Rebecca Clarke
(1886-1979)
A Conference and Concert
Saturday, September 25, 1999
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Rebecca Clarke was part of the renaissance of English music that took
place between the two world wars. A professional violist, she achieved
fame as a composer with her Viola Sonata and Piano Trio written for
competitions of the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music, sponsored by
the American patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Clarke wrote a steady
stream of chamber music and songs, much of it for her fellow
performers. In 1944 she married and settled in New York, where she
lived until her death at age 93. Commemorating the twentieth
anniversary of the death of this Anglo-American composer, Brandeis
University has planned the day in conjunction with the fall meeting of
the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society.
CONFERENCE
Silver Auditorium (Sachar International Center) 1:30-5:30
1:30 -- Welcome -- Jessie Ann Owens (Brandeis University)
Christopher Johnson (Oxford University Press)
"Rebecca Clarke in Her Own Words"
Deborah Stein (New England Conservatory)
"The Englishwoman of Many Voices: Clarke's Songs"
Cyrilla Barr (Catholic University)
"The Sonata for Viola: An 'Also Ran' or Cinderella?"
3:15-3:30 – Break
Paula Gillet (San Jose State Univ.)
"The Climate for Female Musical Creativity
in Turn-of-the-Century England"
Liane Curtis (Brandeis University)
"The ISCM of 1942 and other Contexts for Clarke's Late Works"
4:30 -- Roundtable Discussion, Ruth Solie (Smith College), Chair
Issues of Biography: Writing Women Composers into Music History
Panelists: Barr, Laurie Blunsom (Northeastern Univ.), Curtis, Alain Frogley
(Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs), Gillet, Johnson, Judith Tick
(Northeastern Univ.)
5:15 -- Ruth Solie – Closing Remarks
Reception
An All-Rebecca Clarke CONCERT, Schwartz Auditorium, 8:00 p.m.
The Lydian String Quartet in the world premiere of "Comodo e
amabile" (1924); Coro Allegro (directed by David Hodgkins) singing
Clarke's recently published choral works; and songs performed by Sarah
Pelletier (soprano) and Shiela Kibbe (piano).
The concert is free and open to the public.
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