In this issue: ACWC/ACC Anniversary Birthday Celebrations Choral Music Czech Musical Culture Daffodil Perspective In Memoriam Music and Art Music and Laughter ProPotiQg the Sa[ophoQe PXlit]er Pri]e :iQQer 5eports Reviews Tenth Muse ,$:0 &oPpetitioQs IAWM Conference IAWM News Awards Members’ News Volume 27, No. 2 • 2021 Tania León PXlit]er Pri]e :iQQer JOURNAL of theTable of Contents Volume 28, Number 2 (2021) Message from IAWM’s President: Music in the Time of Change.............................Christina Rusnak..................1 The IAWM Congratulates Tania León, Pulitzer Prize Winner..................................Samantha Ege.......................2 Meet the Journal’s New Assistant Editor, Christina L. Reitz...................................................................................3 75th Birthday Celebrations: Part 2 Looking Back.............................................................................................................Jane O’Leary........................3 Marilyn Shrude: sol sol la sol do ti............................................................................Mary Natvig.........................7 Meet Two New IAWM Members Nancy Tucker: Her Passion for Music and Laughter.................................................Marlow Shami....................12 Paving the Way as an Ambassador for the Saxophone .............................................Diane Hunger.....................15 Choral Music Being A Female Composer in the Choral World: New Music by Sarah Rimkus......Jane Kozhevnikova............17 Exploring the Choral Music of Rebecca Clarke........................................................Claire Watters.....................19 Music and Art Blue and Green Music: A New String Quartet .........................................................Victoria Bond.....................20 In Memoriam Lucille Field Goodman..............................................................................................Jeannie Pool and Deon Nielson Price.....22 Women in Music Initiatives The Daffodil Perspective............................................................................................Elizabeth De Brito..............23 Tenth Muse Initiative.................................................................................................Hannah Lee Tungate..........24 Book and Music Reviews Wanda Brister and Jay Rosenblatt: Madeleine Dring: Lady Composer ....................Bonny H. Miller.................26 Anja Bunzel: The Songs of Johanna Kinkel: Genesis, Reception, and Context .......Jennifer Piazza-Pick...........26 Bonny H. Miller: Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America................................................................................Laura Pita ..........................27 Pauline Viardot-García, Ausgewählte Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier...............Hilary Poriss and Adriana Festeu.............28 Recent Publications................................................................................................................................................30 Cont'd on next pageReviews: Compact Disc and Digital Recordings Elizabeth Austin: Windows Panes .............................................................................Monica Buckland ...............30 Hommage à Dinu Lipatti ..........................................................................................Nanette Kaplan Solomon ...32 Lydia Kakabadse: Ithaka ............................................................................................Tamara Cashour .................32 Amelia Kaplan: String Music ....................................................................................Krystal J. Folkestad, nee Grant .............................33 Carol Barnett: Shaker Suite: “Canterbury” ................................................................Deon Nielsen Price ............34 The Other Half of Music ...........................................................................................Carol Ann Weaver ..............35 Catherine Lee: Remote Together ...............................................................................Anna Rubin ........................36 Carol Ann Weaver and Connie T. Braun: Poland Parables ......................................Stefania De Kenessey .......37 Danaë Xanthe Vlasse: Mythologies ...........................................................................Mary Dawood Catlin ..........38 Recent Compact Disc and Digital Recording Releases .........................................................................................38 Reports from Sister Organizations Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Association of Canadian Women Composers ............................................................Patricia Morehead ..............39 Report from the ACWC/ACC ...................................................................................Diane Berry ........................40 Report from Japan .....................................................................................................Taeko Nishizaka .................40 Association of Women in Music, Kragujevac, Serbia ...............................................Olivera Vojna Nesic ...........41 New York Women Composers ...................................................................................Ann Warren and Marilyn Bliss ...............41 Conference and Festival Reports Women in Nineteenth-Century Czech Musical Culture ............................................Katharina Uhde ..................42 The frauenkomponiert Festival 2021 .........................................................................Karla Hartl .........................43 IAWM News Winners of the IAWM 40th Search for New Music Competition ................Michele Cheng ..............44 Winners of the 2021 IAWM Programming Award ....................................................Roma Calatayud-Stocks .....46 IAWM Advisory Board ..........................................................................................................................................47 IAWM Conference: Call & (HER) Response: Music in the Time of Change ...........Dana Reason ......................47 Awards ...................................................................................................................................................................48 Donations ...............................................................................................................................................................49 Members’ News ........................................................................................................Anita Hanawalt ..................49 Table of Contents - Cont'd -1 Message from IAWM’s President: Music in the Time of Change CHRISTINA RUSNAK Rusnak, Message from IAWM’s President: Music in the Time of Change Dear IAWM Members, Around the world, you have demon- strated adaptability, ingenuity, and resil- ience as Covid-19 continues to challenge our return to experiencing live concerts. Wind guards for flutes; mask slits for woodwinds; bags over brass bells; small- er, adaptable instrumentations of larger works; and limited rehearsal time have enabled us to perform in ways we never imagined two years ago—some for the better. Zoom conferences and streamed con- certs have helped to democratize atten- dance and participation to swell far be- yond preceding geographic and economic boundaries. For example, I watched com- poser Andrea Clearfield’s 35th anniver- sary celebration of her renowned Salon (now Zalon – Z for Zoom) from my home, nearly 3,000 miles away! While some conferences, such as the ISCM (International Society of Contem- porary Music), postponed the Fall 2021 conference in Shanghai and Nanning, China to Spring 2022, many European and American music festivals blossomed like hibernating seeds bursting into the air. Savvy organizations blended virtual models with in-person events. Hopefully, by 2022, we will all be fully participating in concerts – live and virtual – across the globe. IAWM’s 2022 Conference The conference, titled Call and (Her) Response: Music in the Time of Change, will be hosted by Oregon State University on their campus inCorvallis, Oregon, June 2-4, 2022, in association with OSU’s Col- lege of Liberal Arts and the Office of Aca- demic Affairs. The conference will be a hy- brid, in-person event with virtual satellite sessions and concerts from various sites across the globe. Awareness, Growth, and Change In 2020, with input from many of you, the IAWM Board re-affirmed our Mis- sion and developed a Vision to become the world’s leading organization devoted to the equity, promotion, and advocacy of women in music across time, cultures, and genres. We identified our core values: •Inclusion and Equity •Global Advocacy •Communication •Courage •Support Completed at the end of the year, the Board created a three-year Strategic Plan with specific goals and action steps. IAWM wants to provide our members with connections, opportunities, visibil- ity, and relevance. As you have read in this column be- fore, “As president, I want to work with the Board and the membership to actively address Equity and Inclusion in all fields of music by seeking out and recogniz- ing the countless women in music who have been historically excluded as well as those who continue to be marginalized across the continents. IAWM’s goal is that our membership and Board better reflect women in music worldwide. We created a Global Initiatives Committee to help the organization to develop awareness and focus with the intention of achieving that outcome.” All change is a process. The IAWM is looking at pathways to connect and partner with relevant organizations. We are evalu- ating new ways to engage with you and ad- vocate for women in all fields of the wide and diverse world of music. Journal of the IAWM Our beloved Journal of the IAWM will be published quarterly in 2022! In the member survey of 2020, a number of members wished the information could be received on a timelier basis. Our current publication model is focused on print dead- lines. Migrating to a digital format will en- able us to publish more about women in music in timely way. In addition, 80% of you expressed that you would like to re- duce paper and receive the journal in PDF form. In 2021, the IAWM sent all members PDF copies of the journal, in full color, and in 2022, we will continue to send PDF cop- ies to everyone. Some members, as well as authors, prefer paper copies; therefore, the fall or winter journal will continue to be printed and mailed to those who want a hardcopy version. We would like to hear from more of you, so don’t be shy—send us your reports, reviews, articles, proposals, and news for submissions to the journal. Webinar Series In May 2021, IAWM launched our new Webinar Series, Beyond the Notes. Julia Mortyakova presented: From the Stage and Beyond: Advocating for Women in Music; Gaby Alvarado gave a workshop on Navigating Social Media as a Marketing Tool. Fall webinars includ- ed Jane Rigler’s session on Deep Listen- ing, and Roma Calatayud-Stocks’ explora- tion of Latin American Music. In January 2022, we will welcome Elizabeth de Brito, founder of the Daffodil Perspective, an in- clusive classical music podcast. She will talk about Reframing Women Compos- ers, Biased Journalism. Access to past webinars will be available on our site in early 2022. if you are interested in present- ing a webinar, please let us know at: com- munications@iawm.org. Annual Concert The Annual Concert, held at How- ard University in Washington, D.C., USA, on Tuesday, November 16th at 7:30 pm, Eastern Time, was recorded for those who chose not to travel to the event. It will be available on our site in January. Message from the Editor, Eve R. Meyer As Christina mentioned in the Presi- dent’s Message, we will be preparing four issues next year. We are looking for- ward to hearing from more of you. The deadline for the next issue is December 15 for articles and the end of the month for reports, announcements, and mem- bers’ news. If you would like to submit an article, please send your proposal to me at evemeyer45@gmail.com; detailed information is on page 54 of the Jour- nal and on the website. All proposals are read by members of the Journal Board. We are pleased to welcome two new staff members: Chrstina Reitz (assistant editor) and Laura Pita (reviews). Con- tact Laura (laurapita830@gmail.com) if you have a book or CD that is ready to be reviewed or if you would like to be a reviewer. Special thanks to Laura for editing a year’s worth of reviews for this issue and to all the contributors and members of the journal staff and Board.IAWM Journal Volume 27, No. 2 20212 Future Plans Be on the lookout for a short IAWM Newsletter coming to you via email bi- monthly. We will have more in store for 2022. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Website Have you visited IAWM’s new web- site (iawm.org)? On October 1, 2021, we unveiled the vibrant new IAWM website. This platform is easier to navigate and lo- cate information than previously, and it expands our capabilities to interact with you in new ways. The site is also much more nimble on mobile devices. •The Strategic Plan is on the site under the About page. •An initial list of partners and other or- ganizations in our musical communi- ty is on the Partners page. Who else is important in YOUR musical commu- nity? Who else should we be partner- ing with? •Radio Requests and Broadcasts have a greater prominence on the site. •A new calendar will list key events, award deadlines, and more. •Not all of your smiling faces made it to the new site, so please go to your profile and update your picture, and ensure that all of your profile informa- tion is correct and current. If you are a freelancer or independent, you can put that in the institution field. •The Programs page contains our con- cert, conference, awards, and webinar information. •The News & Resources page is evolv- ing. If you want to find out the latest information, beyond the two items on the homepage, visit this page. •The Journal can be viewed by flipping pages online and via PDF for mem- bers. Past Journal issues from 2008 are now available as a PDF. •The Contact page lists FAQ’s so you don’t have to wait for a Board member to help you. •Last, but not least, check out the Sup- port IAWM page. The WAYS to sup- port IAWM has expanded! You can make donations of any amount to sup- port our programs and services from this page. In addition, IAWM can now accept and manage Endowments, in- cluding Planned Gifts, and IAWM can work with you for In-Kind support. Contact president@iawm.org. •If you are part of an organization or company that would like to sponsor IAWM, either ongoing or for a partic- ular event, please contact us. •We will be starting an Internship Pro- gram in 2022—either a current stu- dent or recent graduate. For more information, contact membership@ iawm.org. •We want to see images of you in all your music making: rehearsing, re- cording, performing, writing, com- posing, conducting, mixing, and more. Send a note to website@iawm. org to submit your high-resolution photos. With your input, the site will become more active and engaging over time. Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/iawmcom- munity Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ iawmcommunity/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ IAWMusic YouTube: Coming in 2022! The IAWM Congratulates Tania León, Pulitzer Prize Winner SAMANTHA EGE It can be a rare thing for a composer to receive such high honours and accolades during her lifetime. Varying forms of dis- crimination can preclude the opportunities for her to witness her own success. And where there are attempts to belatedly ac- knowledge her impact and power, these re- storative acts will often take place posthu- mously (if at all). For that reason, we are so fortunate to witness the continued cele- bration of the legendary 78-year-old Tania León (born in Havana, Cuba). León is, in her own words, “a musician that happens to be a composer, conductor, educator, and [advocate] for the arts.” And she is, of course, more than deserving of her flow- ers. 1 Her career is as breathtakingly mag- nificent and ground-breaking as the sonic landscapes she paints through her music. Earlier this year, León became the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music with 1 “Tania León on Her Project 19 Com- mission, ‘Stride,’” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Eee05KscL_M (accessed September 24, 2021). her composition called Stride. Not one to be confined to boxes and labels, the expansive expressivity of León’s Stride matches that of the composer and her own sense of self-definition. León has always seen herself as a citizen of the world, rather than an individual confined to US-centric definitions of race or limit- ing constructs of sex and gender. Stride exemplifies her broad yet kaleidoscopic world view. It tells the stories of early twentieth-century women and their ac- tivism and leaves us with much food for thought in our present age. Stride was born out of an invitation from the New York Philharmonic to mark the centenary of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women (specifi- cally white women) the right to vote. León drew inspiration from the suffragist Su- san B. Anthony, explaining, “I imagined her as a person who did not take ‘no’ for an answer. She kept pushing and pushing and moving forward, walking with firm steps until she got the whole thing done. That is precisely what Stride means.” 2 But León’s inspiration did not end there. Understanding the systematic exclusion of women of color from the suffragist movement, León interwove the influence of other women, including her moth- er and grandmother, and nameless Afri- can descended women who, too, fought for women’s liberation. The presence of this diversity is felt in León’s blending of musical cultures, mixing African sound worlds from the continent and diaspora with a European orchestral palette. That León received a Pulitzer Prize for Stride—a composition that epitomiz- es themes of courage, perseverance, and strength—is more than fitting recognition for a composer whose trajectory embodies those themes and more. 2 Tania León quoted in “Stride, by Tania León,” The Pulitzer Prizes, https://www.pulit- zer.org/winners/tania-leon (accessed September 24, 2021).3 Meet the Journal’s New Assistant Editor, Christina L. Reitz The IAWM Journal is pleased to welcome musicologist Dr. Christina L. Reitz as as- sistant editor. She was recently elected to the IAWM Board of Directors, and she has been a frequent contributor to the Journal. She earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Dana School of Music, where she was the recipient of the Mary P. Rigo Award for Outstanding Keyboard Major. She earned a master’s degree in piano pedagogy and a Ph.D. in historical musicology, with cognates in women’s studies and piano performance, at the University of Florida, where she received the John V. D’Albora Scholar- ship for Excellence in Graduate Research. She is currently a professor at Western Carolina University, where she teaches music history, upper-level music litera- ture courses, and American music. She has been nominated for the Faculty of the Year Award. Christina’s research centers primar- ily on women in American music. Her monograph, Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color (2018), received the 2020 IAWM Pauline Alderman Award Book Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in Music. The work was described as “well-conceived and richly executed” with its “stellar pre- cision in music theoretic analysis.” Addi- tionally, the book was nominated for the American Musicology Society’s Music in American Culture Award and the ASCAP Foundation’s Deems Taylor/Virgil Thom- son Award. Dr. Reitz authored the Caroline Shaw chapter in Women Making Art: Women in the Visual, Literary, and Performing Arts since 1960 (2nd edition). Articles in peer- reviewed publications include the North Carolina Literary Review, American Mu- sic Teacher, Journal of Library Admin- istration, Grove Dictionary of American Music, and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. She has presented her research findings at numerous conferences and mu- sic festivals. She also volunteers with the Adult Day Program at the Jackson County Department of Aging and St. Joseph Acad- emy in Maggie Valley, NC. As I look back over my lifetime—one immersed in music—I realise that all my endeavours and pursuits have been concerned with linking the three essential components of music-making. First: performance. My musical life began through the piano, and it has been my constant companion for over 70 years. Second: composition. Emerging later, this creative act slowly moved from background to foreground in my life. Third: listening and connecting audiences with performers and composers. I have spent a major part of my life developing opportunities for the public enjoyment of music—curating, organising, promoting, and presenting events. My earliest musical experience was the piano, my constant connection to music. At the age of four, I demanded piano lessons and am eternally grateful to my first teacher, Mrs. Florence Skiff, who agreed, reluctantly, to take me as a student. She exuded a passion for music and a love of sharing it with others. I left my home in Wethersfield, Connecticut to attend Vassar College in 1964, which I chose because of its wonderful music programme (and possibly the more than 80 Steinways on campus!). I spent most of my time in the practice rooms with Steinway grand pianos trying to be as good a pianist as I possibly could be. I loved working with instrumentalists as well as playing recitals. My piano teacher, Earl Groves, opened up a new world to me. When I moved to Ireland four years after graduating from Vassar, one of my earliest projects was to motivate the community to purchase a new Steinway grand for the city of Galway; happily, it is still providing pleasure. My own piano is always where I start a new composition—exploring, experimenting, and finding the initial sounds and gestures. After that, my imagination takes over. It seems obvious that my enjoyment of performance would lead to curiosity about how music is created. It was only in my final years at Vassar that a composition class with Richard Wilson was introduced. I found the act of creating music fascinating, and I still remember vividly the excitement of hearing fellow students performing the little pieces I had written. The thrill of passing a musical moment from my imagination to listeners through a performer has never weakened! I continued my studies at Princeton and completed a PhD in composition. While the studies were immersive in 12- tone technique, the individual composition lessons were quite different. I learned to look at my notation with the eyes of a performer (how will this be interpreted?) and to consider the precise sound of each note. I developed an admiration for Webern’s miniatures: nothing wasted, everything precise and clear, every note has a purpose. My PhD thesis connected Webern with Beethoven—and these two have remained my most admired and favourite composers over time. But the most important experience of my four years in Princeton was the regular seminar where young performers from New York workshopped our pieces. We learned how important it is to communicate ideas clearly. Although I was fortunate to have inspiring and extraordinary composition teachers, I always felt that these workshops, with people like Ursula Oppens and Fred Sherry, who were just starting their lifelong engagement with new music, were my most important learning experiences. Perhaps they also resonated strongly with 75TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS: PART 2 The IAWM is delighted to celebrate the 75th birthdays of four distinguished IAWM members. The spring issue featured Tsippi Fleischer and Anna Rubin, and this issue honors Jane O’Leary and Marilyn Shrude. Looking Back JANE O’LEARY Jane O’Leary O'Leary, Looking BackIAWM Journal Volume 27, No. 2 20214 my feeling that music exists as sound, not only as markings on a page. In 1972, I left Princeton with my Irish husband, Pat O’Leary, to live in Ireland. I have been in Ireland for almost 50 years, and my musical life has evolved in this country. We live in Galway, on the West coast, directly across the country from the capital city, Dublin. Galway is a university town surrounded by beautiful landscapes; it looks out onto the Atlantic from the “other side.” Concorde It was not only concert pianos that were missing when I arrived in Ireland; the opportunity to hear new music regularly was also absent. In 1976, I set about creating Ireland’s first new music ensemble. We called ourselves Concorde, taking the name of the supersonic plane, which began commercial flights in the same year and was a symbol of modernity. Now, 45 years later, we look back with pride on our achievements and the wonderful experiences we have shared. We have given premieres of over 250 works, and presented more than 350 public concerts in over a dozen countries. In the past few years alone, the group has travelled to Paris, Hong Kong, and Denmark, taken part in a series of events at the annual conference of the International Association of Music Information Centres; presented a concert as part of the celebration of a century of music in Ireland called “Composing the Island”; performed in the New Music Dublin festival; and presented the music of eight women composers in the National Concert Hall Chamber Music Series. 1 I have learned so much through performance of contemporary music— seeing what works with performers and what works with audiences, being challenged by new techniques and ideas, meeting inspirational performers and composers along the way, and enjoying the response of listeners. As pianist and artistic director of the group, I loved being part of the ensemble, and I also loved creating an enjoyable listening experience for the audience through careful programming and concise spoken introductions. I had the good fortune to write many pieces for the ensemble over the past 45 years. 1 See a short summary of Concorde’s his- tory and mission, published in 2012 on the oc- casion of Concorde’s 35th season: journalofmu- sic.com/news/we-are-family. Knowing the musicians I am writing for has been an important stimulus to my creativity—imagining the unique sound of each individual and taking advantage of the opportunity to experiment with them. Many of my favourite compositions were written for Concorde, either the en- semble or individual musicians in the group. 2 One example is a piece for solo violin that I wrote for Elaine Clark: No. 19. In the work, I contrast rhythmically free passages with strictly rhythmic sections, as I normally do in my compositions. Created to refer specifically to the venue where it was premiered—the Contemporary Mu- sic Centre (a national resource for Irish composers and their music), the music contrasts strong rhythmic passages (repre- senting the energy of those working in the 2 For clarinetist Paul Roe, I wrote two solo pieces: within/without for B-flat clarinet, cre- ated in response to a sculptural work as part of an exhibition, “Containers,” at Galway Arts Festival in 2000, and a piacere for bass clarinet, a collaborative work from 2005 in which I had the freedom to fully explore the instrument to- gether with Paul. He wrote perceptively about my compositional process and our collaboration on these two works (aicnewmusicjournal.com/ articles/portrait-jane). For cellist Martin Johnson, I composed three duos: (1) Only Gestures Remain (2009) for cello and piano, another collaborative work, which involved many hours of exploration and discovery together. When it was premiered, I performed the piano part. (2) …from hand to hand… (2011) for cello and concert harp (with harpist Andreja Malir from Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra). (3) as if one (2016) for Martin and his wife, Adele, violist, also from the NSO. For Madeleine Staunton, who has been Concorde’s flutist from the start, together with Elaine Clark, a duo for alto flute and violin: A Winter Sketchbook (2015), premiered by Con- corde in their series Up Close with Music. Sev- eral of these works are featured on the Navona CD The Passing Sound of Forever / The Cham- ber Works of Jane O’Leary (navonarecords. com/catalog/nv6068/). building today) and atmospheric dreamy sections (connecting us with ghosts from the past). The building at No. 19 Fishamble Street is in the historic centre of Dublin, where there was once a fishmarket and later a stately home. It was also the site of the first performance of Handel’s Mes- siah. Premiered in 2012, this solo piece has been enjoyed by a wide range of perform- ers since then, both in the original version and in a viola adaptation. (See Example 1.) As in many of my works, I tried to give the performer an element of freedom. It is important to me that musicians who play my music feel they can make it their own. Hopefully, the music is open to a personal response, one that evolves and grows with each performance. The Piano Writing for piano poses particular challenges. Early on, after hearing and playing the music of George Crumb (whom I had met while spending a year teaching part-time at Swarthmore College), I knew that my piano writing would ideally explore the contrasts between sounds produced in the normal way on the keyboard and those produced by the fingers directly on the strings. I premiered one of my earliest piano works, Reflections (a set of five images for solo piano), at the Fourth International Conference on Women in Music in Atlanta, Georgia in 1986. It was a study in contrasting resonances created by fingers on strings and keys. I continued to pursue these techniques in my piano writing, particularly in ensemble pieces where I was the pianist. When asked to write for pianists who did not enjoy extended techniques, I sought other means of exploiting the possibilities of the modern piano, and the sostenuto pedal became a defining element of my piano writing. It allows for a carefully chosen layering of sounds. One of my frequently performed works is Five Bagatelles, written for the winner of the Paloma O’Shea Santander Ex. 1. Jane O’Leary: excerpt from No. 195 International Piano Competition and commissioned for performance in the Music for Galway international concert series in 2013. It consists of five short pieces, with some improvisatory sections and much careful layering of sounds through use of the sostenuto pedal. After a sensitive premiere by Korean pianist Ah Ruem Ahn, it was subsequently performed by Irish pianist Finghin Collins and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. As a winner in Kaleidoscope MusArt’s 2020 Call for Scores “Bagatelles for Beethoven,” it was given a beautiful online performance by Maria Sumareva, and will, I hope, be paired with Beethoven’s 6 Bagatelles, op. 126, in a now twice-deferred series: After Beethoven at Dublin’s National Concert Hall with pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett. New York-based Irish pianist Isabelle O’Connell has long been a champion of my piano works, delving into the strings with great skill. The works she has played range from an early miniature, Forgotten Worlds (1987), to a piece she commissioned in 2010, Breathing Spaces, which drew on New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural con- cepts for inspiration. Dorothy Chan, anoth- er pianist whose enthusiasm for contempo- rary techniques I admire, was a sensitive performer of Breathing Spaces in a New York profile concert in 2019, where the music was beautifully enhanced by three dancers from Patmon Dance Project. The third movement, into the void, moves from warm, throbbing sounds without rhythmic definition to a sharply accentuated passage where a reminder of the chord, now held with sostenuto pedal, echoes in the back- ground. (See Example 2.) String Writing Although I have never played a string instrument, these are the instruments I love most as a composer. Some of my favourite works for strings were written for the violist/composer Garth Knox, and he has undoubtedly influenced my approach to string writing since 2004, when he first performed with Concorde in Dublin. Born in Dublin and living in Paris, Knox has been an inspiration not only to me but to all the musicians in Concorde, having worked with us many times. 3 When I composed in a flurry of whis- pering (2011), featuring Knox as violist 3 For more information about Garth Knox, see garthknox.org. together with a quintet of Concorde musi- cians, I was exploring the beautiful, frag- ile world of string sounds he introduced to me. This work has many sections in a free tempo, without exact rhythmic notation, which encourages an improvisatory style of playing. Almost from the beginning, this open type of writing has been characteristic of my music, contrasting with very specific notation requiring precise coordination. I was pleased to see that, although I had writ- ten for musicians I knew very well, the work transferred comfortably to those I did not know when it was selected for performance by Mise-en ensemble at the IAWM Annual Concert in New York in 2013. The use of tremolo (finger, bow, strings, etc.) as well as free harmonic glissandi leaves space for individual interpretation while building to a climax, which is interrupted by the piano with a variety of percussive sounds: gliss, muting, pizz. The sostenuto pedal retains a chord for continuing resonance as the mu- sic progresses. (See Example 3.) My experience in writing for strings developed rapidly when ConTempo Quartet was appointed Galway’s first ensemble in residence. While a community of music- lovers had been created following the establishment of Music for Galway in 1981, and concerts took place on a regular basis, deeper musical connections were made with the arrival, in 2003, of four highly-skilled and energetic musicians, originally from Bucharest. After almost nineteen years, ConTempo Quartet is now fully imbedded in the community here. Through long-term commitments to both Music for Galway and the Galway Music Residency,4 I have enjoyed developing musical partnerships and programmes. Now, with a wonderful string quartet living and working in my 4 I was a founding member of Music for Galway and served as Artistic Director until 2013. I was a founding member of the Galway Music Residency, serving on the Board of Di- rectors since 2002. See musicforgalway.ie / gal- waymusicresidency.ie. Ex. 2. Jane O’Leary, excerpt from Breathing Spaces Ex. 3. Jane O’Leary, excerpt from in a flurry of whispering O'Leary, Looking BackNext >