Author: Nicholas Smolenski

Picture Wednesday – August 8, 2012

Continuing with our focus on the amazing performers who lend their time to the festival, here we have Carrie Koffman performing Kathryn Swanson-Ellis’ Timepiece. Carrie Koffman serves on the faculty at the Hartt School and has previously taught at Penn State, University of New Mexico, and Boston University. In addition to being a sought after instructor and adjudicator, she keeps a rigorous performing schedule, having worked with orchestras and ensembles across the country. For more information on Carrie Koffman, be sure to visit www.carriekoffman.com.

2013 Guest Ensemble – The Dahlia Flute Duo

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford is pleased to announce the Dahlia Flute Duo as their guest ensemble for its 2013 festival. A celebration of the diversity of women’s music, the festival is scheduled March 6-10 at institutions across the Greater Hartford area, featuring the Baltimore-based duo in multiple programs, including an evening of flute music on Friday, March 8.

Praised as a “truly a great chamber music experience” and “consummate musicians,” the Dahlia Flute Duo is sought after as performers, lecturers, and clinicians. Flute, alto flute, and piccolo virtuosi, the Duo has two world premieres to their name and counting. Mary Matthews and Melissa Wertheimer formed the Duo at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
 The ensemble has been featured at the Avalon Theatre, Mannes’s International Festival for Contemporary Performance, Artscape, the Academy Art Museum Series, the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory, the Peabody Spotlight Series, the Harmony Hall Series, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Candlelight Concert Society Outreach Series, the Walters Art Museum, and First Night Dover. Additional performances include publicity events held by Baltimore’s Wide Angle Youth Media and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. For more information, be sure to check out www.dahliafluteduo.com.

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford has, for the last twelve years, provided an educational and entertaining platform for the promotion of women’s music. Recognized as a champion of women’s music by institutions such as Meet the Composer, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund, the festival’s goals include informing audiences through performances of music that has been and still is being written by women in an effort to broaden people’s understanding of musical literature and women’s contributions to this field.

2013 Festival Score Calls Announced

Score calls have been announced! Read on for more details. We look forward to receiving everyone’s music.

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford, a celebration of the diverse body of women’s music now in its thirteenth year, is sponsoring its third annual composition competition in addition to calls for scores and presentations for the 2013 festival.  This year’s festival – Wednesday, March 6, through Sunday, March 10 – will feature guest ensemble The Dahlia Flute Duo and guest composer Hilary Tann.

International Composition Competition
Anonymous composition competition for works featuring flute duo open to all emerging and mid-career women composers
October 15, 2012 receipt deadline

Local Composer Score Call
Instrumental score call open to all women composers living in or near Connecticut
November 15, 2012 receipt deadline

WCForum Call for Presentations & Lecture-Recitals
Call for papers and presentations on topics pertaining to women composers and music by women composers
November 15, 2012 receipt deadline

Be sure to read more about submission requirements and send us your music. We look forward to reading through all the amazing music as the months go by.

2013 Guest Composer – Hilary Tann

 

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford is pleased to announce Hilary Tann as their guest composer for its 2013 festival. A celebration of the diversity of women’s music, the festival is scheduled March 6-10 at institutions across the Greater Hartford area, featuring the Welsh-born composer in multiple programs. The festival will include performances of Dr. Tann’s music, in addition to an international selection of historical and living women composers.

Hilary Tann lives in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she is the John Howard Payne Professor of Music at Union College, Schenectady. She holds degrees in composition from the University of Wales at Cardiff and from Princeton University. From 1982 to 1995 she held a number of Executive Committee positions with the International League of Women Composers and she was Composer-in-Residence at the 2011 Eastman School of Music Women in Music Festival. Praised for its lyricism and formal balance, her music is influenced by her love of Wales and a strong identification with the natural world. A deep interest in the traditional music of Japan has led to private study of the shakuhachi and guest visits to Japan, Korea, and China. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Meininger Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBCNOW, and KBS Philharmonic in Seoul, Korea. As composer-in-residence, she is speaking at The Hartt School’s Institute for Contemporary American Music, Central Connecticut State University’s Music Forum, the Musical Club of Hartford and other regional institutions. Information on her music and recordings can be found at www.hilarytann.com.

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford has, for the last twelve years, provided an educational and entertaining platform for the promotion of women’s music. Recognized as a champion of women’s music by institutions such as Meet the Composer, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund, the festival’s goals include informing audiences through performances of music that has been and still is being written by women in an effort to broaden people’s understanding of musical literature and women’s contributions to this field.