Marilyn Bliss

Inspired by the beauty of nature, world culture, art, and literature, the music of Marilyn Bliss brings a breath of fresh air into any concert program. Her inspirations range from the paintings of Morris Louis and Piero di Cosimo, to Hindu, Native American, Greek, Chinese, Afghan, Celtic, French, German, and British literature and myths, to natural phenomena such as the aurora borealis and the flights of birds. Born in Iowa, Bliss received her B.M. degree in composition, flute, and voice at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, and did her graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the City University of New York. Her composition teachers included such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Jerry Owen, and Harvey Sollberger.  

Among her awards as a composer are a Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Young Composers Award, Newly Published Flute Music awards from the National Flute Association, fellowships from Tanglewood, the Composers Conference, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and commissions from the Azure Ensemble, Haydn–Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Powell Flute Quartet, flutists James Zellers, James Pellerite, Nina Assimakopoulos, and Rose Bishop, the National Flute Association, and the Englewinds Ensemble.  

The Boston Globe has praised her orchestral piece Huatzu Hill as “…a series of rich landscapes: the colors sharp, the feelings powerfully concentrated, the language eloquent, the expression precise.” Records International Catalogue calls her piano work Fantasies “a virtuosic, highly varied work, fantastic and wide-ranging.” Her popular Rima for piccolo and piano has been used as a standard contest piece for the National Flute Association’s piccolo competition. Several of Bliss’s recent scores have featured the Native American flute, both as a solo instrument and in combination with other instruments. Bliss is currently President of New York Women Composers. Her music has been performed throughout the world; among career highlights she has been a guest of the S.S. Cyril and Methodius Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria, of the Fechin Institute in Taos New Mexico, and the featured composer in Yerevan, Armenia, where her orchestral works Huatzu Hill and Veils were performed by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra as well as an evening being dedicated to her chamber works. Bliss is published by the American Composers Alliance and Marimba Productions. Recent recordings on Navona Records include Veils for chamber orchestra on WOVEN IN TIME and compositions for tuba and trombone on BRASS TACKS VOLS. 2 and 3. Other compositions can be heard on a number of record labels as well as on her YouTube channel.