Amy Beach: Piano Concerto in C# Minor Context Amy Beach was born in 1867 in New Hampshire. It has been extensively documented that Beach was a child prodigy when it came to music performance. Records say that she was able to sing forty songs by the time she was one. Read more…
Keiko Abe: The Wave Impressions Concerto for Marimba Context Keiko Abe’s The Wave Impression Concerto for Marimba was composed in 2002 and it is written for orchestra, marimba. Abe explains in this short paragraph what this concerto is all about: “This piece consists of three contrasting musical elements and the approaches Read more…
Jessica Curry: All the Earth Context British composer Jessica Curry is a well-known voice on classical radio stations such as Classic FM. She is also known for her stand-out video game soundtracks, such as her music for the 2015 game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, which won her a BAFTA. Read more…
Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto Context Composed in 2005, Jennifer Higdon’s exciting Percussion Concerto has received very high acclaim from the media and from audiences around the world. Throughout the 20th Century and beyond, the growth of the percussion section is far more vast than any other section within an orchestra. Higdon writes in Read more…
Ruth Crawford-Seeger: Suite for Wind Quintet Context Born on July 3rd, 1901, Ruth Crawford spent her early life in East Liverpool, Ohio. Throughout her childhood, the Crawford’s moved around a lot, from Ohio to Missouri to Indiana. In 1912, the Crawford’s moved to Florida, where Ruth’s father passed away two years Read more…
Rachel Portman: Chocolat Main Title Context Chocolat was released in 2000 and is based on the novel of the same name by Joanne Harris. The story follows a mother and daughter who arrive in a small French village and open up a chocolaterie. The romantic-drama received positive reviews, praising the Read more…
Elena Kats-Chernin: Dance of the Paper Umbrellas Context Born in 1957, Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia’s leading composers. She was born in Uzbekistan and immigrated to Australia in the 1970s, where she graduated from the New South Wales Conservatory of Music in 1980. She was awarded the DAAD German Read more…
Phamie Gow: The Milky Way Context Scottish composer Phamie Gow is a multi-instrumentalist who was classically trained at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire. She studied under Ronald Stevenson and regularly undertook commissions, films and theatre work whilst studying. Since graduation, Gow has produced and released nine albums of her own original Read more…
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Overture in C Context Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel is, for many, one of the most celebrated female composers today. Her incredible catalogue of chamber music in particular has pleased many musicians and audiences alike over the last few decades. However, this has not always been the case. Hensel was often Read more…
Ruth Schönthal: Streichquartett Nr. 3 ‘In Memoriam Holocaust’ Der Kontext Das Streichquartett Nr. 3, das als In Memoriam Holocaust untertitelt ist, wurde 1997 von Ruth Schönthal komponiert. Schönthal hat viele Jahre lang dieses Thema vermieden, weil sie nicht die Schoah trivialisieren wollte. 1999 forderte sie in einem Gespräch, dass andere Read more…