Lucia Dlugoszewski

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Lucia Dlugoszewski (born June 16, 1931 in Detroit , † April 11, 2000 in New York City ) was an American composer of new music who is also important as an interpreter and inventor of new instruments.

Life

Dlugoszweski grew up as the daughter of Polish migrants in Detroit. She studied piano at the conservatory in her hometown. After she was denied admission to medical school, she moved to New York City in 1950 . There she took piano lessons from Grete Sultan between 1952 and 1955 ; In 1952/53 she studied at the Mannes College of Music with Felix Salzer ; she also took composition lessons from Edgar Varèse . She worked closely with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, for which she served as musical director and wrote a number of works. After the death of Hawkins, with whom she was married, she directed the dance company from 1996 on; In 1998 she presented her first choreography .

Act

Since 1957 she has written works for this dance company, but also for the Foundation for Modern Dance , such as Journey of a Poet , interpreted by Mikhail Baryshnikov , and Taking Time to be Vulnerable for Pascal Denichou . She also wrote music for the film Guns of the Trees by Jonas Mekas (1962). She also wrote music for Marie Menken's film Visual Variations on Noguchi.

Similar to Pauline Oliveros , Harry Partch or Moondog , Dlugoszewski's musical output, such as the Suchness Concert (1958), was stimulated by the development of new sounds. According to her own estimates, she developed more than a hundred musical instruments, especially in the 1950s, which she built with the sculptor Ralph Dorazio . She mostly developed percussion instruments , but also rebuilt pianos. New instruments were developed for her composition Eight Clear Places (1961); later she resorted to this set of instruments and explored its possibilities in further works. Other pieces were more conventional, such as her Abyss and Caress , which premiered in 1975 by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Pierre Boulez . Other commissions came from the Louisville Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. Their works have been relatively little documented on sound carriers (for Nonesuch Records , Folkways and New World Records ). The first CD under her name, Disparate Stairway Radical Other , was only released after her death.

Awards

Dlugoszewski became a Guggenheim Fellow ; she was also the first woman to receive funding from the Rockefeller Foundation . In 1977 she was the first woman to receive the Koussevitzy International Recording Award for her work Fire Fragile Flight , which was interpreted by the Orchestra of Our Time .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aaron I. Cohen International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (New York: Books & Music [USA], 1987)
  2. ^ The Norton / Grove Dictionary of Women Composers London and New York: WW Norton, 1995.
personal data
SURNAME Dlugoszewski, Lucia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer and performer
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 2000
Place of death New York City