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Recital to premiere 1940's piano composition

By David Gonnerman '90
March 10, 2008

A recital honoring the work of composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) will be held at St. Olaf College Thursday, March 13, at 11:30 a.m. in Christiansen Hall of Music, Urness Recital Hall. Performing the music of Beach -- celebrated in her lifetime as the foremost woman composer of the United States -- will be St. Olaf faculty members Kathryn Ananda-Owens (piano), Alison Feldt (soprano), David Carter (cello) and Christopher Atzinger (piano). Joining them will be Carleton faculty member Hector Valdivia (violin).

The program will include the two-piano version of Beach's Variations on Balkan Themes that was discovered by Valdivia while he was researching Beach in the Library of Congress in the 1990s. The work, based on Beach's solo piano work of the same name and completed shortly before her death in 1944, was turned over to her publisher, A. P. Schmidt, who subsequently went bankrupt. The manuscript was found in the papers of the Schmidt collection.

"While the work has been both recorded and performed in its two versions for solo piano, it appears likely that Thursday's performance will be the world premiere of the two-piano version," says Ananda-Owens. "It seemed suitable to premiere this work during Women's History Month," she adds.

The recital also will include several songs by Beach for soprano, violin, cello and piano.

Beach gave her first public piano recital at age 7 and debuted with the Boston Symphony Orchestra 10 years later. Following her husband's wishes, she changed her focus from performing to composing -- eventually writing some 300 songs, symphonies, piano compositions, sonatas and a Mass. She led several music and teaching organizations, including serving as the first president of the Society of American Women Composers that she co-founded in 1925, and her influence furthered the careers of many young musicians. She died of heart disease four years after retiring.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.