2020 Festival

Composer Elizabeth Brown’s work “Just Visible in the Distance” premiered last Thursday at the Firehouse Space in Brooklyn, performed by the Momenta Quartet! As part of Tania León’s Composers Now Festival, Momenta will explore sounds of American women composers from a variety styles and backgrounds.

The Village Voice reviewed that Brown “couldn’t write an uncaptivating phrase if she tried.” Check out this interview to learn how Brown became a composer and a pro player of the flute, theremin, shakuhachi and the Vietnamese dan bau! http://www.momentaquartet.com/elizabethbrown/

Elizabeth Brown’s music has been heard in Japan, the Soviet Union, Colombia, Australia, Vietnam, across Europe and the USA. She has received grants, awards, and commissions from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Barlow Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, the Cary Trust, the Greenwall Foundation, NYFA, Orpheus, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Newband, and the Japan/US Friendship Commission. She has been a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy and at the MacDowell Colony, and served as Artist-in-Residence at the Hanoi National Conservatory of Music, in the Grand Canyon, in Maine’s Acadia National Park, and in Isle Royale National Park, a U.S. Biosphere Reserve in the middle of Lake Superior. Her CD “Elizabeth Brown: Mirage” was recently released by New World Records!

Listen up, female composers!

The League of American Orchestras has launched a new initiative for women composers at the onset of their careers. Selected composer’s works will be performed by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra or the American Composer’s Orchestra in New York. Two participating composers will be chosen to receive orchestral commissions of $15,000 each, including a premiere of the commissioned work. The program is made possible by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation’s program of commissioning women in the arts.

http://www.classicalite.com/articles/6004/20140218/league-of-american-orchestras-launches-new-performance-and-commissioning-initiative-for-women-composers.htm

Visit americanorchestras.org to learn more about the LAO initiative!

 

Kristen Anderson-Lopez and her partner Robert Lopez learned yesterday morning that “Let it Go”, a song they wrote together for the hit animation FROZEN, received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song!

Kristen Anderson-Lopez is an American actress and songwriter. She composed music for a Walt Disney World production of Finding Nemo: The Musical, and wrote and produced music with Robert Lopez and Henry Jackman for the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh for which the three composers were nominated for an Annie Award for Best Music in a Feature Production.

Anderson-Lopez is also co-creator of the musical “In Transit” that has received Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel recognition. In addition, she has worked on countless short and full-length musical adaptations for Theatreworks/USA, including Diary Of A Worm, Fancy Nancy, and Condensed Classics. She has written several songs for TV and was a staff writer for the award-winning children’s show, The Wonder Pets, on Nick Jr.

Congratulations to the married songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for their great success! Read more about the composer-duo.

Don’t forget to listen to their Oscar-nominated tune “Let it Go”!

 

 

Hello!

Mitra Sadigh writing here, the new publicist intern at the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the 2014 Festival!

As a pianist, music teacher, and women’s rights advocate, I was surprisingly unaware of the gross absence of women composers and their works in classrooms, practice rooms, and concert halls until I sang in a choir in the 2010 Festival, taking part in a showcase of wonderful music by women composers I had never heard of. Soon after, I was fortunate enough to sing Gwyneth Walker’s music as part of a choir with the composer herself in the audience!

I’ll be posting quite a lot these next few weeks on an assortment of topics, sharing stories of women composers and their achievements in the news, sending happy birthday shout-outs to composers on their birthdays, and reminiscing on past festivals on throwback Photo Fridays. I hope that through my work here, I can help share music with the community, advocate for women in the arts, and encourage girls in music to pursue composition.

I am passionate about sharing music and promoting the creative contributions of women, as is the rest of the Women Composers Festival team. This year’s festival is a riveting line up of performances from vocal music to string ensembles, featuring women composers both present and historic, as well as a a series of forum discussions covering various music and composition topics.

Please join us in sharing music and supporting women in the arts. Like our Facebook page, read our posts, check out the festival’s concerts and discussions, tell your friends.

Cheers to the 2014 Women Composers Festival of Hartford! Glad to be serving.