no. 2); and MarionGerards and Freia Hoffmann, for their reference book,Musik-Frauen-Gender: Bucherverzeichnis 1780-2004(BIS-Verlag, Oldenburg).

In addition, the adjudicators gave honorablementions to the following works: Claire Fontijn, forher book, Desperate Measures: The Life and Music ofAntonia Padoani Bembo (Oxford University Press);Elizabeth Eva Leach, for her article, “Gendering theSemitone, Sexing the Leading Tone: Fourteenth-Century Music Theory and the Directed Progression”(Music Theory Spectrum, vol. 28, no. 1); and KristinaGuiguet, for her historically researched soundrecording, Mrs. Widder’s Soiree Musicale, Toronto,1844 (Melotrope Limited, Ottawa).

Adjudicators for the 2007 competition includeduniversity professors, librarians, and independentscholars: Sarah Morelli, University of Denver; EileenStrempel, Syracuse University; Ericka Patillo,

McConnell Library, Radford University; RenneMcBride, Wyndham Robertson Library, HollinsUniversity; Kendra Preston Leonard, Drexel Hill,Pennsylvania; and Sarah Dorsey, University of NorthCarolina, Greensboro.

Elizabeth Eva Leach swept the category of journalarticles, winning both the cash prize for one article andan honorable mention for another. Judges said thefollowing regarding Rutherford’s The Prima Donna andOpera: “broad-based both in concept and execution,theoretically sophisticated, elegantly written, andcomprehensively researched…virtuosic, like the singersshe describes.” Of Fontijn’s Desperate Measures: “awork of exemplary archival research…complementedby a valuable recording…the definitive Antonia Bembobiography for years to come.” Of Gerards’ andHoffmann’s Musik-Frauen-Gender: Bücherverzeichnis1780-2004: “an invaluable addition to the scholarlyliterature aiding research in the area of women andmusic.” And of Kristina Guiget’s The Ideal World ofMrs. Widder’s Soiree Musicale: “a very significantaddition to the scholarly understanding of women andmusic, particularly women’s roles as political beings inCanada.”

The announcement for the next Pauline AldermanAward competition appears on the IAWM Website,www.iawm.org, and in this issue. The Website containsa list of previous winners. For additional information,please contact Dr. Elizabeth L. Keathley, Chair, PaulineAlderman Award Committee, School of Music,University of North Carolina, Greensboro:[email protected].

Call for Submissions:Pauline Alderman Awards for 2009

The IAWM is pleased to announce the 2009 competitionfor the Pauline Alderman Awards for outstandingscholarship on women in music. Works published duringthe calendar years 2007 and 2008 will be consideredfor cash prizes in the following categories:

1) An outstanding book-length monograph aboutwomen in music, including biography, history, analysis,and critical interpretation, in any academic format (e.g.,book, dissertation, or thesis);

2) An outstanding journal article or essay treatingan aspect of women in music; and

3) An outstanding bibliographic study, researchtool, or reference work about women in music.Any individual or organization may submit items forconsideration by sending a letter of nomination withthe nominated work, postmarked no later than February1, 2009. Send letters and publications to:

through advocacy: radio and Web broadcast initiatives,awards, publication and programming of papers andmusic, as well as CD and concert reviews andinternational connections. But, as one womanmentioned to me, in order to really help one’s careerit’s what one does to advocate for all that helps morethan what one does as an individual. We are stronger asa group than we are independently. Together, we canmake a tremendous difference and gain moremomentum.

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Elizabeth L. Keathley, ChairPauline Alderman Award Committee, IAWMSchool of Music, Univ. of North Carolina, GreensboroP.O. Box 26170Greensboro, NC 27402-6170

The letter of nomination should state the name, title,and complete contact information of the author(s) andthe title and publication data of the work nominated. Inthe case of an article in an online journal, the letter ofnomination may be e-mailed to [email protected], with“Pauline Alderman Nomination” in the subject line. Thee-mail should include author’s information, as above,and the URL of the article.

Items will be evaluated for quality and significanceof research, clarity, persuasiveness, and utility as amodel for future scholarship.

Awards will be announced at the annual Congressof the IAWM (www.iawmcongress.org). Please includea postage-paid, self-addressed mailer if you wish to haveyour submission returned.

The Pauline Alderman Award was founded in 1985by the International Congress on Women in Music tohonor the memory of pioneering musicologist PaulineAlderman, Ph.D. (1893-1983), founder and chair of theMusic History Department of the University of SouthernCalifornia. Recipients of the Alderman Award includesome of the most distinguished names in feministmusicology. For a complete list, see www.iawm.org. Forquestions, contact Dr. Elizabeth Keathley, (336) 334-5911; [email protected].

Board duty that is legally determined and binding.Elected to three-year terms, which are renewable for twoconsecutive terms, subject to re-election for the secondterm. Board members are also expected:

To attend annual Board meetings

To be working on a portfolio project orresponsibility, self-determined, except in the case ofofficers OR help with the day to day running of the Board

To submit reports to the Board at least annually

To make informed commentary and vote on budgetand policy issues

Proposals are discussed via e-mail and at the annualBoard meeting.

Requirements

Inclusion on the slate requires one nomination andone second. (If self-nominated, one second from anothermember is required; if nominated by another person, theconsent of the nominated constitutes the second.)

Inclusion on the slate further requires submissionof a supporting Platform Statement on how the candidateplans to serve the IAWM to advance its mission. Thestatement should also incorporate the candidate’s

IAWM News

Correction: “IAWM AnnualChamber Music Concert”

Please see volume 13, no. 2, p. 33, lastparagraph: the concert review stated that Keiki Fujiieperformed her own work. The review should havestated that the work was performed by MargaretLucia. The corrected paragraph is below.

The second half of the concert turned toacoustic, unaltered instruments. Margaret Luciaperformed Keiki Fujiie’s Pas de Deux II (1989) forsolo piano. Opening with dramatic chords movingin perpetual motion, in a minimalist style of drivingostinatos and syncopated clusters, the piece createdan effect of intense, high contrast energy. The firstsection centered in the mid-range of the piano, andthe absence of pedal heightened its intensity. As thework progressed, the left hand expanded into otherregisters, while the right hand continued ostinatopatterns until finally the sustaining pedal supporteda climax in the low register. A quiet section ensued,using wide registral spacing and the warmth of thepedal before returning to the style of the dry, fast-paced opening. Making effective use of thearchitecture of register and clarity of form, Luciagave a virtuoso performance.

Call for Nominations:Get Involved with the IAWM!

MARYANNE RUMANCIK

It is not too early to start thinking about the 2009 IAWMBoard of Directors election. Are you willing to share someof your experience and skill on behalf of women inmusic? Do you know someone who might? We are look-ing for people who are willing to make active contri-butions to the women-in-music movement to ensure thatit has a vibrant future. Candidates need to be membersin good standing for at least one year prior to runningin the election. New Board members will be seated atthe Board meeting in 2009, date and location TBA.

IAWM Board Responsibilities

The raison d’etre of the Board is to carry out thelegal and fiscal responsibilities of the organization byvoting on budget and policy issues. This is the only


What a DifferenceSending CDs Can Make

LINDA RIMELChair, Advocacy Committee

If recent notes from Marian Mapes Bouck of KMUDradio in Redway, California are any indication, inclusionon the IAWM’s list of “friendly” radio stations can makea big difference in the amount of women’s music that isbroadcast. In addition to leading the Radio Requestscampaign, the Advocacy Committee has also beenmaintaining a list of radio stations inclined to play musiccomposed by women—and has also sought contactinformation for stations that ought to be added to thelist. Composers and performers with commerciallyrecorded CDs are encouraged to mail them to the“friendly” stations.

Absent playlists, success has been hard to measure,but the following highlights of a message from the hostof “Marian’s Klassics for KMUD—from Bach toBouck” show what a difference mailing recordings to abroadcaster can make:

Thank you for sending out your alert forKMUD….I sent “thank you” notes by e-mailto two of the CD senders and received areturn e-mail from Kathleen Shimeta thatresulted in a phone interview this morningduring my program…that went very well.

Friday I went to the P.O. and picked upthree boxes of CDs….Within the previoustwo weeks I had received eleven other CDsfrom IAWM composers and performers. Ihave been playing from the first eleven CDsfor the past two weeks. Now I am beginningon this last batch and I am trying to thankeveryone and let them know when I amscheduling their music. I have playlists forall my March programs….I will be makinglists of what I receive for the classical musicprogrammer-DJs and the Program Director.

You may want to tell your composers thatKMUD is “streaming on-the-web” so allmusic programs are being archived for twoweeks and they can hear them atwww.kmud.org—just check Archives. I amhoping to get my programs available onpermanent archives since I play mostly olderrecordings and rare performances. That waymy program is different since I play music

background/biographical information. If English is notyour native language, please consider having yourstatement looked at by a native speaker, or eventranslated professionally. Since voters’ assessment ofthe candidates is based largely upon the statement, it isimportant that the statement be very clear.

We hope to increase international representationon the board. If you would like help with theformulation of the statement, please contact meseparately. Sample Platform Statements are availablefrom me upon request. Again, while PlatformStatements may list past accomplishments (personal andwith other organizations), as an organization, we areinterested in how candidates think they can serve theIAWM through mentoring, inspiration, leadership andhard work, as well as helping with the day to dayrunning of the Board.

Deadline

The deadline for receiving nominations isDecember 1, 2008. Eligibility will be determined andcandidates notified of their status by December 15,2008. The deadline for receipt of supporting materials(a second and the Platform Statement) to be includedon the slate for election in late January 2009 isDecember 15, 2008. Please send all materials toMaryanne Rumancik, Chair of the Nominations/Elections Committee ([email protected]). If youhave any questions please do not hesitate to contactme:

Maryanne RumancikIAWM Nominations/Elections Committee ChairBox 334Lorette, MBCanada R0A 0Y0Phone: 204-878-3901; Fax: 204-878-2332

Women in Music Festival2008

The Eastman School of Music sponsored aWomen in Music Festival from March 24 to 28,2008, featuring the works of Nancy Van de Vate,Composer in Residence. The Eastman OperaTheater presented Van de Vate’s All Quiet on theWestern Front, with lectures by Van de Vate, CeliaApplegate, and Stuart Weaver. At the openingconcert, an all Van de Vate program, the worldpremiere of A Long Road Well Traveled withviolist John Graham and the Ying Quartet waspresented.

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seldom heard on the other programs. One yearago KMUD’s classical music programsconsisted mostly of Bach, Beethoven, Mozartand Schubert.

KMUD has its spring fund drive fromApril 16 to 25 and the Program Director hasrequested that I do some guest spots on thejazz programs as well as the classicalprograms. This will be a very busy month forme so I hope everyone will be patient as I’mnot as young as I was when I started in radioat Dallas WPR in 1957. Thank you very muchfor all your help.—-—Marian Mapes Bouck

In addition to maintaining the list of “friendly”stations, the Advocacy Committee, since the birthdayof Fanny Mendelssohn on November 14, 2004, has beenleading a global campaign to encourage radio broadcastsof women’s music. Every week, Ursula Rempel selectsa composer and an e-mail goes to everyone on theIAWM’s electronic list, asking participants to contactlocal and Internet radio stations that play classical music.Hsiao-Lan Wang posts the current week’s RadioRequest on the Web page at http://www.iawm.org/radioRequests.htm, where there are also lists of pastrequests and of “friendly” stations.

The Advocacy Committee encourages (1) everycomposer and performer with a commercially recordedCD to send it to the “friendly” radio stations on the list;(2) every composer with music available to send it toradio stations (in any format), and every composer witha Web site to let the Advocacy Committee know; (3)everyone who hears a woman’s composition broadcastplease thank the station; and (4) everyone who knowsof additional “friendly” stations, let the AdvocacyCommittee know.

The List of “Friendly” Radio Stations Grows

WMFE was named one of the IAWM’s HonoredBroadcasters for its commitment to broadcasting musicwritten by women. Contact WMFE: 11510 East ColonialDrive, Orlando, FL 32817, USA. (407) 273-2300.

KMFA shares the distinction of being an HonoredBroadcaster. Contact KMFA: 3001 N. Lamar #100,Austin, TX, USA.

KWAX, an IAWM Honored Broadcaster, also hasan “Arts Line” interview five mornings a week. Contact:Caitriona Bolster, University of Oregon, 75 CentennialLoop, Eugene, OR 97401, USA.

On WOMR, Canary Burton plays a great deal ofmusic by women and living composers of both sexes.

In addition to commercially produced CDs, shebroadcasts some concert recordings. Contact: CanaryBurton, 494 Commercial St. (2nd floor), P.O. Box 975,Provincetown, MA 02657, USA. 1-800-921-WOMR(9667). 1-508-487-2619. http://www.womr.org

KUFM plays a very eclectic mix of musical genresfrom opera to hip hop. Its personnel have been knownto read at length from liner notes of living composers.Contact: Michael Marsolek, Program Director, or TerryConrad, Morning Classics Music Director, MontanaPublic Radio, University of Montana, Missoula, MT59812-8064, USA. (406) 243-4931. 1-800-325-1565.http://www.mtpr.net/contact.html.

“Classical Discoveries” on WPRB, 103.3 FM andonline at www.wprb.com in Princeton, NJ, regularlyplays music by women composers. Winner of the 2005ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award,“Classical Discoveries” is devoted to little knownrepertoire of all musical periods with an emphasis onthe old (Baroque and earlier) and the “New ClassicalMusic.” Composers and others interested in sendingCDs to Classical Discoveries should first e-mail MarvinRosen from the program’s Web page: http://ourworld.cs.com/clasdis/index.html. The mailingaddress is 27 Robert Rd., Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.Telephone: 609-921-2012.

Tim Lenk, Music Director, KGNU-FM, 4700Walnut St., Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A. The Website iswww.kgnu.org.

KMUD plays “anything but hard rock” and isstreamed on the Internet. Go to http://www.KMUD.org.to see which programs are appropriate for your vinylrecords and CDs. Contact music director Kate Klein [email protected], or program hosts through theWebsite.

ABC Classic FM (Australia). The contact peopleare Julian Day, [email protected], and StephenAdams, [email protected].

IAWM News

Women Instrumentalists

Susan Fleet reports that she has started a Websiteat www.susanfleet.com, which, among other things,features profiles of outstanding womeninstrumentalists, both jazz and classical. One of themain purposes is to offer role models for youngwomen instrumentalists. The first women are MelbaListon, the marvelous jazz trombonist-arranger, andEdna White, one of the most formidable trumpetsoloists of the early twentieth century.


“Into the Light” at KMFA (please see informationabout Honored Broadcaster, KMFA, above). KathrynMishell, producer and host of the radio program,broadcasts from Austin, Texas, and around the worldvia the Internet (http://www.kmfa.org/listen_index.htm).

Radio 4, the Dutch classical music station (publicradio), (www.radio4.vara.nl). Please send CDs (sorry,nothing experimental) to Thea Derks, Karel duJardinstraat 51N, 1073 TB, Amsterdam, TheNetherlands. Her e-mail address is [email protected].

WRR-FM in Dallas, Texas streams classical musicon the Internet at http://www.wrr101.com/stream.shtml.Contact program director Kurt Rongey [email protected].

WNYC (New York) can be heard over the Internet;go to http://www.wnyc.org/schedule/. Contact hostsDavid Garland and/or Jim Schaeffer [email protected].

Radio Monalisa, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, isavailable over the Internet at http://www.radiomonalisa.nl. Patricia Werner Leanseproduces and hosts “Muziek Van VrouwelijkeComponisten” (“Music by Women Composers”).Contact her through the Website.

Nanci LaVelle, who hosts “Sisters” on KLCC inEugene, Oregon (U.S.A.), would be happy to receiveCDs from performers as well as composers—and themusic need not be classical. The address is: 136 W 8thAve., Eugene, OR 97401, USA. The Web address ishttp://www.klcc.org.

CBC 2’s “DiscDrive.” The person to contact isJürgen Gothe, DiscDrive, CBC Radio 2; the Website iswww.cbc.ca/discdrive/contactus.html).

CBC 2’s “Here’s to You” (a Monday-Friday requestshow), hosted by Catherine Belyea. The Website is http://www.cbc.ca/herestoyou/.

CBC 2’s “Sound Advice,” hosted by Rick Phillips,airs Saturday afternoons from 12:00 to 1:30. TheWebsite is http://www.cbc.ca/soundadvice/.

Classical Music at Risk in Canada

CBC Radio Two, Canada’s national music network,has announced that it is changing its programming, withconsiderably less classical music in the morning andnone in the “drive time” afternoon, in the belief thatyounger listeners are not interested in serious classicalmusic. All of the CBC2 programs included amongthe “friendly” radio stations listed above would beaffected. Protests have been scheduled, and you maysend your comments to CBC through http://www.cbc.ca/contact/. Sign petitions/letters at http://radio2forum.ca/. Join pro-Classical Music at the CBC

Congratulationsto Award Winners!

Adrienne Albert’s woodwind quintet, Animalogy, wasselected as one of two winners of the Aeros QuintetCompetition, and was performed by the Quintet on theirdebut concert at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on May 5,2008. Animalogy and Steve Cohen’s Wind Quintet wereselected as winners of this auspicious competition fromover 150 entries submitted from around the globe.Animalogy is the middle movement of Albert’s AlaskanSymphony, premiered at The Pratt Museum in Homer,Alaska in June of 2006.

Kyong Mee Choi was awarded the John SimonGuggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship inMusic Composition this year. The Fellowships areawarded to men and women who have alreadydemonstrated exceptional capacity for productivescholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.She plans to write a one-act opera that will include eightto ten vocalists, electroacoustic music, video art, and amultimedia set up.

Lynn Gumert was awarded a month-long residency atthe Millay Colony for the Arts to work on her multimediamonodrama.

Lan-chee Lam’s Requiem (SATB choir, soprano andpiano) was the winner of the 2007 Choral CompositionCompetition held at the University of Toronto. Thewinning composition was premiered on April 5, 2008by the MacMillan Singers in a choral concert entitled“Heroes and Legends,” in memory of both LeonardBernstein and choral conductor Elmer Iseler.

Alex Shapiro’s Slip, for violin and harpsichord, was awinner in the 2008 International Aliénor HarpsichordComposition Competition.

Judith Shatin’s View from Mt. Nebo won the JezicEnsemble’s competition for a piano trio by a womancomposer. The work was performed by the Ravel Trioon April 6, 2008.

Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9009203294. Keep informed by readingabout changes to CBC2 in the CBC’s public blog athttp://www.insidethecbc.com/category/a-hot-topics/r2changes. For an interactive Website, which addressesthe changes and allows for contributions, see http://standonguardforcbcradio.earsay.com/.

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le Beau, Teresa Carreño, Cécile Chaminade, EthelSmyth, Mel Bonis, Amy Beach, Henriette Renié,Rebecca Clarke, Lili Boulanger, Teresa de Rogatis,Grazyna Bacewicz, Ida Presti, Wanda Castelnuovo, andNatalia Lauro.

The final stage of the 17th Akutagawa CompositionAward (annual competition of orchestral compositions)took place at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on September 2,2007. From the three finalists, all women, MasakoKoide was chosen as the winner for her KeseranBasaran. The winner was determined by a panel of threejudges, two men and a woman, Keiko Harada, whosucceeded the late male judge after the finalists had beendetermined in April. The all-male panel selected onlywomen as finalists! In addition to a prize of five hundredthousand yen, the winner was commissioned to composean orchestral work, which will be performed in twoyears. Winners in the previous two years were alsowomen.

A symposium titled “Creating Women: Exploringthe Context of Women and Music,” coordinated byTatsuhiko Ito, was held as a part of the annual meetingof the Musicological Society of Japan at Miyagi GakuinWomen’s University in Sendai on September 30, 2007.It was the first time that “women and music” was atheme of the national meeting. Midori Kobayashi,referring to a book by Florence Launay on Frenchwomen composers, argued that the experts on classicalmusic in Japan have devoted too much of their attentionto German/Austrian music—the music of othernationalities should also be studied. Akira Mizutaniemphasized the need for more research on historicalsinging styles and singers, and he referred to thecomposer Isabella Colbran. Hiromi Tsuji focused onthe life and work of some Japanese women composers.Taeko Nishizaka spoke about women in music studiesin America since the 1970s, noting that scholarlyemphasis has shifted from women composers to genderissues since the last decade of the 20th century.Musicological studies dissecting canonical works usingfeminist and gender theories seem to have increased,while more traditional studies of music by women havebecame less fashionable.

Discussion time was limited, but those in theaudience agreed that it was important for musicologiststo research music by women in order to construct a moreinclusive history of music. The symposium marked ahopeful moment for women and music in Japan.

Taeko Nishizaka is a music librarian at the Kunitachi Collegeand a member of Women and Music Study Forum Japan.

Evelyn Stroobach’s In Flanders Fields, for SATBchorus and string quartet, was a winning work in aninternational composition competition held by ERMMedia. The prize included a performance and recordingon February 15, 2008 by the National Opera Chorusand string players from the Kiev National Philharmonicin Kiev, Ukraine. Both the Masterworks of the New Eralabel as well as Naxos will be distributing and marketingthe CD, which will be released in November 2008 andoffered for sale in twenty-five countries across threecontinents.

Karen P. Thomas’s Lux Lucis for women’s choir wonfirst place in the 2007 Roger Wagner ContemporaryChoral Composition Contest.

Carol Worthey was awarded a first-ever SpecialRecognition Award by the City of Florence, Italy andthe 2007 Florence Biennale International ContemporaryArt Exhibit for her Fanfare for The New Renaissance,performed (twice by popular demand) on opening dayof the Biennale by Brass Dimensions Ensemble,conducted by renowned horn virtuoso Luca Benucci.She also exhibited paintings at the Biennale.

IAWM News

Women in MusicNews from Japan

TAEKO NISHIZAKA

The Women Composers’ Festival 2007 was held atSuginami Public Hall in Tokyo from August 6 through10, sponsored by the Unknown Music Association.Twelve concerts, with two or three per day, wereorganized by Midori Kobayashi. Expert performerspresented chamber and piano music by twenty-ninecomposers from the eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Guitar music, a rather marginalizedgenre, was also presented. Music with text was notincluded because of translation difficulties. Thecomposers whose works were performed in the festival,in order of birth year, were Marianne Martinez,Maddalena Lombardini-Sirmen, Anne-MarieKrumpholtz, Maria Teresia von Paradis, Sophia Corri-Dussek, Maria Szymanowska, Louise Farrenc, FannyMendelssohn-Hensel, Emilia Giuliani, Clara WieckSchumann, Pauline Viardot, Madame Sidney Pratten,Marie Grandval, Tekla Badarzewska-Baranowska,Marie Jaël, Agathe Backer-Grøndahl, Louise Adolpha


The Kapralova Society

KARLA HARTL

The Kapralova Society is celebrating its tenthanniversary this year. We are very pleased to mark theoccasion with the release (in April) of another all-Kapralova CD, this time produced by Koch Records.The disc features Kapralova’s major piano works andcomplete output for violin and piano, in performancesby Virginia Eskin and Stephanie Chase. Of the eightcompositions on the disc, seven are world premieres.The project was initiated and financially assisted by thesociety.

The organization’s Women in Music Journal is nowavailable for free download online at http://

The 2008 Nancy Van de Vate InternationalComposition Prize for Opera, awarded by theAmerican music publishers, Vienna Masterworks(BMI) and Vienna Master Composers (ASCAP), isopen to women composers of any age or nationality.The prize is $1,000 and publication (if the composerwishes) of the winning work.

The biennial prize, given for the fourth time in2008, recognizes the difficulty women composersworldwide have in finding performances for theiroperas and is intended to encourage publicproduction of their works. The award is for any kindof opera or music theater piece of more than fifteenminutes’ duration. Shorter works may be submittedif they are part of a set of at least fifteen minutes’duration. Works submitted must be eitherunpublished or self-published. If the work is self-published, the winning composer may wish totransfer publication to Vienna Masterworks orVienna Master Composers.

Submissions must be anonymous, and any worknot meeting the criteria for anonymity will beeliminated from consideration. Scores should beidentified by a pseudonym, and a sealed envelopewith the pseudonym on the outside should includethe composer’s name, address, phone number, ande-mail address. It should also include a shortbiography. If a cassette or other recording of thework is available, it should be enclosed. A workalready heard in a professional or large publicperformance is not eligible. A workshop or reading

performance is, however, acceptable. Please do notsend unbound scores.

The postmark deadline for the 2008competition is September 15, but early submissionsare encouraged. The winner will be announced nolater than December 15, 2008.

All scores and recordings will be donated afterthe close of the competition to the library of theInternational Women in Music Foundation in Rome.A processing fee of $15.00 or €15,00 should beincluded with each submission. This may be in theform of a US $ check drawn on a US bank or incash.

Since the judging will take place in Europe,submissions should be sent to

Nancy Van de Vate PrizeVienna MasterworksKhleslplatz 6, # 2309A-1120 Vienna, Austria

Inquiries or requests for further information shouldbe sent to [email protected] or to theabove address. If materials are sent from outsidethe European Community, please label the packageas follows:

KOMPOSITIONSUNTERLAGENKOSTENLOS NUR ZUM ZWECKEDES MEINUNGS-AUSTAUSCHES.The box entitled “Gift” should bechecked and the value designated as$2.00. Packets not properly labeled willbe refused, if there are customs charges.

www.kapralova.org/JOURNAL.htm. The spring issuefeatures two articles. The subject of the first article, byDr. Katerina Mayrova (Czech Museum of Music,Prague), is Bohuslav Martinu’s correspondence held inone of the musical archives in the Czech Republic. Twoof Martinu’s letters to Kapralova are printed in thejournal, one of which—his last to her—is available herefor the first time in English translation. The secondarticle, by Dr. G. D. Cannady, introduces the subject ofAmerican women composers of choral music. Pleasenote that this article is a brief historical overview anddoes not contain information on many contemporarycomposers. In fact, we would like to pursue the subjectin more depth in our future issues and publish scholarlyresearch in this area. If you are interested in contributingto our journal, please contact me privately [email protected].

The Nancy Van de Vate International Composition Prize for Opera

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COMPACT DISC REVIEWS

Flute Loops: Chamber Music byCynthia FolioCentaur Records CRC 2777 (2006)

JAMIE CARIDI

As a child I was never enamored of Fruit Loops cereal,which provided a very colorful visual presentation but wastoo saccharine for my palate. By contrast, the aural palatepresented by Cynthia Folio in Flute Loops provides adiverse and pithy listening experience. On first hearingI was intrigued by the diversity of tonal colors, widerange of dynamics, creative use of the variousinstruments, and variety of styles. The works date fromFolio’s first solo flute composition, Flute Fantasy(1976), to the 2003 setting of two poems by PulitzerPrize-winning poet Stephen Dunn. The works wererecorded by thirty-four performers plus wind quintetover a two-month period, and the producer and engineer,Andreas K. Myer, deserves kudos for the superb soundquality and general excellence of this recording.

Cynthia Folio is a fine flutist as well as a professorof music theory at Temple University, and she uses herknowledge of both fields even in her earliestcompositions, as exemplified by Flute Fantasy. In thiswork for solo flute, she explores pitch bends, quartertones, multiphonics, and proportional notation. The useof vocal multiphonics is traditional in Southeast andEast Asia, but sounding two or more pitchessimultaneously on a woodwind instrument is aninnovative late-twentieth-century technique requiringa significant amount of skill on the part of the performer.Since I have not seen the score, I do not know exactlyhow Folio uses proportional notation, a type ofhorizontal spacing in which each note consumes anamount of space equivalent to its rhythmic duration.Some contemporary scores use this technique to clarifycomplex rhythmic relationships.

Flute Loops (2001), the title track, is composed fortwo choirs, each consisting of two flutes plus an altoflute (and a piano in the second choir). This work istonal, with repeated patterns tossed back and forthbetween the two groups. The piano provides afoundation with low octaves but also doubles andimitates the flutes. A jazzy motive alternates betweenthe two flute choirs and the piano, “looping” spatiallyand repeating, yet never boring the listener. The “loops”form an interesting and tightly knit composition.

Four ’Scapes is in four sections: “Cityscape,”“Seascape,” “Landscape,” and “Escape.” In this clevermusic with clever titles, only “Landscape” uses four Cflutes. The other ’Scapes are scored for flute, piccolo,alto flute, and bass flute. “Cityscape” is carefullystructured; one can visualize the outline of a moderncity through the continuous melodic line of the C flute.A more chordal, yet syncopated, section is interjected,concluding with a return to the jagged melodic lines ofthe opening. The impressionistic “Seascape” is watery,reminiscent of waves. “Landscape” is less flowing andmore terrestrial due to the instrumentation; bell-likeattacks, quarter tones, glissandi, and timbre trills createan earthy fantasy of sound. “Escape” is a fun romp in ajazz/rock idiom utilizing inventive techniques such astongue thrusts, key clicks, harmonics, and even singingwhile playing!

The three movements of Developing Hues (1989),a flute and bass clarinet duo, are named after commonoil paints: “Satin White,” “Cerulean Blue,” and“Cadmium Red Light.” To portray the glossy, pearlyluster of “Satin White,” Folio makes use of the fullregisters and timbres of the two instruments. “CeruleanBlue,” the color of a cloudless sky, is expressed in abluesy modality with a repeated harmonic pattern.“Cadmium Red Light,” referring to a dense, opaque,permanent color, is manifested by the two instrumentsplaying in fast virtuosic octaves with frequent melodicleaps, imitation, and unexpected rhythmic patternssuggestive of polyphonic rather than unison writing.

One of the more interesting compositional devicesof Trio for flute, cello, and piano (1994), presented bythe Temple New Music Trio, is the use of isorhythmictechnique in the piano part in the second movement. Aswe may remember from our music history classes,“isorhythm” refers to the periodic repetition of rhythmicand melodic patterns in fourteenth- and fifteenth-centurymotets. Folio uses a talea (rhythmic unit) of thirteendurations, and a color (pitch content) of ten chords.Although the three movements are titled “Flowing,”“Calm,” and “Rhythmic,” the primary focus of the entiretrio is the exploration of various aspects of rhythm. Thethird movement uses polyrhythms inspired by thecomposer’s studies of jazz and West African music.

Folio’s setting of two poems by Stephen Dunn isin sharp contrast to the Trio. The House Was Quietemploys a soprano and viola in an equal partnership,evoking an eerie atmosphere as the viola blends withand enhances the soprano part while asserting itself as


soloist. The effect is mesmerizing. Circular, for flute,viola, soprano, and triangle, in a quirky allusion to“loops,” uses both pitch and harmonic cycles, and thecircular motives are especially prominent in the flutepart. The work is in ternary form. The A sections use apitch cycle—a repeated pattern of pitches beginning andending on the same tone. The B section uses a harmoniccycle—a circle of chords beginning and ending on thesame chord, reflecting the meaning of the poem.

My personal favorites on the CD are SevenAphorisms (2001) and Through Window’s Lattices(1998). The latter is a tribute to Hildegard von Bingenon her 900th birthday; the title is taken from herplainchant sequence Columba Aspexit: “The dovepeered in through the lattice of the windows where,before its face, a balm exuded from incandescentMaximilian.” The ensemble—flute, clarinet/bassclarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and piano—isconducted by Jan Krzywicki. The piano and percussionbegin the piece explosively, more like the rumblings ofan earthquake than a gentle dove floating outside awindow. Chant fragments are then gently woven intothe texture of the various instruments—a kaleidoscopeof color. Midway through the composition, insistent,repeated melodic patterns provide a rhythmic frameworkfor the contrapuntal setting of entire phrases ofHildegard’s chants. The instrumentalists are requiredto sing as well as play; toward the end of the piece theyexclaim as an ensemble in a shouted whisper: “vita vite.”(The entire phrase is “Vita vite omnis creature”: “Life,within the very Life of all Creation.”) The ensemblewhisper is quite haunting, rather like a small group ofpeople with laryngitis shouting to gain attention.

Seven Aphorisms is dedicated to and performed byThe Del’Arte Wind Quintet. The intonation andensemble playing are impeccable, and the literary truthsupon which these seven vignettes are based areeffectively enhanced through a variety of musicaldevices that portray the text in music. For example, thefirst aphorism, “Good things, when short, are twice asgood” (Baltazar Gracian), is only twenty-five secondsin length. (This noble truth, however, does not apply tothe music of Cynthia Folio.)

The remaining six sayings are: 2. “All rising to agreat place is by a winding stair” (Sir Francis Bacon),3. “Hope is a waking dream” (Aristotle), 4. “A manwith a watch knows what time it is; a man with twowatches is never sure” (Mark Twain), 5. “Plain clarityis better than ornate obscurity” (Mark Twain), 6. “Youcan straighten a worm, but the crook is in him and onlywaiting” (Mark Twain), and 7. “What happens to thehole when the cheese is gone?” (Bertold Brecht).

Although these seven sayings are seeminglyunrelated, Folio connects them musically in the shape

of an arch. Numbers 1 and 7 are both choppy anddisjointed. Aphorisms 2 and 6 refer to winding,curving, and wiggling and are more lighthearted andchromatic. The musical realization of the secondaphorism was inspired by the constant rising andfalling of a barbershop pole, a visual effect of the“Shepherd tone,” the illusion that a glissando can beperceived as constantly rising or falling. This auditoryillusion is difficult to describe and results in a ratherdizzying effect, but the basic concept is that when anentire scale is played, the music ends on “do,” where itbegan, but the notes appear to have continuously risen(or fallen) in pitch. (One must hear it to fullycomprehend the illusion.) Aphorisms 3 and 5 are morelinear and more serious and somber in character.Appropriately, aphorism 3 quotes from a Phrygian motetby Josquin des Pres: “Thou art the refuge of the poor.”

Vienna State OperaOrchestra Update

William Osborne reports that oboist HeleneKenyeri was fired from the Vienna State OperaOrchestra on March 10, 2008, after theunsuccessful completion of her trial period. Theorchestra agreed to admit women in 1997, but afterten years, the male/female ratio for permanentpositions in the orchestra is still only 143 to five.Only two of these women have been grantedmembership in the orchestra’s symphonicformation, the Vienna Philharmonic. This makesthe Vienna Philharmonic’s male/female ratio, afterten years, 135 to two. Additional statistics illustratethe problems women face when trying to enter theorchestra:

The rate of firings for women is thirty-threepercent—more than six times higher than for men.

More than ten times as many men haveobtained permanent positions in the State OperaOrchestra since it began admitting women.

More than twenty times as many men havecompleted the tenure requirement necessary toenter the Vienna Philharmonic.

Women represent 1.5 percent of the ViennaPhilharmonic, but forty percent of the NationalOrchestra of France, the Zurich State Opera, andthe New York Philharmonic.

Last year the Vienna State Opera Orchestrafaced wide-spread criticism after the controversialfiring of violinist Iva Nikolova. A detailed anddocumented report about that firing can be foundat www.osborne-conant.org/ten-years.htm.

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Musica Nova: Romanian WomenComposers 2Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation,ADD-189. UCMR-ADA6AF135012282 (2006)

JENNIFER BARKER

The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation’s three-CD compilation, titled Romanian Women Composers,features the artistry and excellence of a host ofRomanian ensembles, soloists, and conductorsperforming a feast of contemporary music from acountry steeped in rich musical tradition and culture.From the wonderfully fresh and highly appealingopening notes of Cornelia Tautu’s Echoes to IrinelAnghel’s fascinating and unusual Diversion II, featuringthe contrabass saxophone, this disc includes a widevariety of genres and styles. Whether the listener’spreference is for instrumental duos, choirs andorchestras, high-energy expressionism, or sublime neo-romanticism, the CD has a piece for every taste. Thealbum is beautifully organized and offers an ever-changing palette of timbres and textures.

I was struck by the depth of color that each of thecomposers creates. As a student of George Crumb, Icould not help but smile as I discovered piece after piecesporting subtle and clever usage of a host of percussioninstruments; I believe Crumb would revel in thepercussive quilt-making. Percussion instruments notonly tie many of these pieces to the contemporary world,but also to the Romanian folk music tradition. Indeed,

this tradition seeps into several of the compositions,including those by Tautu, Carmen Maria Carneci, IrinaHasnas, and Carmen Petra-Basacopol.

Many of the compositions use an imaginativecombination of instruments, such as Felicia Donceanu’slieder for soprano, lute, flute, viola da gamba, spine,and percussion; and Irinel Anghel’s aforementionedDiversion II for contrabass saxophone and ensemble.Each work offers a unique and fresh tapestry ofinstrumental color.

Several of the composers create atmospheric,elegiac passages with beautiful, long, independent andstrong lines. Among my favorites were works by IrinaOdagescu, Donceanu, and Doina Rotaru. Othermemorable moments included the independence of theviolin and piano lines in Iulia Cibisescu-Duran’s SonataNo. 1 (reminiscent of Charles Ives’s violin sonatas); arefreshing form of vocal improvisation in AdinaDumitrescu’s Colloquial Speech; and the “spectralconfiguration” of Silvia Macovei’s two-minute, forty-eight-second opera, The Death of Cleopatra.

I must also commend sound engineer ViorelIoachimescu for his mastery of what amounts toseventeen different recordings in a wide variety ofspaces and events. The listener need only make smallaural adjustments to a new acoustic and recording styleat the start of each piece. The fact that many of theserecordings contain slight imperfections is notdistracting; it enhances the experience of hearing liveperformances. Finally, I draw attention to the graceful,exquisite oboe performance in Doina Rotaru’s Beyond.

This CD allowed me the opportunity to enter therealm of current Romanian classical music and inspiredme to seek other compositions by these composers. Mostimportantly, I take great pride in sharing the CD withmy students—the composers and performers oftomorrow.

Scottish-American composer and pianist Jennifer MargaretBarker has a long list of international commissions,performances, recordings, broadcasts and awards to hername. She is associate professor of composition at theUniversity of Delaware.

Compact Disc Reviews

Kaija Saariaho at MostlyMozart

The Mostly Mozart summer concerts at LincolnCenter in New York City will feature KaijaSaariaho as composer in residence. Her oratorio,Passion de Simone, with Dawn Upshaw in the titlerole, will be premiered. Saariaho’s Terra Memoriawill be peformed by the Emerson Quartet.

The anchor point and center of the arch is aphorism 4,which provides a humorous midpoint and contains afragment from “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” afavorite song of Cynthia Folio’s mother. One can hearthe tick-tock of the clock in the bassoon and Frenchhorn parts and the rhythmic inequities as the pieceprogresses, portraying the confusion of the man withtwo watches.

The nearly eighty minutes of music on thisrecording is worth investing the time for multiplehearings; each listening reveals a new pearl of creativity.I highly recommend this disc and look forward tohearing additional inventive works from Cynthia Folioin the future.

Jamie Caridi lives in Upland, CA and has masters’ degreesin piano performance and applied women’s studies. Sheteaches piano and performs solo and chamber concerts inthe Los Angeles area, always including a composition by awoman.


Declarations: Music Between theWarsWorks by Leos Janácek, Paul Hindemith, and RuthCrawford Seeger. Pacifica Quartet. Cedille Records,B000QQXFSM (2006)

MARGARET SCHEDEL

Declarations: Music Between the Wars, the PacificaQuartet’s first multi-composer disc, contains workscreated between the two world wars by three vastlydifferent composers: Janacek, Hindemith, and CrawfordSeeger. Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinist in the quartet,believes “there is a lot of inner strength anddetermination driving these powerful pieces [which]have this zeitgeist connection tying them together. Andyet all are so uniquely individual to each composer’slanguage and style” (liner notes). This review focuseson Ruth Crawford’s String Quartet, one of the fewcomplete recordings of the work available on CD.

The Pacifica Quartet, consisting of violinists SiminGanatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi PerRostad, and cellist Brandon Vamos, first rose toprominence when they played the complete cycle of thefive Elliott Carter string quartets on a criticallyacclaimed world tour. They currently serve as the facultyquartet in residence at the University of Illinois. Thequartet’s experience is showcased to its fullest in thisdisc. Judy Sherman, the producer of Music Between theWars, used omnidirectional microphones in the GreatHall of Krannert Center in Urbana-Champaign tocapture the hall’s exceptional acoustics, giving aconsistently warm and animated quality to the recording.Too often studio recordings sound stale or artificial;this one sounds like a live performance. The quartetknows how to work the room’s acoustics, adjustingtiming and dynamics to take full advantage of theperformance space. The CD is published by ChicagoClassical Recording Foundation, a not-for-profitorganization devoted to promoting the finest musicians,ensembles, and composers in the Chicago area throughthe production of audiophile-quality recordings on theCedille Records label.

In her towering biography, Judith Tick has calledRuth Crawford’s quartet her most “enduring andimportant work.” Sibbi Bernhardsson has said that “thiswork is only about twelve minutes long, but it is themost complex and difficult twelve minutes we have everplayed!” Crawford’s String Quartet is made of theessential material of sculpture, isolated and recast; mass,weight, volume, and material come together in a strugglefor expression. Her lean-to-the-bone writing reflects the

advice her teacher, Charles Seeger, gave her in 1930,warning her against the “romantic tendencies” of strings.

Crawford wrote her String Quartet in Germany in1930 while on a Guggenheim Fellowship, the firstfemale composer to attain such an honor. She intendedthis work to have as little to do with tone color aspossible, and the Pacifica Quartet honors her intentions,following her dynamic markings to the letter withoutsuccumbing to the urge to romanticize her sparselyelegant lines. The quartet plays with a light touch and akind of Rube Goldberg timing, in which each phraselogically, yet indirectly, follows its predecessor.

This quartet is so rigorous, especially the thirdmovement with its ziggurat form, that it can be difficultto play musically while remaining true to the composer’saustere vision. There is a tension here between stillnessand profound feeling, between surface simplicity andcomplex form. Violinist Masumi thinks Crawford“turned the quartet into an eight armed organism” andindeed the Pacifica Quartet plays with one mind, carvingCrawford’s logic out of her impenetrable voicings.While there are occasional disagreements aboutintonation, the quartet in general does a wonderful jobinterpreting the composer’s refined architecturalconstructions. Crawford’s quartet is so tightly writtenit seems on the brink of cracking. Pacifica captures thistension, but does not yield to its stress; instead, thetalented performers dance lightly in the slipstream ofCrawford’s momentum, delighting in the inevitabilityof her formal structures.

Even though the three works on the CD werewritten within a span of ten years, they are dramaticallydifferent. Janácek’s expressive romantic languagedepicts the various stages of falling in love, whileHindemith’s rigorous contrapuntal writing anticipateshis neoclassical period. Crawford’s quartet is strikingly,almost unbelievably, modern in comparison. Althoughat first glance the repertoire choice seems odd, thecompositions work well together, each piecehighlighting a different aspect of the turbulent timebetween the wars. The Pacifica Quartet does justice tothis complex repertoire, breaking their chrestomathictradition with great success.

Margaret Anne Schedel is a composer and cellist specializingin the creation and performance of ferociously interactivemedia. While working towards a DMA in music compositionat the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory ofMusic, her thesis, an interactive multimedia opera, A KingListens, premiered at the Cincinnati Contemporary ArtsCenter and was profiled by apple.com. She teaches in themusic department and cDACT, the consortium for digital art,culture and technology, at SUNY Stony Brook.

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Beth Custer: Bernal Heights SuiteBeth Custer, voice, and the Left Coast ChamberEnsemble. BC Records 66444929926 (2006)

ELDONNA L. MAY

So you thought the concept of program music waspassé? Not necessarily! In this release, Beth Custerfurther cements her musical relationship with membersof San Francisco’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble inthe form of two highly programmatic works: BernalHeights Suite and Scary Monster. Scored for stringquartet and voice, the seven-movement Bernal HeightsSuite depicts the unique flavor and personality of theBernal Heights neighborhood in San Francisco, southof the Mission District. The opening movement, “TheGeneral of Godeus,” introduces a neighborhoodeccentric in military dress. Custer employs samples,string figuration, and col legno rhythmic effects toaccompany a plaintive pseudo-modal melodic line inthe vocal part. The lyrical “Little Lundy’s Lane” presentsthe words, “Thirty-seven cats; over-priced houses; Theydon’t stand a chance; Those little mouses!” referring tomiddle-class homeowners replacing working-classhomeowners and renters. “Daikon Radish,” enumeratesthe flowers and herbs growing in the neighborhood; thethrough-composed slow movement features a widevocal range, string clusters, glissandi, and strikingrhythms. “Big Love on Folsom,” a strophic song, beginswith a string introduction reminiscent of the KronosQuartet’s arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Hazeand incorporates Latin rhythmic patterns and anextended vocal line.

“Market Hoedown!” is a rousing character studyof a woman bartering for produce at Bernal’s farmers’market. This up-tempo track exhibits a well-craftedcountry fiddle motif, a walking bass line, and stringidioms, as well as patter-song lyrics (“Whips out herhanky and she says mister Spanky”). “Café Abo R.I.P.”opens with a lush cello line followed by a bluesy, swing-infused melodic shape reminiscent of the Gershwinpiano Preludes. But string effects such as col legno andharmonics give the movement a more modernperspective. The final movement, “ProgressiveGrounds,” is a catalog aria over an ostinato pattern. Itrefers to several of the businesses on Cortland Avenueand incorporates elements of Middle Eastern and Indianmusic such as raga, drone, microtones, tal patterns, andfree-flowing vocal recitation (chant). The violin cadenzain the opening is wonderfully executed.

In Scary Monster, for string trio, Custer usesmelancholy melodies over bitonal chords, syncopatedand Latin (tango) rhythmic patterns, string harmonics,glissandi, descending chromatic tremolos, and chordclusters. The viola solo in the opening section of thework is particularly noteworthy.

Overall, the quality of the disc is quite good. Themembers of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble are allaccomplished musicians and more than satisfy thehighly sophisticated technical and expressive demandsof the music. Beth Custer possesses a pleasing andtechnically supple voice, but her singing would benefitfrom the judicious incorporation of vibrato into hervocal style. Custer is a San Francisco-based composer,bandleader, and performer, and she writes for film,television, theater, dance, and the concert stage. Shehas been composer in residence for over ten years withthe Joe Goode Performance Group, and has composedfor several other dance and theater troupes.

Eldonna L. May is on the faculty of the music department atWayne State University, where she lectures in music history.Dr. May has presented and published papers at both nationaland international conferences in musicology. She providesconsultant services to the Michigan Humanities Council, theDetroit Symphony Orchestra Hall Education Department, andthe Detroit Institute of Arts, along with serving as a visitinglecturer for the Speaker’s Bureau of the Michigan HumanitiesCouncil.

Compact Disc Reviews

Women Composers Festivalof Hartford

The University of Hartford and other localinstitutions sponsored the Eighth Annual WomenComposers Festival under the leadership ofArtistic Director Heather Seaton. During themonth of March, the festival presented fifteenevents, including concerts and seminars on“Women of the World,” “Composers of Hawaii,”master classes with Hasu Patel, and a composersworkshop. “Women of the World” featuredAdriana Figueroa (Argentina), Francisca Aquino(Brazil), Sebastiana Ierna (Sicily), and Hasu Patel(India). Works by IAWM members, includingChen Yi, Betty Beath, Emma Lou Diemer, PaulineOliveros, and Elizabeth Austin, were performedon other programs. For information about the 2009festival, please contact Dr. Heather Seaton [email protected].


BOOK REVIEWS

Eileen M. Hayes and Linda F.Williams, editorsBlack Women and Music—MoreThan the BluesUrbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press,paperback, 280 pages, bibliography, index, forward byIngrid Monson, $25.00.ISBN: 978-0-252007426-4 (2007)

ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER

Black Women and Music is a collection of cross-disciplinary essays describing and analyzing variousaspects of African American women’s experiences inboth the classical and popular music worlds from theearly nineteenth century to the present. The essays varyin focus, content type, and purpose, according to theinterests and methodologies of the authors, who includeethnomusicologists, media theorists, African culturalstudies specialists, and music theorists. Eileen Hayes,co-editor and assistant professor of ethnomusicologyat the University of North Texas, emphasizes, in thechapter “New Perspectives,” that this text uses acorrective approach to earlier disciplinary practices anddiscusses black feminism in terms of the“interrelatedness of the social constructions of race,gender, and other variables” (p. 3). Hayes also outlinesfurther possible contributions of the text in herintroductory chapter: the addressing of the issue of thecontinued lack of opportunities for black women in theconsumption and production of music; the catalogingof major themes emerging from studies of black womenand music, including generational differences in howblack women regard feminism; and the noting of thevariety of factors contributing to the successes, failures,and experiences of musical black women in an effort todispel the often perceived notion that there is a “commonmusical experience” amongst black women.

The essay collection is divided into three parts. Thefirst section, “Having Her Say: Power and Complicationin Popular Music,” features studies of black womenartists in popular genres with an emphasis on the powerstruggles, complications, and paradoxes inherent in theworlds of blues, hip-hop, and musical theater. Thissection proved to be the most beneficial andenlightening to me in terms of my education andexperience as a researcher. The article “Hip-Hop SoulDivas and Rap Music: Critiquing the Love That Hate

Produced” by University of Syracuse’s writing andwomen’s studies professor Gwendolyn Pough wasparticularly illuminating, especially her discussion aboutthe lyrics of both male and female rappers regardingthe ideal lover for each. Pough discusses the very realdangers that black women face as illustrated by theselyrics, including the threat of jail or death in order toprotect their men. She discusses the way a variety offemale hip-hop artists deal with these dangers anddesires, and for me the most compelling part of the essayfocuses on the double-edged and conflicting images(sexy, confident women in charge who get what theywant and vulnerable girls with low self-esteem who willlet themselves be used) projected by current rappersLil’ Kim and Foxy Brown. Her discussion recalled forme the Susan McClary “Madonna” essay in FeminineEndings in its presentation of a dilemma and the maybe-not-entirely-perfect solution of the artist. The essayreally depressed me on a certain visceral level, but thatis a good thing as I pondered issues that I do not usuallyhave to ponder!

Maria V. Johnson’s (ethnomusicologist, SouthernIllinois University) contribution, “Black WomenElectric Guitarists and Authenticity in the Blues,”presents an answer to the question, “Where are thefemale B.B. Kings” in her discussion of four blackfemale blues guitarists. Most interesting is her initialanalysis of the impediments to women in the genre ofblues guitar, including prevailing notions of what bluesactually is and who is authenticated to sing and playthe blues. She rightly notes that the blues canon is aprimarily white, male, academic construct and adiscipline that has little to do with the African Americancommunity today—it has become a genre of theacademy. (I would further posit that “rap” hassupplanted the blues as far as its function in the AfricanAmerican community.) I did wonder where she wouldplace artists who embrace a folk tradition like TracyChapman and Joan Armatrading, but then saw that sheacknowledges their unique contributions in herendnotes.

The next article by Charles I. Nero (rhetoric, theater,cultural studies, Bates College) focuses on LangstonHughes’ musicals, which, according to the author,ushered in a new type of singing voice for the Broadwaystage: the female, gospel-trained voice. Nero firstdiscusses classically-trained singers who were typicallycast as “exotics” in shows (Lena Horne portraying aCaribbean woman, for example) before moving into

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shows with libretti by Hughes, which featured blackwomen characters whose parts were uniquely suited fora more gospel, local-church-trained voice. Thesecharacters are typically American black working womenwho would more realistically sing and talk in acolloquial style. The demand for this vocal style openedthe door for more black female performers on theBroadway stage. Nero particularly emphasizes that thesefemale characters also represent black communal valuesof labor (“hard work”), resistance (“using biting wordsto protect a soft heart”), and the ceaselessly repeatedpromise of love (“a need for love often betrayed”). Hisfindings echo some of the thoughts of the Pough essayon female rappers and love. Since I was completelyunaware of Hughes’ work in the Broadway theater, thisreading was a valuable one for my ongoing musiceducation.

While I found the first book section particularlynoteworthy, the second section, “When and Where SheEnters: Black Women in Unsung Places,” also containsmuch enlightening work. Deborah Smith Pollard’s(English literature, language and humanities, Universityof Michigan) article about the gospel announcer EdnaTatum, like the Nero work, discusses a subject aboutwhich I knew very little. Text co-editor Linda F.William’s essay on black women in jazz is most usefulin bringing up the subject of these women and theirconceptions about feminism. Williams has a carefulexplanation of different schools of thought on this topicin African American feminist criticism: those whoprioritize race over gender (and are often critical of thewhite racism that was often a part of early feministmovements), those who wish to critique racism andsexism on equal terms, and those who also concernthemselves with class issues which co-exist with raceand gender issues. Williams uses these perspectives toattempt to discern how black women musiciansnegotiate all of these perspectives while finding theirplace in the “masculinized musical culture of jazz.”Williams draws the connection that I mentioned earlierbetween jazz and rap in terms of their place inmainstream popular and African-American culture,making this another reading of special importance.

Nanette De Jong (music studies, University ofNewcastle) chronicles four narratives about womenparticipating in the Association of Creative Musicians(AACM). The AACM formed in response to the market(or lack thereof) for “free jazz” and the seeming inabilityof record companies to characterize or quantify thismore avant-garde musical style. Musicians of theAACM searched for alternative venues and distributionmethods for their performances and recordings, andmany are still active today. I found that much of what

De Jong writes about the AACM in general and womenin the organization in particular could very easily beapplied to “new music” (or “art music” or “academicmusic”—take your pick!) and the experiences of bothits male and female creators and practitioners.

Eileen Hayes returns to the theme of black womenand feminism in her article, “Black Women and‘Women’s Music,’” adding to the issues with herdiscussion of lesbianism, feminism, and music asexemplified in the women’s music network, whichflourished the most during the 1970s and early 1980s.Having such a range of issues—race, gender, sexualorientation, and class—to negotiate presents particularproblems for black women musicians in the overallwomen’s music network, and these issues have not beenresolved as yet. Hayes further describes the difficultiesof even doing research and publishing in this areabecause journal editors are unable to categorize suchstudies in the strict ways to which they are accustomed.This gets to the most valuable aspect of the Black Womenand Music text as a whole: with such a significantnumber of the book’s articles focusing on problematiccategories and both popular and more academic entities’pre-occupation with such strict guidelines, theextraordinarily limiting effects of such straightenedperspectives become immediately evident. I, myself,have encountered this in my own field, which I like tocall “the ethnomusicology of electroacoustic music” andam excited about the integration of various disciplinesinto my own studies and the insights that suchintegration can bring.

Least useful for me was the third section of thebook, “Revisiting Musical Herstories” (can someoneplease put the term “herstory” to bed once and for all?)primarily because the essays here deal with women andissues that I have personally studied quite a bit.However, it is a necessary part of a text such as this andwill be especially helpful to scholars who need a graspof the “who, what, where, when, how” type of questions.Teresa L. Reed’s (music, Tulsa University) “BlackWomen in Art Music” gives a good outline of womencomposers, performers, and conductors. I wish she hadgone a bit more into the avant garde—the absence ofPamela Z. in this article is particularly astonishing—and a discussion of black female musical scholars(theorists, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists, forexample) would have been of interest. I suspect,however, that such a discussion could lend itself to anin-depth study all on its own.

Elizabeth Amelia Hadley’s (Africana studies,Simmons College) biography and analysis of the lifeand work of Leontyne Price is a good read, as is theconcluding article by Sarah Schmalenberger (music

Book Reviews


history and horn, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota)discussing music education pioneer and promoter of theworks of black musicians, Harriet Gibbs Marshall. Intotal Black Women and Music is a valuable andnecessary addition to musical literature in itspresentation of various aspects of the topics and alsovarious examples of how to approach this topic makingit both an excellent introductory text and also a higher-level resource for future work. The authors and editorshave scholarly integrity, and their research anddiscussions are meticulous and well-documented. Withthis volume laying the foundation for further study, itwould be wonderful to see more work done on blackwomen throughout the world (this text should actuallybe titled Black American Women and Music), blackwomen in the avant garde, and black women in musicalscholarship. Other areas might include audio engineersand dee-jays. It is time for a volume two, Dr. Hayes andDr. Williams! Overall, this text is a major addition tomy own research library, and it should likewise be addedto the shelves of others.

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, vice-president of the IAWM, iscurrently Student Computing Services Manager at theUniversity of North Texas. She is the author of the book seriesWomen Composers and Music Technology: Crossing the Line.Volume one: United States, was released by AshgatePublishing (UK) in January 2006 and was the recipient of a2007 Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded SoundResearch from the Association for Recorded SoundCollections and a “highly recommended” rating from Choice,a publication of the American Library Association. She isthe creator of the cd-rom Full Circle, which received an awardfrom the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustiquede Bourges. She is also the owner of the WAVE_LIST listserv,which is devoted to gender issues in music technology.

Anne K. GrayThe World of Women in ClassicalMusicSan Diego: WordWorld, paperback, 1001 pages, 398 blackand white photos, opera glossary, bibliography,discography, index, $55.00.

ISBN 10: 1-59975-320-0 (2007)

RONA COMMINS

Writing The World of Women in Classical Music was amassive undertaking, which Anne Gray began elevenyears ago by searching in the amazing treasure trove ofthe Art and Music Department of the San Diego Public

Library. She continued via phone, fax, and e-mail touncover contemporary practicing female musicians inall fields, including those not often covered in musicreference books. It is hard to imagine that one womanshould choose to be so thorough; for example, she wasable to obtain 398 photos (most of them head-shots)for about one-fifth of the women musicians featured inthe 1001 pages of this book.

The Introduction states Dr. Gray’s thesis:information about gifted women in the field of musicwas “buried during…centuries of male domination.”In the Renaissance, craftsmen’s guilds barred women,and the Catholic Church forbade women to sing or playinstruments in church (with the exception of convents),leaving the field open to courtesans, female troubadours,and peasants. In the Baroque and Classical periodswomen performers were heard in the home singing orplaying “ladylike” instruments such as the harpsichord,which would show off pretty fingers. Most would notdistort a pretty face by blowing a horn or scrunching astringed instrument under the chin. Heaven forbid theunladylike stance of the cello! In the Romantic period,women were taught on separate days from males, and itwas assumed they were to become teachers orperformers rather than composers, orchestrators, orviolinists.

Fast forward to the end of the book, and we findthe opposite case for women today. In Section Five,“Women in the Business of Music,” Dr. Gray seeswomen rising to the top in what they do best: nurturing.Women are “experiencing unprecedented success asagents, orchestra and opera managers, running recordingbusinesses and publishing companies, plus myriad otherpositions involved in dealing with people.”

The World of Women in Classical Music is writtenin such an engaging style that one keeps turning thepages to discover more. The material is organized intofive large sections, and each section is subdivided intochapters. Section one, “Composers,” in its ten chapters,introduces us to 418 women, including little knowncomposers such as Louise Lincoln Kerr (b.1892), who“has written a treasure of charming miniatures as yet tobe discovered by the string world,” in addition to a largenumber of well known composers, both past andpresent. This section is so comprehensive that it beginsin the year 2500 BC with Enheduanna, the first femalemusician in recorded history (composer, princess-priestess, daughter of King Sargon of Ur), and continuesto the twenty-first century, concluding with a sectionon composers of movie scores. The globe is coveredfrom Greece to Europe, from the Americas to Iceland,from Asia to Russia, including Azerbaijan and

37

Turkmenistan. (The book to this point is “only” 300pages.)

Section two speaks of women conductors. Dr. Graywrites eighty-one biographies, introducing us to manywomen in the field today as well as a number ofpioneers. Fréderique Petrides was one of the pioneers—she studied conducting at NYU and founded anorchestra in 1931. On the other hand, Avlana Eisenbergwas a precocious conductor at the age of eight in 1984when Dr. Gray met her, and “a bright future sparklesahead” for her. Gray remarks that “the odds of a womanbeing appointed to lead one of the top ten orchestras inthis country, let alone Europe or Asia, continue to bealmost impossibly imbalanced.”

Section three covers women performers:instrumentalists, including soloists, section leaders insymphony orchestras, and chamber musicians; and vocalsoloists—divas, black singers, and cantors. The numberof biographies is substantial; for example, eighty-sixfemale violinists are represented. For the “Instrumentsof Mystery,” you must read this fascinating section tofind out about the women who play the theremin andondes martinot. Section four is devoted to Americanand international musicologists, who specialize in awide variety of scholarly fields.

To sum up, Dr. Gray reminds us that she has “gonearound the world” in her efforts to produce an up-to-date and accurate summary of women in Classicalmusic. As she tells us, this “gargantuan exercise” mustcome to an end at some point even though “composerswill keep on composing, conductors continue leadingorchestras, singers keep singing, instrumentalists keepplaying, musicologists continue teaching and writing,and women in the business of music will either remainin their positions, or move on.” She offers her apologiesto anyone she has not covered or discovered.

One last kudo to Dr. Gray—this is a wonderfulbook, worthy of use as a college text in women’s studiesor music departments. The quality of the paper, printing,and binding is truly exceptional. Despite its size andweight, this is not a book which falls apart after a fewopenings. It is destined to be well-thumbed and used asan up-to-date reference for many years to come.

Rona Commins, soprano, has sung to critical acclaim in theUnited States and Europe, where she has been characterizedas “an enormous talent” (Mezz’agosto Musicale, Italy). Shehas taught for Sacramento State University and San FranciscoState University, and has led art and music study tours toFlorence, Paris, London, and Madrid. She is a reviewer forthe Triangle, the journal of the Mu Phi Epsilon InternationalMusic Fraternity. The IAWM thanks Ms. Commins forpermission to reprint this revised version of her review, whichoriginally appeared in the fall 2007 issue of the Triangle.

Ed. Note: Dr. Gray’s book has received a number ofglowing reviews as well as letters of commendation.She is especially thrilled with a letter from LeonardSlatkin (Music Director of the National SymphonyOrchestra), who comments that the “book is wellresearched and documented. It makes excellent readingfor both musicians and those who wish to understandmore about the contributions of women in the classicalmusic industry.”

Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon,editorsThe Courtesan’s Arts:Cross-Cultural PerspectivesOxford University Press, 424 pages, paper, withcompanion CD, $24.95.ISBN 978-0-19-517029-0 (2006)

RONALD HORNER

In The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives,editors Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon assemblea collection of eighteen essays, organized in six sectionsthat examine the love/hate relationship betweencourtesans and mainstream societies throughout history.The book is the result of an extensive collaborationbetween scholars from numerous disciplines; thebreadth and depth of information are evident from pageone. From a musicological, sociological, oranthropological perspective, there is something here foranyone seeking to learn more about these marginalizedperformers.

By presenting a geo-historical spectrum rangingfrom ancient Greece to contemporary India, the editorsnot only examine societal attitudes, but also present theperformer’s perspective. Through these essays, we cansee an evolving empowerment on the part of thecourtesan. Although society might look askance uponwomen who provide artistic and sometimes otherpleasures for patrons, the reader encounters individualswho, aware of their ability to command the respect ofpowerful figures (albeit in limited circumstances), usethis ability to enhance their stature and lifestyle.

The topics addressed in this text include the roleof the courtesan in ancient Greece, early modern Italy,and modern Japan, Korea, and India. Specialists insearch of specific musical examples will likely find themin this collection. Feldman’s presentation of “TheCourtesan’s Voice” in chapter four is laden with detailedmusical examples, as is Dawn De Rycke’s chapter on

Book Reviews


“The Venetian Case of Gaspara Stampa.” Musicalexamples from Japan, Korea, and India, due to theirorally transmitted nature, are limited to theaccompanying CD, whose tracks are masterfullyperformed and carefully recorded.

In Part Two, “A Case Study: The Courtesan’s Voicein Early Modern Italy,” musicologists familiar with thisplace and period will be treated to a potentially freshperspective on the music of the day. Non-specialists insearch of general information about the courtesan invarious cultures might find themselves overwhelmedby the amount of data presented here.

Coupled with the performances featured on the CD,this volume presents one of the finest examples ofcontemporary scholarship on this topic. Like finechocolate, it might be too rich for some, but for thosein search of an intellectual treat, The Courtesan’s Artswill prove to be a delicious indulgence.

Ronald Horner is a faculty member at Frostburg StateUniversity and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He holdsa DMA from West Virginia University.

New and RecommendedBooks

Jeannie Gayle PoolPeggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl BandForeword by Lily Tomlin and Jane WagnerScarecrow Press, 300 pages, $40.00.ISBN 0-8108-6102-X; 13: 978-0-8108-6102-2 (2008)

In Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band, Jeannie GaylePool profiles the fascinating life of this multi-talentedsaxophone player, arranger, bandleader, and advocatefor women instrumental musicians. Based on oralhistory interviews and Gilbert’s collection ofphotographs, newspaper clippings, and othermemorabilia, this book includes many materials notpreviously available on all-women bands from the1920s, 30s, and 40s. This volume also includes achronology, bibliography, filmography, and a list of allof Peggy Gilbert’s columns for Overture. Thoroughlydocumented, this book highlights the contributions ofGilbert and other notable West Coast female jazzmusicians. It should have a major impact on the research

of the history of American jazz and of female jazzmusicians, in particular.

Catherine Parsons SmithMaking Music in Los Angeles:Transforming the PopularUniversity of California Press, 392 pages, $34.95.ISBN 978-0-520-25139-7 (2007)

In this fascinating social history of music in Los Angelesfrom 1887 to 1940, Catherine Parsons Smith venturesinto an often neglected period to discover that duringAmerica’s Progressive Era, Los Angeles was a centerfor making music long before it became a majormetropolis. She describes the thriving music scene,including opera, concert giving and promotion, and thestruggles of individuals who pursued music, includingwomen performers such as Edna Foy, Olga Steeb, andothers who often met the glass ceiling; organizers suchas Artie Mason Carter and Aline Barnsdall; patrons;teachers; and even audiences. Smith demonstrates thatmusic making was closely tied to broader ProgressiveEra issues, including political and economicdevelopments, the new roles played by women, andissues of race, ethnicity, and class.

NACUSA Anniversary

The 75th Anniversary of NACUSA in Los Angeleswas celebrated on March 22, 2008 at ArmstrongTheater in Torrance, California, by the PalosVerdes Regional Orchestra, Dr. Berkeley Price,conductor, in a concert of music by Los AngelesChapter members Bonnie Janofsky, Deon NielsenPrice, Matthew Hetz, Adrienne Albert, JeanniePool, and Daniel Kessner, plus film composersJohn Williams and Henry Mancini. Preceding theconcert, Dr. Paul Humphreys moderated a Meetthe Composers Panel. In her four-minuteintroduction, Dr. Jeannie Pool, NACUSAHistorian, told the seventy-piece orchestra andaudience of 350 that in the last fifty yearsNACUSA has presented more new music to LosAngeles audiences than any other composerorganization. In New York, in just its first twenty-five years, NACUSA presented more than 5,000new works!

39

MEMBERS’ NEWS

News items are listed alphabeticallyby member’s name and include re-cent and forthcoming activities. Sub-missions are always welcomeconcerning honors and awards, ap-pointments, commissions, premieres,performances, publications, record-ings, and other items. We recommendthat you begin with the most signifi-cant news first—an award, a majorcommission or publication, a newposition—and follow that with an or-ganized presentation of the other in-formation. Due to space limitations,news items may be edited. We plan tomaintain an updated Members’ Newscolumn on the IAWM Website. Pleasesend your news items to members’news editor Anita Hanawalt [email protected] or by mail to2451 Third St., LaVerne, CA 91750.

The Newstead Trio performedAdrienne Albert’s Wang LuobinSuite (transcriptions of three ChineseFolk Songs) at Tibet House in NewYork City on October 25, 2007. AlanDurst and Corey Whitehead per-formed La Tango Nuevo from theirupcoming Centaur CD Tangos ySerenatas at The Kennedy CenterMillennium Stage in Washington, D.Con March 29, 2008 and at the Univer-sity of North Carolina on April 10.The Wagner Ensemble performedNight (SSAATTBB) on their “Cel-ebration of the Earth” concert inSouth Pasadena, CA on April 12. TrioCalisto performed Doppler Effect(flute, cello, harp) in St. Paul, MN onApril 16. The Price Duo performedWindswept on April 20 at the ICWM

News of Individual Members’ Activities

COMPILED BY ANITA HANAWALT

in Beijing, China. Animalogy (wood-wind quintet, from Alaskan Sym-phony) was chosen as one of twowinners (from 150 international sub-missions) of the Aeros Quintet Com-petition. The Quintet performed thepiece on their debut concert atCarnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on May5. On May 6 Americana for flute(s)and strings, commissioned by Cham-ber Music Palisades, was performedat St. Matthews Church in PacificPalisades, CA.

Beth Anderson’s Belgian Tango waspresented as part of the Living Com-posers: Four-Hand Piano Project bypiano duo Bonnie Anderson andDonna Gross Javel on September 27,2007 in Auburndale, MA and on the28th in Bedford, MA. Comment wasperformed by Demetrius Spaneas inSt. Petersburg, Russia on December15 at an American Corners concertsponsored by the U.S. State Depart-ment. Anderson hosted “Women’sWork 2008,” a three-concert seriespresented by Greenwich House Artsin the Renee Weiler Concert Hall inNew York City during March. Herpiano and choral music was per-formed on March 6-9 in Massachu-setts and Illinois. The GoodChristmas Cat and Wynken, Blyken,& Nod (SATB chorus) were per-formed in Illinois by Acappellago onMarch 29 in Oak Brook and on March30 in Naperville.

Elizabeth Austin’s Symphony No. 2“Lighthouse” (1993) from Spectra,Music for Orchestra by Connecticut

Composers, Inc., was recorded by theMoravian Philharmonic Orchestra,Joel Suben, conductor, on CapstoneCPS-8779. Dutch pianist MarcelWorms performed Waitin’ and Wailin’Blues at several blues concerts heldJanuary 19-27, 2008 in WashingtonD.C.; Schenectady and Ithaca, NewYork; Vermillion, South Dakota; andMontevallo, Alabama. The piece issoon to be published by Peer Music,Germany. On September 9, 2007,Rose Sonata was performed in SouthWindsor, CT by pianist Jerome Reed.On January 16, 2008, pianist LizaStepanova played Puzzle Preludes forthe Deutscher Verein at Steinway Hallin New York, and on April 26, UlrichUrban played the work at the Univer-sity of Connecticut in Storrs. OnMarch 3-5, soprano Eun-Jung Auhwith pianist Teresa Crane performedFrauenliebe und -leben at Lewis andClark Community College, Alton, IL.The work was also performed inFrankfurt, Germany at the Neues The-ater on April 14 by RenateKaschmieder, mezzo-soprano, andFlorian Kaplick, piano. On March 28,Maria Loos performed Sonata forSoprano Recorder at the Festival ofWomen Composers at Indiana Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. On March29, Song of Simeon was performed bythe Festival Chorus and pianistHeather Seaton at the Festival ofWomen Composers in Hartford, CT.

The University of North Carolina atChapel Hill Women’s Glee Club andthe Knollwood Women’s Ensemblepremiered Susan Borwick’s And Ain’t


I A Woman! on January 20, 2008. Tobe published by Treble Clef MusicPress, the work is inspired by thewords and spirit of Sojourner Truth.On March 26, the Wake Forest Uni-versity Concert Choir premiered Balmin Gilead, an arrangement publishedby MorningStar Music. Borwick wonan Archie Grant from Wake ForestUniversity for a choreographed per-formance of her five-song cycle An-cient Women’s Words (soprano,amplified guitar, piano) at the 25th-anniversary convocation of BaptistWomen in Ministry, NC, on April 11in Raleigh. Knollwood Church ofWinston-Salem, NC, commissionedWoven Together With Their Hearts(SATB, keyboard, cello, percussion)for its 2008 Arts Festival, premieringon April 27.

Nancy Boston’s recording of theEmma Lou Diemer Piano Sonata no.3 from Boston’s American Women:Modern Voices in Piano Music CDwas broadcast on Alan Chapman’s“Modern Masterpieces” public radioprogram on September 8.

Judith Cloud’s Three Impressions ofNorthern Arizona was premiered atthe Shenyang Conservatory in Chinain September 2007. On January 15,the Agassiz Duo (flute, clarinet) gavethe premiere performance of Six For-ays at Northern Arizona University.Four Sonnets of Pablo Neruda, a songcycle commissioned by sopranoMeghann Vaughn and pianist ArleneShrut, was premiered at Indiana Uni-versity in Bloomington on February16, and performed on March 8 at “ACelebration in Song of Women’s His-tory Month,” at Northern ArizonaUniversity, by soprano EileenStrempel and pianist SylvieBeaudette. They also performed twosongs from Night Dreams. On March25 they performed two songs fromFour Sonnets of Pablo Neruda at theWomen in Music Festival at EastmanUniversity. In a memorial recital on

March 13 for clarinetist MichaelSullivan, the Kokopelli WoodwindQuintet performed Six Stories by Ital-ian Children. Soprano DeborahRaymond, clarinetist JeremyReynolds, and pianist Rita Bordenperformed Three Songs from Glean-ings on the same program.

Nancy Bloomer Deussen’s AmericanHymn and Regalos were performedby the Hilo Symphony Orchestra atthe University of Hawaii, Hilo, Feb-ruary 9-10. The United States ArmyTRADOC Band performed Dawn ofFreedom on February 14 in Ports-mouth, VA. On February 21, thetoccata Cascades was performed bypianist Sophie Lippert at Rice Univer-sity. On March 2, the BlackledgeWoodwind Quintet performed Wood-wind Quintet in Avon, CT. PalisadesVirtuosi performed Trio for Violin,Flute and Piano on March 8 at theUnitarian Society of Ridgewood, NJ.The American Chamber Ensembleperformed the same trio in CarnegieHall on March 22. The Price Trio anda Chinese violinist also performed thetrio in Beijing, China on April 21. TheAlabama Youth Symphony performedPeninsula Suite on May 11. The Win-chester Symphony Orchestra per-formed A Silver Shining Strand andRegalos at the West Valley CollegeTheater and Trinity Episcopal Churchin Saratoga, CA, May 24-25. On June28, The Daly City All Stars ConcertBand, conducted by Adrian Quince,will perform The Voyage of Christo-pher Columbus in Daly City, CA.

Violeta Dinescu’s Babel 2007, fortwo choirs, large orchestra, children’sensemble, and film, performed onMay 19, 2007 by OrchestrePhilharmonique du Luxembourg anddirected by Howard Griffith, was de-scribed as the orchestra’s most ex-traordinary cultural project of theyear. The world premiere of her newopera for children, Die versunkeneStadt—Eine Geschichte vom Meer,

for three singers and ten instruments,was performed on January 20, 2008at the Staatstheater in Mainz. Anotherchildren’s opera, Der 35. Mai, waspresented at the same theater on No-vember 13, 2007 and in Freiburg,Germany on February 16, 2008.

Pianist Teresa Dybvig presented“Assessment of a retraining programin improving pianists’ involuntarymovements,” a report on the work ofTeresa Dybvig and Nina Scolnik, atthe 12th European Congress onMusician’s Medicine and the ThirdInternational Congress on Musician’sMedicine held at the Giuseppe VerdiConservatory of Music in Milan, Italyon May 9. Dybvig will direct Bal-anced Pianist programs in Coloradoand Wisconsin in July, six-day inten-sive programs integrating musician-ship, plus healthy piano technique,bodywork, learning styles, and workon creating a positive mindset forpractice and performance (seewww.BalancedPianist.com).

Adriana Figueroa’s La ciudad nuncaduerme (tango), Celeste y Blanco andToys were featured at a Women of theWorld concert at the Festival ofWoman Composers in Hartford, CTon March 26, 2008. From April 10 to13 her “Audacius Tango” fromTangoimpresiones (string quartet)was performed with choreography byJanice Garret at the Stringwreck Showin San Francisco. On April 22Tangoimpresiones was performed atthe ICWM in Beijing, China. In MayDos pinturas Argentinas received itsworld premiere in Toronto, Canada bythe Stratford Brass ensemble, whichcommissioned the work. In June, TresPiezas Argentinas (violin, cello) wasperformed at a concert of music bywomen composers in Buenos Aires.On October 4, Metrópolis will be pre-miered by the Orquesta Sinfónica ofthe Universidad nacional de Cuyo inMendoza, Argentina.

41Members’ News

The Israel Sinfonietta premieredTsippi Fleischer’s Symphony No. 4on September 18, 2007 at the “IsraeliMusic Celebration” Festival held atBen Gurion University. Abhorrencewas included on the double albumPoetry and Drama in post productionSeptember 29-30 in Munich, Ger-many. On October 3 “The Music ofTsippi Fleischer—Demography in theshade of politics” was held in Kassel,Germany, including an Internet inter-view, signing new publishing con-tracts for Ballade of Expected Deathin Cairo and Ancient Love, and anexhibition and a performance of Re-suscitation. Resuscitation was alsoperformed at “Heilhaus meets Furore”in Kassel on October 21. On Decem-ber 23, the Collegium Tel Aviv Cham-ber Choir performed Madrigals Nos.1,2,3,5 (from Scenes of Israel) dur-ing the “Music in Levinsky” concertseries. Songs Nos. 1 and 6 from AleiKinor were performed in the RamatGan Theater in Tel Aviv at an annualIsraeli theater awards ceremony hon-oring Ada Ben-Nahum (librettist ofAlei Kinor) on December 28.

Esther Flückiger’s new CD, Spazierklang, was produced in collaborationwith AGON acustica informaticamusica, Milan, and issued in October2007 on the Altrisuoni di Lugano la-bel. It depicts insects and fantasticcreatures, which Flückiger has trans-formed in multimedia projects. Theproject is in three parts: (1) recordingsof eight of her compositions, impro-visations, fragments and text; (2) four-track electronic elaborations byMaura Capuzzo; and (3) Flückiger’sre-elaboration. The work was per-formed in Italy and Switzerland.

The New York Virtuoso Singers pre-miered Jenece Gerber’s Je MeDélace on October 28 at St. IgnatiusEpiscopal Church in New York Cityat a concert entitled “Be Glad Then,America!” featuring winning compo-sitions from the third annual Choral

Composition Competition (seewww.societyofcomposers.org/user/jenecec.gerber.html for informationand streaming audio). In November2007, BABEL, the experimental vo-cal ensemble of SUNY at Buffalo,premiered three movements fromGerber’s playful set of soprano du-ets, Haiku, at the UB Art Gallery. InAugust 2007 the Season String Quar-tet premiered her judge a moth by thebeauty of its candle as part of the firstannual “Summer in Sombor” compo-sition program in Sombor, Serbia.Gerber presented a paper entitled“Against a science of signs: La Voixhumaine” at the 2008 Music Gradu-ate Association Conference at theUniversity of Toronto in March. Shewas recently elected to the IAWMBoard of Directors.

Lynn Gumert was awarded a month-long residency at the Millay Colonyfor the Arts to work on a multimediamonodrama. She was commissionedby the Highland Park Recorder Soci-ety to compose Hago de lo flacofuerte, for voices, recorders, strings,and percussion. The piece was pre-miered at their annual spring concertin New Brunswick and HighlandPark, NJ, with the composer conduct-ing and performing. Nothing but flow-ers and songs of sorrow (tenorrecorder and guitar) was selected forperformance at the International Fes-tival of Women Composers at Indi-ana University of Pennsylvania inMarch. Her musical, Helen andTeacher, with book and libretto bySusan Russell, was presented in astaged reading at the Majestic The-atre in Gettysburg, PA on March 15.

Barbara Harbach was interviewedby Tom Quick on October 8 onCKWR Radio in Waterloo, Ontario on“Monday Evening Concert - Classi-cal Music.” The program featured herwork as both organist and com-poser—Rhapsody Ritmico, Transfor-mations, Daystream Dances,

Summershimmer, Arcadian Reverieand Frontier were aired. Harbach per-formed “A Celebration of Hymns,” anorgan recital, featuring her arrange-ments of various international hymns,on October 14 at Unity LutheranChurch in Bel-Nor, MO. On October23, “A Tribute to Pioneer Women: TheMusic of Barbara Harbach” was pre-sented as part of the “Notes FromHome” series in St. Louis, MO, in-cluding performances of Freeing theCaged Bird, Pioneer Women: fromSkagway to White Mountain, FrontierFancies, Abigail! and Twenty-firstCentury Pioneer. From October 25 to28, Harbach was composer in resi-dence at Niagara County CommunityCollege in Sanborn, NY. On October28, she attended the premiere of GodBless Your Church with Strength!commissioned for the 60th anniver-sary celebration of Church of the Na-tivity United Congregational Churchin Buffalo, NY. Harbach was featuredat the Women in the Arts Festival heldin Buffalo, April 17- 20, giving lec-ture/demonstrations on “1200 Yearsof Women Composers” at NiagaraCounty Community College, SUNYat Buffalo and Canisius College; play-ing her compositions at a gala organrecital; moderating a panel discussionfeaturing women in music, visual arts,dance, drama and poetry; and havinga composition performed at the All-Arts Gala closing event.

Christine Perea premiered JulieHarting’s experimental piece for soloquartertone flute at the first of twoconcerts exploring microtonal music.Harting served as curator for the con-cert held November 9 at Roulette inNew York City.

Ralph Hartsock wrote four articles forWomen in the American Civil War: AnEncyclopedia, edited by Lisa TendrichFrank (ABC-CLIO, 2008). Three ar-ticles are about women in music:Fanny Crosby composed poems forthe Union, Josephine Griffing sang


abolitionist songs at Anti-Slavery So-ciety meetings, and Rebecca Feltontaught piano in post-war Georgia.

Jennifer Higdon was interviewed byFrank Oteri as the cover story for theSeptember New Music Box atwww.newmusicbox.org. BBC 3 Ra-dio broadcast the December perfor-mance of Percussion Concerto withColin Currie, soloist, and Marin Alsopconducting the London Philharmonic.Concerto 4-3 (“Time for Three” bluegrass trio, orchestra) and The SingingRooms (violinist Jennifer Koh, cho-rus, orchestra) received world pre-miere performances by thePhiladelphia Orchestra on January 10and 17. The Philadelphia Orchestrawas the lead commissioner of bothworks, as part of the Bernstein Festi-val. These premieres were part ofHigdon’s Meet-the-Composer/LAOResidency with the Philadelphia Or-chestra this season. Concerto 4-3 wasperformed by Time for Three and theWheeling (West Virginia) Symphonyon January 22. Soliloquy was per-formed by English hornist ElizabethMasoudnia and string players fromthe Philadelphia Orchestra on Febru-ary 3. The Mannes Symphony Or-chestra performed Concerto forOrchestra in Carnegie Hall on Feb-ruary 16. Pianist Marilyn Nonken pre-miered Mr. Carter’s Notes atSymphony Space on February 29.Commissioned by the Network forNew Music as part of the ElliottCarter 100th Birthday celebrations,the piece was also performed in Phila-delphia on March 2. blue cathedralreceived multiple performances by theMinnesota Orchestra in February andby the San Diego Symphony inMarch. Percussion Concerto was per-formed by the Harrisburg Symphonyon March 8-9, and by the Utah Sym-phony with Colin Currie and JoAnnFalletta conducting on March 20-22.river sings a song to trees was per-formed by the Lancaster Symphony

on March 28-30. Higdon received theComposers Award at these perfor-mances.

Dorothy Hindman’s Needlepoint(solo guitar) was released on aMusings CD on the Society of Com-posers, Inc. series on CapstoneRecords. Seconds (electronics) is fea-tured on Vox Novus 2004-05 “60x60”double disc. A few selected recent per-formances include two performancesof Incarnation (choir) by the CoroOdyssea in Portugal in July; five per-formances of Streaming (for orches-tra) by the Alabama SymphonyOrchestra in September; Taut by theCorona Guitar Kvartet at the NuoviSpazi Musicale Festival in Rome,Italy in October; the premiere of Tap-ping the Furnace (speaking percus-sion solo) given by Stuart Gerber ona Bent Frequency concert in Atlanta;two performances of Needlepoint(guitar solo) by Paul Bowman in SanDiego and Birmingham; and Beyondthe Cloud of Unknowing (marimbasolo), performed by Scott Deal at TheCollege Music Society National Con-ference in Salt Lake City, Utah, in No-vember.

Monica Buckland Hofstetter, untilrecently Principal Conductor of theTibor Varga Academy in Sion, Swit-zerland, has become the new MusicDirector at the University of Dresden,Germany, where she is responsible forthe Symphony Orchestra, the Cham-ber Philharmonic, and various cham-ber music ensembles.

Jennifer Kelly’s article, “LibbyLarsen: Insights and Influencesthrough Love Songs,” was publishedin Choral Journal, February 2008. InApril, she presented portions of thearticle in papers presented at theICWM in Beijing, China and the Col-lege Music Society Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Super Regional Conferencein Gettysburg, PA.

In September, Eva Kendrick wasappointed composer in residence andchair of the composition and theorydepartment at the Community MusicCenter of Boston, a 98-year-old insti-tution bringing music education topeople of all ages and abilities. Sheand soprano Noell Dorsey, with pia-nist Steve Yenger, performed her songcycle Shining on April 10, 2008 at theCenter. Kendrick received a commis-sion from the Center’s Chamber Or-chestra for a 25th anniversary concertto be held on June 8. She also receiveda commission from bass WilliamO’Neill to write a song cycle basedon poems by Boston poet Paul Turner,to be premiered at the San FranciscoConservatory in May. Kendrick wasone of the organizers for a SWAN Day(a new international holiday celebrat-ing women artists in all genres) eventin Rhode Island; music by Kendrickwill be performed. Eve Songs werepremiered by the Boston-based acappella quartet Anthology.

Anne Kilstofte was named FaithPartners Composer in Residence fora consortium commission through theAmerican Composers Forum fundedby the Otto Bremer Foundation.Kilstofte has been working with twochurches in this ecumenical residency,St. Mary’s Catholic Church and VinjeLutheran Church in Willmar, Minne-sota. St. Mary’s has premiered twopieces, a Thanksgiving piece forchildren’s choir, With Thanks in YourHeart, and an Easter piece based onthe tune “Lasst Uns Erfreuen,” fortrumpets, trombones, organ, handbells, choir, and congregation. Shewill complete her residency in Maywith four pieces premiered by VinjeLutheran: Take Us All to Heaven, Witha Joyful Noise, and Bless the Lord,and an arrangement of When in AllMusic God is Glorified. St. Mary’swill complete the residency with thepremiere of Psalm 23 on the last Sun-day in May. Sonoran Tapestry, a set

43

of miniatures for solo piano was pre-miered by Dr. Margaret Lucia, at theInternational Women’s Festival ofMusic at Indiana University of Penn-sylvania in March. Choral, orchestral,and chamber works by Kilstofte re-ceived numerous performances andpremieres during Advent, Lent, andEaster by the West Valley ChamberChoir at American Lutheran Churchin Sun City, Arizona. Bluegrass Hal-lelujah received its Arizona premiereby Minnesota-based bluegrass groupMonroe Crossing. Oh, Hush Thee, fora cappella choir, was conducted inThe Netherlands by Siebren Kramer,and “The Divine Lullaby,” from heroratorio, Requiem for Still Voices, formezzo-soprano, orchestra, and cho-rus, was performed in Arizona byMonique Rupp and the composer atthe piano; the work received its Chi-nese premiere by the China Conser-vatory of Music Opera Orchestra atthe concert hall in the Forbidden Cityat the Beijing ICWM.

Lan-chee Lam’s Requiem (SATBchoir, soprano, piano) was the win-ner of the 2007 Choral CompositionCompetition held at the University ofToronto. Requiem received its pre-miere on April 5 by the MacMillanSingers in a choral concert entitled“Heroes and Legends.”

The Empire State Youth OrchestraString Ensemble commissioned andperformed Janice Macaulay’s Shift-ing Gears in Troy, NY, as part of theNew Music for a New GenerationMusic Festival.

Ann Millikan gave a podcast inter-view with Philip Blackburn, InnovaDirector, “Alive and Composing” onMarch 24 (see http://acfmusic.org/i n n o v a / p o d c a s t s / a l i v e /Ann_Millikan.mp3).

In July, Janice Misurell-Mitchellpresented her music to a composi-tion seminar at the Royal Northern

College of Music in Manchester,England. She discussed Omaggioa(n) Tony for solo soprano andAgitación for two pianos and percus-sion, and she performed Sometimesthe City is Silent for solo flute. Shegave a lecture and presentation ofher DVD of Sermon of the Spiderfor tenor and chamber ensemble atthe University of Nottingham. InSeptember she visited Havana forsix days and gave lectures and per-formances to students at the InstitutoSuperior de Arte, speaking on Musicand Politics and presenting her musicfor solo flute. The visit is covered inCircuits at http://cubeensemble.com/currentcalendar.html. In NovemberMisurell-Mitchell was a guest lecturerat Illinois Wesleyan University, speak-ing on Music and Politics, perform-ing her work for flute/voice, BloozMan/Poet Woman, participating inan improvisation, and discussing theperformance of her work, VanishingPoints/Quantum Leaps (clarinet,violin, cello, piano) by students andfaculty.

The November 2007 issue ofGramophone magazine featuresBeata Moon’s new Naxos CD oforiginal piano works. Reviewer An-drew Druckenbrod states, “Moonwrites compelling music that is utterlysincere…this disc is exhibit A in thecontinuing court-of-public-opinioncase on the accessibility of qualitynew music.”

Patricia Morehead performedShakkei for oboe and chamber orches-tra by Hilary Tann in the ForbiddenCity Concert Hall, Beijing, China atthe ICWM. Her own composition,Just Before the Rain for erhu, pipaand clarinet, was also performed.Her most recent piece, Hildegard’sTrance for English horn and electron-ics, was premiered by Alicia Tait atBenedictine University on March 31.The concert also featured her DoubleTrouble (clarinet, cello), Design One

(oboe), and Antiphonal (English horn,cello) based on an antiphon byHildegard. The concert included thepremiere of Free Associations (oboe,clarinet, cello) by her former compo-sition student, Donna Marsh;Morehead commissioned the work.Zoological Garden was performed onApril 27 at Columbia College, Fac-ulty Composers Concert with sopranoNatalie Mann, flutist DonnaMilanovich, and harpist StephenHartman. She presented a paper,“From the 12th to the 21st Century:On Being a Composer,” and per-formed Hildegard’s Trance at the 43rdInternational Congress on MedievalStudies, Western Michigan Univer-sity, Kalamazoo, on May 8. She pre-sented a paper, performed, andchaired two sessions at Chestnut HillCollege, Philadelphia, for the 25thAnniversary Celebration of the Inter-national Society of Hildegard vonBingen Studies on May 29.

Mary Lou Newmark announces anew Street Angel Diaries (a multi-media work about the homeless)video (available online at http://www.streetangeldiaries.com) and therelease of the Music from Street An-gel Diaries CD, including music fromthe theatrical production/video ofStreet Angel Diaries and new music.Available through CD Baby andamazon.com, the CD is not a re-cre-ation of the show, but includes a suiteof pieces from the production and newworks created from the soundscapesof the performances.

The Southern Nevada Chapter of theAmerican Guild of Organists pre-sented Frances Nobert in a solo or-gan recital, “Music, She Wrote: OrganCompositions by Women,” at theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas onFebruary 22. On February 23, Nobertpresented a workshop, “Music SheWrote: Compositions by Women forOrgan Solo and for Organ with Instru-ments.”

Members’ News


Australian classical music labelMOVE released Kanako Okamoto’sCD titled Crystal Vision: the pianomusic of Kanako Okamoto in Novem-ber 2007. It includes Petite Suite,Crystal vision, La nuit, Sparkle andSuite, performed by pianist MichaelKieran Harvey.

On March 20, Rebecca Oswald’sMan of Oregon (a symphonic biogra-phy of Bill Bowerman, track and fieldcoach for the University of Oregonand the U.S. Olympics) was featuredin the arts section of the Eugene Reg-ister-Guard. Man of Oregon was in-cluded in Catriona Bolster’s “ArtsLine” interview with the Oregon BachFestival’s communication director,George Evano, on March 20. On July1, the Oregon Bach Festival willpresent a gala tribute concert celebrat-ing Bowerman, featuring the premiereof Man of Oregon performed by theOregon Bach Festival Orchestra.

Hasu Patel received commissions towrite compositions featuring ragasfrom two United States orchestras.She performed with the Doctors Or-chestra of Houston on February 10 ina program entitled “East Meets West,”and on March 29, she performed withthe Plymouth Canton Symphony Or-chestra in Canton, Michigan. Bothorchestras also performed her compo-sitions. On February 1, Patel gave asitar concert, accompanied on thetabla by Arup Chattopadhyay, atHeidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio.On March 26, she performed a sitarconcert at the Festival of WomenComposers at the University of Hart-ford, CT. From April 18 to 22 she gaveworkshops for students and per-formed sitar concerts at the Conser-vatory of Music in Beijing, China.

Composer Sabrina Peña Young’s USvs. Them will be showcased in Illinoisat Millikin University PercussionEnsemble’s April 20th performance,conducted by Brian Justison. Kansas

State University has commissioned thework World Order #5 (percussion sex-tet, video, and tape) to be performedthis fall and conducted by KurtGartner. Upcoming publications fea-ture the inclusion of World Order #4in the anthology Notations 21 (MarkBatty Publishers). She is the authorof the New Music Resource, http://newmusicresource.blogspot.com/, afree online resource for composersinterested in new media and experi-mental electroacoustic music.

Scarecrow Press published JeanniePool’s biography of saxophoneplayer, bandleader and advocate forwomen instrumental musicians,Peggy Gilbert (1905-2007). A privatescreening of Pool’s film, Peggy Gil-bert and Her All-Girl Band, tookplace in Toronto on March 27.

Six of Deon Nielsen Price’s orches-tral works were recorded by the KievPhilharmonic Orchestra in theUkraine during October 2007. JohnMcLaughlin Williams conducted fourworks: Dancing on the Brink of theWorld, a tone poem on the dramaticsaga of Crissy Field in the Presidioof San Francisco; States of Mind;Epitaphs for Fallen Heroes, with thecomposer at the piano; and YellowJade Banquet, variations on a Chinesefolk melody with clarinetist BerkeleyPrice. Berkeley Price conducted twoshort works, America Themes andGateways. Culver Crest Publications,publisher of Price’s college text, Ac-companying Skills for Pianists (nowin its second edition), is co-produceralong with Cambria Master Record-ings and the Kiev Philharmonic Or-chestra. The CD was released on theCambria label in 2008. The Price Duoperformed Yellow Jade Banquet andClariphonia on March 13 at a Mu PhiEpsilon Los Angeles Alumni ChapterConcert and on a concert at ChinaConservatory of Music in Beijing,April 17. The Price Duo performedClariphonia on a chamber music re-

cital at the 2008 Beijing ICWM onApril 20. Yellow Jade Banquet, fea-turing Berkeley Price, clarinets, wasperformed on March 22 by the PalosVerdes Regional Orchestra in Tor-rance, CA; also by the China NationalSymphony Orchestra, Apo Hsu, con-ductor, at the new China NationalCenter for the Performing Arts inBeijing, April 18, on the opening con-cert of the ICWM.

Andrea Reinkemeyer’s Half MoonNocturne, commissioned by and dedi-cated to H. Roberts Reynolds and theDetroit Chamber Winds and Strings,received its premiere performance atthe Birmingham Unitarian Churchin Bloomfield Hills, Michigan onOctober 21.

Anna Rubin’s Stolen Gold (amplifiedviolin and fixed media) was presentedat the SEAMUS (Society for Elec-troacoustic Music US) Conference,April 4, 2008, University of Utah.Maria Loos premiered Rubin’s Ban-ish Gloom, for multiple recorders, atthe Festival of Women Composers onMarch 28 at Indiana University ofPennsylvania. She will be presentinga paper on the work of FrancisDhomont at the EMS08 (Electroa-coustic Music Studies) Conference inParis in early June.

Vivian Adelberg Rudow’s Call forPeace (flute and tape) was performedby Rose-Marie Soncini in Beijing,China at the ICWM on April 19. Alsoduring April, Garden Song (voice andtape) and The Healing Place (narra-tor and tape) were performed atLipscomb University in Nashville,Tennessee.

The Cypress Quartet of San Franciscohas recorded the complete string quar-tets of Elena Ruehr, performing thequartets live at a celebratory concertheld on February 22 at Harvard Uni-versity (sponsored by Radcliffe) inBoston. The recording, which was

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done at Skywalker Studios, is ex-pected to be released in the fall of2008.

Maryanne Rumancik’s Are YouGoing to Bethlehem’s Light? was per-formed on the Contro Canto Natalein Musica 2007 concert series ofFondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne inMusica in Italy. The work was per-formed by Coro Polifonico di Afile onDecember 14 (Roccasecca), 15(Rome), 16 (Frascati), 18 (Rome) and26 (Afile). On May 9 Monica Bailey(flute) and Rumancik (piano) per-formed Germaine Tailleferre’sForlane and G.F. Handel’s Sonata inG major, op. 1, no. 5 at St. Benedict’sRetreat and Conference Centre,Winnipeg, Manitoba for the 14th an-nual fundraising concert sponsoringretreats for people living with AIDS/HIV and the unemployed.

Alex Shapiro’s Homecoming (con-cert wind band), commissioned by theU.S. Army, was premiered March 30in Newport News, VA. Below (con-trabass flute and electronics) was pre-miered at the Great Southwest FluteFest on April 11 at the University ofArizona by commissioning flutist Pe-ter Sheridan, also appearing on hisnew CD, (Mis)Conceptions. Luvinawas premiered in November inMexico City by pianist AnaCervantes, also appearing on herQuindecim Recordings CD SoloRumores. The most significant newrecording of Shapiro’s music is Notesfrom the Kelp, a collection of eightchamber works on Innova Record-ings, including Slipping and Slip (vio-lin and harpsichord), a winner of the2008 Aliénor harpsichord composi-tion competition. Shapiro appearedfor the third year as a panelist for theApril 2008 ASCAP “I Create Music”Expo in Hollywood, also serving as aspeaker and moderator at the NationalPerforming Arts Convention in Den-ver in June. She has published sev-eral articles and interviews, including

two articles about composers andWeb-based careers for the AmericanMusic Center online magazine,NewMusicBox in November andApril. She appeared on several radioprograms with interviewers MartinPerlich and John Clare, and onASCAP’s Audio Portraits series. InFebruary, she was a guest on SecondLife Cable Network TV show, in vir-tual reality.

Kathleen Shimeta performed herone-woman show/art song recital,“Life! Love! Song! A Visit with GenaBranscombe,” on March 1 at ParkChurch in Elmira, New York; onMarch 12 at the National Gallery ofArt in Washington, D.C.; and onMarch 30 at Hofstra University. OnMarch 2, she performed on a CantataSingers program entitled “She Writesthe Songs: Sacred and Serious Cho-ral Music by Women Composers”held at Elmira College.

Judith Shatin was awarded a McKimFund Commission by the Library ofCongress and a composer fellowshipby the Virginia Commission for theArts. Other commissions include anorchestrated version of Songs for Warand Peace for the Minnesota CenterChorale, conducted by J. MicheleEdwards. Shatin’s View From Mt.Nebo won the Jezic Ensemble’s com-petition for a piano trio by a womancomposer and was performed by theRavel Trio on April 6. She was alsoBMI composer in residence atVanderbilt University in April. Amongnumerous performances, AkhmatovaSongs was performed by Da CapoChamber Players at the St. PetersburgSoundways Festival and the MoscowAutumn Festival. Akhmatova Songswas also performed by Dinosaur An-nex. Other performances includedmultiple versions of Penelope’s Song,most recently for amplified violin andDVD by Hasse Borup at SEAMUS;and several performances of For the

Birds by cellist Madeleine Shapiro.Please see www.judithshatin.com.

Clare Shore’s Eser Makot for violaand SATB chorus will be premieredat Charleston’s Spoleto Festival onJune 7th by the Taylor Festival Choirwith Rozanna Weinberger, viola.

On March 12, Jamie Sims was inter-viewed on ErrorFM.com, an interviewthat was rescheduled from 1982! Atthat time, Sims was heading the Cos-mopolitans (1979-82) band, whichwas on tour. They were late for theirnext performance and were not ableto complete the interview in 1982.From her current perspective as a clas-sical composer, Sims completed theinterview with the same DJ, address-ing issues of joint participation inclassical and rock music.

Susan Slesinger received a Doctor ofMusical Arts degree in compositionfrom Claremont (CA) Graduate Uni-versity in January 2008. Her projectpaper was on British Rock Oratoriosof the late 1960s and early 1970s. Herdissertation composition was a workfor narrator, choir, and string orches-tra, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Jewel A. Smith’s book, Music,Women, and Pianos in AntebellumBethlehem, Pennsylvania: TheMoravian Young Ladies’ Seminary,was recently published by LehighUniversity Press, Bethlehem.

Ensemble Resonance premieredRoberta Stephen’s Seven Words ofLove (clarinet, violin, voice) on Janu-ary 21 at the University of Calgary,including four more performances for“New Music in New Places,” aproject of the Canada Council throughthe Canadian Music Centre. The LilyQuartet premiered Rondo Capriccio(string quartet) on “Feminine EndingsII,” a concert in the New WorksCalgary season, also held at the Uni-versity of Calgary. “Feminine Endings

Members’ News


II” included music written only byCalgary women composers for pianoand string quartet.

Evelyn Stroobach’s In FlandersFields won a prize in the ERM Me-dia international composition compe-tition including a performance andCD recording on February 15, 2008by the National Opera Chorus in Kiev,Ukraine, and string players from theKiev National Philharmonic. Master-works of the New Era and Naxos willdistribute and market the CD to radiostations worldwide, offering the CDfor sale in 25 countries upon its re-lease in November 2008. Her AuroraBorealis (orchestra) was broadcast onseveral radio stations: in August 2007by Caitriona Bolster, producer andhost at KWAX radio of Eugene, Or-egon; and in September by TomQuick, producer and host at CKWRradio in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,along with Aria for Strings. Selectionsfrom the work were broadcast byPatricia Werner Leanse, producer andhost at Radio Monalisa, Amsterdam;and by Thomas Lenk, producer andhost of “The Present Edge” at KGNUradio in Boulder, Colorado. AuroraBorealis was performed by the OradeaState Philharmonic Orchestra of Ro-mania on February 21, 2008. It is in-cluded on Stroobach’s AuroraBorealis CD along with Daydream(carillon) and Dark Blue (alto saxo-phone, piano). On October 2, 2007,Canary Burton of WOMR radio,Provincetown, MA, produced a 50-minute show featuring Stroobach’smusic. Dark Blue was performed in aContemporary Ensemble concert atthe University of Ottawa on March28, 2008. Stroobach serves on theboard of directors of the Ottawa NewMusic Creators.

Linda Swope was awarded a grantfrom the Arts Council of the Valley(Harrisonburg, Virginia, in theShenandoah Valley) to work on herfirst major composition, a plea for

world peace scored for soloists, choir,and orchestra. The text expresses thefeelings of soldiers, families, and oth-ers affected by the Iraq war.

Hilary Tann’s cycle Songs of theCotton Grass (soprano, oboe) re-ceived its New York premiere on Oc-tober 12, 2007 at the debut of “TheSongs of Hope” recital series at GraceChurch in Brooklyn Heights, NewYork. This program was also per-formed in October at The Dee SarnoTheater in Saratoga Springs andUnion College in Schenectady, NY,and in February at Plymouth Congre-gational Church in Seattle and PacificLutheran University in Tacoma,Washington.

Karen P. Thomas’s Lux Lucis forwomen’s choir won first place in the2007 Roger Wagner ContemporaryChoral Composition Contest. To Mis-tress Margaret Hussey and How canI keep from Singing (SATB choir)have been released on the Seattle ProMusica’s recent American Master-pieces CD. Her choral works havereceived recent performances in Eu-rope by the Hilliard Ensemble; in Se-attle by the Seattle Men’s Chorus,Bellingham Chamber Chorale,Cascadian Chorale, and Opus 7; inMinneapolis by the One Voice MixedChorus; and in Europe by The Choirof the Sound. Seattle Pro Musica hasperformed her works on tour through-out the Pacific Northwest, and at theAmerican Masterpieces Choral Fes-tival under the auspices of the Na-tional Endowment for the Arts. Whennight came (clarinet, piano), winnerof the Theodore Front Prize, has re-ceived numerous performancesthroughout the United States and Eu-rope, and is dedicated to the womenof Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was per-formed by Joseph Wytko in Seattle onApril 26, 2008. Sopravvento (windquintet, percussion) was performed bythe Renaissance City Winds in Pitts-burgh in September 2007.

Line Tjørnhøj’s performance-operaAnorexia Sacra was premiered at thePLEX Music Theatre in Copenhagenin 2006. It has been selected as oneof six semi-finalists to be presentedthis year at the Opera Vista Competi-tion in Houston, Texas, whereTjørnhøj will participate in publicreadings of the work during June.

Nancy Van de Vate was composer inresidence for the 2008 Women inMusic Festival at the Eastman Schoolof Music. An all Van de Vate concerton March 24 featured A Long RoadTravelled, commissioned by theHansen Fund for American Music andpremiered by the Ying Quartet andviolist John Graham. The concert alsoincluded Cantata for Women’s Voicesand Songs for the Four Parts of theNight. Other festival concerts featuredscenes from her opera, All Quiet onthe Western Front, Prelude for Organ,and Suite for Solo Marimba. OnMarch 27, Trio for Horn, Violin, andPiano was performed at the IndianaUniversity of Pennsylvania’s Festivalof Music by Women. On April 6 it wasperformed at Hendrix College,Conway, Arkansas as Trio for Horn,Viola, and Piano. On April 1, Aus-trian National Television devoted anhour-long program to All Quiet on theWestern Front and Where the CrossIs Made. The latter (VMM 4006) wasreviewed in Fanfare by critic LynnRené Bayley, who called the work amasterpiece. The North American pre-miere of All Quiet on the WesternFront will be presented during the2008-09 season by Longleaf Opera,and the world premiere of her one-act opera, In the Shadow of the Glen,will be presented in the fall of 2008by Illinois State University.

The Syracuse Society for New Musicperformed Persis Parshall Vehar’sopera George Sand...and Chopin? inJuly of 2007 in Cazenovia; in Septem-ber at Onondaga Community Collegein Syracuse; and in January 2008 in

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Liverpool, New York. The Cathedralof the Universe was recorded by theFreudig Singers in the fall of 2007.The Freudig Singers have commis-sioned a work for their 25th Anniver-sary Season. In October 2007, theAmberg Quartet premiered Summer—Frogs and Fireflies at Canisius Col-lege in Buffalo. Soprano EileenStrempel and pianist Sylvie Beaudettepremiered “Safe in their AlabasterChambers” from Emily’s World inMarch 2008 at Utica College.

Elizabeth Vercoe’s Corollaries forSolo Horn, commissioned by hornistFrancis Massinon, was premiered onNovember 5 at a Dimensions in NewMusic concert at Austin Peay StateUniversity in Clarksville, Tennessee.Kleemation (flute, piano) and To Mu-sic (solo flute) were performed atGeorgetown University in Washing-ton, D.C., Gordon College in Massa-chusetts and several Pennsylvaniauniversities on a recent tour by flutistPeter Bloom and pianist Mary JaneRupert.

The world premiere performance ofJoelle Wallach’s Five Songs for so-prano and piano was given by JaniceHall on November 9, 2007 as part ofthe Composers Concordance concertat Greenwich House Music School inManhattan. Low in a Manger (treblechoir and organ) was commissionedand premiered by The CanticumNovum Singers’ Youth Choir on De-cember 8 at St. Luke’s EpiscopalChurch in Katonah, NY and on De-cember 15 in New York City at SaintIgnatius of Antioch EpiscopalChurch. Wallach presented “TheAmerican Songbook as Melting PotMosaic: Irving Berlin II: Bridging theSacred and the Secular through Mu-sic” as part of the Havdalah Lecturesheld December 15 at the 92nd StreetY, in Manhattan. From December 19to 22, Wallach delivered The NewYork Philharmonic Pre-Concert Lec-tures, speaking on Handel’s Messiah,

and she also lectured on Haydn,Beethoven, and Berio, March 6-8. TheSt. Louis Symphony and Joe DamonChappel premiered The Firefighter’sPrayer (baritone, strings) on Febru-ary 20 in St. Louis, MO as part of aspecial “On Stage at Powell” BlackHistory Month Program. Wallach par-ticipated in a panel discussion beforethe performance.

Wang An-Ming’s composition forflute, cello and piano was performedon November 16 at a concert ofAmerican women composers held atthe Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda,Maryland.

Meira Warshauer’s Yishakeyni(Sweeter than Wine) for soprano, fluteand piano was performed by theJerusalem Lyric Trio on November 11at the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art,and on November 12 at the Univer-sity of North Carolina, in Wilmington.Look to the Light (SATB chorus, pi-ano) was performed by the GeorgiaCollege and State University MaxNoah Singers, on their “Oratorio atChristmas” tour of South Carolina,North Carolina, and Georgia, Decem-ber 11-15, 2007. Warshauer per-formed excerpts from her newStreams in the Desert CD (AlbanyRecords) at Barnes and Noble on Feb-ruary 24 in New York City. ClassicalVoice of North Carolina reviewed theCD at http://cvnc.org/reviews/cd_dvd_book/cd/Warshauer.html, de-scribing the work as “bright, rhyth-mic, and powerful” and “filled withwonder and amazement.” Mimi Stern-Wolfe’s Downtown Chamber Playersperformed the piano trio Aecha (Lam-entations) on a concert of music bywomen composers, March 16, at St.Marks in New York City. GregoryHarrington performed In MemoriamSeptember 11, 2001 (solo violin) on aMarch 17-25 New Zealand tour.

Margaret Lucy Wilkins chaired apanel discussion at the Tenth New

Wind Festival held November 13 atSt. Cyprian’s Church in London, En-gland. Jenny Fowler also participatedon the panel, “Splendid Isolation: thefuture for composers?”

Composer Sherry Woods was se-lected to perform her Ruins for violaand piano with Benjamin Woods at theCollege Music Society’s InternationalConference in Bangkok, Thailandduring July of 2007. Ruins was alsoselected for performance on theIAWM Composers recital of the Fes-tival of Women Composers at Indi-ana University of Pennsylvania inMarch 2008. Repeat performances inApril 2008 were at Francis MarionUniversity in Florence and on theCommunity Concert Series in Dillon,South Carolina. Wildacres (viola, pi-ano) was selected for performance atthe Mid-Atlantic College MusicSociety’s Regional Conference in thespring of 2007. It was written duringan artist residency at the WildacresRetreat Center in North Carolina.Woods received the “Studio Teacherof the Year” award from the SouthCarolina American String TeachersAssociation. Woods and thirty-four ofher advanced students will premiereGalaxy’s End for string orchestra atthe Galaxy Theater in Disney Worldin April 2008. The work was writtenby Woods and five of her students.

In December 2007 Carol Wortheywas awarded the first Special Recog-nition Award given by the City of Flo-rence, Italy and the 2007 FlorenceBiennale International ContemporaryArt Exhibit for Fanfare for The NewRenaissance, performed twice by theBrass Dimensions Ensemble on theopening day. Worthey also exhibitedpaintings at the Biennale. Fanfare forThe New Renaissance was publishedby the Tuscan publisher, Animando.Several of Worthey’s brass works willbe performed during Italian BrassWeek (August 18-24) of the SantaFiora Music Festival, at the invitation

Members’ News


of Luca Benucci, Artistic Director.Tess Remy-Schumacher and Marga-ret Brisch gave the Oklahoma pre-miere of Elegy (cello, piano) onFebruary 25 at the University of Cen-tral Oklahoma. Elegy, a healing mu-sical depiction of the events ofSeptember 11, 2001, has been per-formed in England, Germany, andmultiple areas of the United States.Jade Flute (erhu, pipa, dizi, stringquintet, piano, percussion) receivedits world premiere at the China Con-servatory of Music in Beijing on April22 at the ICWM, where Worthey gavean “East Meets West” seminar on or-chestration tips for combining Chi-nese and Western instruments.

The Harlem String Quartet gave theworld premiere of Judith LangZaimont’s The Figure on September

15 at Crouse College of Syracuse Uni-versity in Syracuse, New York. Pia-nist Young-Ah Tak performed Wizards– Three Magic Masters on Septem-ber 7-8 at the Walton Art Center StarrTheater in Fayetteville, Arkansas, andon September 8 at the University ofArkansas Clinton School of PublicService in Little Rock. Pianist NicolaMelville gave the world premiere per-formance of Hitchin’ – a travellin’groove at Carleton College inNorthfield, Minnesota. Wizards –Three Magic Masters and Jupiter’sMoons were performed by pianistJanet Norman on a lecture/recital givenSeptember 30 at Southwestern Col-lege in Phoenix, Arizona. On Octo-ber 27-28, the Portland SymphonyChoir gave the world premiere ofRemembrance on a “Psalms and Medi-tations” concert presented at Con-

gregation Beth Israel in Portland, Or-egon. On November 3, Cantori NewYork presented Sunny Airs and Soberat “The Judith Project,” featuring cho-ral music by four composers namedJudith, at Church of the Holy Trinityin Manhattan. Israeli Rhapsody wasperformed by the Virginia Intercolle-giate Band on February 8-9 and theMinnesota Intercollegiate Band onFebruary 15-16. Zaimont’s Prestidigi-tations Ragtime CD was featured onFebruary’s CD Hotlist: New Releasesfor Libraries, selected by Baker &Taylor. Blanche Abram and MarilynSherman Lehman performed SnazzySonata (piano four hands) at “TheFeminine Musique” concert on March8 at Hofstra University in Hempstead,NY. Subito Music Corporation hassigned Zaimont to an exclusive pub-lishing agreement.

The BBC Proms, the largest classical music festivalin the world, is presenting its annual eight-weeksummer season from July 18 to September 13. Thedaily concerts and other events will be held mainlyin the Royal Albert Hall in London, UnitedKingdom, with chamber concerts and Saturdaymatinees at Cadogan Hall. We have been eager tolearn if the new artistic director, Roger Wright,would schedule more concerts featuring womencomposers, performers, and conductors. Since muchof the programming was probably organized by hispredecessor, it may be a bit too early to see definitetrends.

The programming of women composersseems to be improving, which is not hard to do! Ofthe 117 composers who are featured, six are women(5%), equaling the largest number since 1989, whenI started taking count. In several previous years,works by five women were presented. Thedifference this time is that five of the six works arebeing performed in the main evening concerts. Thesixth woman’s work will be heard in a popularweekend afternoon concert. In previous years, manywomen composers were relegated to lunch time orlate evening concerts, which have much smalleraudiences.

The women composers include Chen Yi,who received a BBC commission to mark theopening of the Beijing Olympics on August 8th.Another BBC commission was given to the Scottishcomposer, Anna Meredith, for a short piece for thelast night of the Proms. To my knowledge, this isthe first time a woman composer has been featuredon the final night. Of the ten BBC commissions orco-commissions, two were given to women, whichis not an improvement over previous years. Theother women composers are Ethel Smyth, GraceWilliams, and Thea Musgrave, plus the folk artistKathryn Tickell.

The conductors are still almost entirelymale—this seems to be a problem generally and notjust at the Proms. In 2008, there will be only onewoman conductor out of fifty-five (1.8%)—Emmanuelle Haim, who conducts Monteverdi’sCoronation of Poppea. The production is from theGlyndebourne Opera, which selected the conductor.The largest number since 1989 was three womenconductors, only one of whom was in a main eveningconcert. The instrumental soloists this year includeeleven women out of sixty-two (18%). This is lessthan in 2004 (22%) and 2005 (25.6%) but muchbetter than in 2006 (14%) and 2007 (9.4%).——Reported by Jennifer Fowler

BBC Proms: 2008 Season

Spring 2008 TOC - International Alliance for Women in Music

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