Vivian Fine

by sarah | Mar 12, 2014

American-born Vivian Fine (1913-2000) was a child prodigy on piano and began composing at age thirteen.  She worked consistently as  composer for almost seventy years and was a student of Ruth Crawford Seeger, who saw her as a protegée. She was only sixteen when she...

Nkeiru Okoye

by Liane Curtis | Mar 11, 2014

Nkeiru Okoye was born in New York (1972), and growing up, frequently visited her father’s native Nigeria.  She won a song-writing competition at age 13, and decided to study composition seriously.   She received degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory (BA) and Rutgers...

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Offertorium Chosen for Nelsons’ First BSO Season

by SMBrown | Mar 10, 2014

If a work by a female composer is actually programmed by a major metropolitan orchestra, but that city’s most respected and widely-circulated newspaper fails to mention it, do we have progress? The Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform Sofia Gubaidulina’s...

Marion Bauer: Educator and Composer

by sarah | Mar 9, 2014

Marion Bauer (1882-1955) was born in Washington state the youngest of seven children to working class immigrant parents.  But even though resources were limited, the Bauers supported their daughter’s musical aptitude. Though she studied extensively, including...

International Women’s Day and the Boulanger Sisters

by sarah | Mar 8, 2014

Today is International Women’s Day!  And to celebrate, today’s post is about two sisters who made an international impression during their lives, and after. Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) and Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) were French natives, and  sisters who...

Zwilich Honored by Society for American Music

by Liane Curtis | Mar 7, 2014

Today (Mar. 7) composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939) is being inducted by the Society for American Music as its newest Honorary Member, in a ceremony taking place at the Society’s annual conference. The New Grove Dictionary of Music describes Zwilich “one of...