Share Album:
Hommage to Women Composers
Clara Wieck Schumann composer
Germaine Tailleferre composer
Louise Talma composer
Miriam Gideon composer
Barbara Pentland composer
Marga Richter composer
Thea Musgrave composer
Ruth Lomon composer
Jacqueline Fontyn composer
Marta Ptaszynska composer
Shulamit Ran composer
Iris Graffman Wenglin piano
Ruth Lomon piano
Ruth Lomon (1930-2017), Composer and Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and Composer-in-Residence with Boston Secession, and her friend Iris Graffman Wenglin, Florida-based pianist and lecturer, came to a stunning realization after Ruth traveled to London, where she looked for music written by women. There were very few scores to be found, and even fewer that were properly printed. With that, the duo set out on a mission to uncover the buried works of female composers over the years and bring them deserved recognition. The results of this endeavor come to life in HOMMAGE TO WOMEN COMPOSERS.
Featuring compositions by 11 female composers—Clara Wieck Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, Louise Talma, Miriam Gideon, Barbara Pentland, Marga Richter, Thea Musgrave, Jacqueline Fontyn, Marta Ptaszyńska, Shulamit Ran, and Lomon herself—HOMMAGE TO WOMEN COMPOSERS offers a cross-section of genius and innovation through the Romantic period to the late 20th Century. From the grace and rhythmic definition of Schumann’s Five Caprices (1831) and Polonaise (1832), to the array of lyricism, rhythmic momentum, and moments of pointillist texture in Pentland’s Three Piano Duets After Pictures by Paul Klee (1958) and the brief yet personality-packed movements of Ran’s Children’s Scenes (1970), the diversity of styles, textures, and arrangements all within the genre of piano duet is a marvel to behold.
The impact of female composers on the world of music is known by some, although there is a long way to go in unearthing the full treasure trove that is compositions by female artists throughout history. With HOMMAGE TO WOMEN COMPOSERS, the impact is unignorable.
Listen
Artist Information
Ruth Lomon
Canadian-born composer Ruth Lomon (1930-2017) numbered among her teachers Frances Judd Cooke and Miklos Schwalb at New England Conservatory, Witold Lutoslawski at England’s Dartington College, and Lutoslawski and Henri Dutilleux at Centre Acanthes in Provence, France. A composer of concertos for piano, bassoon, and trumpet, Lomon was probably best known for her song-cycle Songs of Remembrance, and her oratorio, Testimony of Witnesses for chorus, orchestra, and soloists. Both works are based on the poetry of Holocaust victims and survivors that Lomon researched at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel, and the library at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Iris Graffman Wenglin
Iris Graffman Wenglin is from a distinguished musical family. Joseph Graffman, Wenglin’s father, played the string bass in The New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch, and her cousin is pianist Gary Graffman. Wenglin made her first professional appearance as a pianist at age 13 on the Jinx Falkenberg TV program, and at age 16 she started working as a rehearsal pianist for NBC Opera Theatre. As a teenager she performed several times on WNYC’s “Young Artist” series. She graduated from Music and Art High School and holds a B.A. and an M.A. from New York University and a M.Ed. from the Manhattan School of Music.
