This week marks the 104th birthday of American composer and conductor Peggy Stuart Coolidge (1913-1981). She began her career as a concert pianist, but turned to composition when a student at the New England Conservatory. Though her early works are for piano, most of...
This week we are remembering the life and work of British composer and soprano Liza Lehmann (1862-1918). Born into a privileged family, Lehmann was given the opportunity to study music from a very early age in voice and composition. Her teachers included Hamish...
July 6 marks the 136th birthday of Danish composer Nancy Dalberg (1881-1949). Dalberg was a student of Johan Svendsen and Carl Nielsen. As part of her training with Nielsen, Dalberg was challenged to experiment with orchestration – which led to Nielsen and...
This week we are honoring the life and music of German composer, pianist, and educator Ruth Schönthal (1924-2006). Born in Hamburg, she demonstrated an early talent and became the young student ever accepted to the Stern’sches Konservatorium in Berlin at age five....
Saturday, June 24, is the 101st birthday of American composer and music educator Ruth Shaw Wylie (1916-1989). Born in Ohio, Wylie grew up in Detroit and considered herself to be, “a fairly typical Midwestern composer”. After earning her PhD in composition at...
Saturday, June 17, would have been the 98th birthday of Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006). Ustvolskaya studied at the Leningrad Conservatory and was a pupil of Shostakovich who was a champion for her works, even though her style evolved to be distinctly...
