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(Articles/News)INNOVATIVE WOMEN
COMPOSERS:
A SILENT MINORITY? (9)
By: Montse Andreu
ALLISON CAMERON:
This composer born in 1963, obtains the Certificate of
Composition from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands, specializing in this
field with Louis Andriessen. Her works range from chamber music to
orchestral pieces to electroacoustic compositions, besides her totalist or postminimalist
works, characterized by their fine number systems and beat patterns subtly intertwined in
her creations. Furthermore, Cameron has developed a fruitful activity as
artistic director and administrator for several New Music groups, among them Sound
Pressure and The Arcana Ensemble.
KAREN CAMPBELL:
A member of the New York Women Composers Association, Karen
Campbell has specialized in New Music, a genre in which most remarkable is her
work Mimic, for a four channel tape and flute, among other compositions of hers.
MERCE CAPDEVILA:
Also within the realm of New Music, experimental music
and electroacoustic music, mention must be made of Mercè Capdevila, a
Catalan composer born in 1946. Capdevila studied piano at the Academia
Marshall, completing her musical studies at the Conservatorio Superior Municipal de
Música in Barcelona (Spain) in 1976. A year later she began teaching piano at the Centre
d'Estudis Musicals de Barcelona, and later she studied Composition and electroacoustic and
recording techniques with Gabriel Brncic at the Laboratorio Phonos in
Barcelona. The artist has participated in several courses and Composition workshops, as
for instance the ones directed by Carmelo Bernaola in Granada, The
Jornadas de Nueva Música (Symposium on Innovative Musics) in Sitges, and the courses
organized in la Fundación Miró in Barcelona, directed by Luigi Nono, Coriun
Aharonian, Jesús Villarojo, Joan Guinjoan, Mestres Quadreny, Gabriel Brncic, and
Lluís Callejo. The composer usually participates in the concerts of New Music
held at the Fundació Miró since 1980. In 1983 Mercé Capdevila gave a
series of concerts in collaboration with the Taller de Creació Musical (Musical Creation
Workshop), sponsored by the Institute of North American Studies and the New University of
Barcelona among other institutions, and collaborated with Lluís Callejo
in Joventuts Musicals de Barcelona, as well as in the I Muestra de Música Catalana
Contemporánea (I Symposium of Catalan New Music). The following year she takes part in
the Jornadas de Música Electroacústica in Cuenca, and in the Festival Internacional de
Música in Barcelona. In 1985 the artist presents her works at the Festival Varadero in
Cuba, Europalia (Belgium), Festival Internacional de Música in Alicante, and in the II
Muestra de Música Catalana Contemporánea (II Symposium of Catalan New Music). Within the
events of the Festival Grec 85 Capdevila gives a series of concerts,
among them the Concert de Música Electroacústica I Raig Làser (Electroacoustic And
Laser Concert), in collaboration with Oriol Graus, at the Planetàrium de
Barcelona. In 1986 Mercé Capdevila participates in the International
Festival of Experimental Music in Bourges (France) and once again collaborates with Oriol
Graus and an instrumental ensemble at the Festival Grec 86 in Barcelona. Mercé
Capdevila has researched the field of electronic music, specializing in musical
experimentation, and has also released several of her compositions, like for instance a
monographic CD performed by the Ensemble Solars Vortices, conducted by Jean-Pierre
Puy.
INMACULADA CARDENAS:
Woman composer Inmaculada Cárdenas,
from Madrid, Spain, is an expert in the field of the New Music, as well as the
electroacoustic and experimental musics, one of whose compositions, "Museos"
("Museums"), composed for voice (featuring the voice of the author herself) and
tape was presented at the "Festival de Música Electroacústica" ("Festival
of Electroacoustic Music") in Madrid on June, 1996.
WENDY / WALTER CARLOS:
Wendy / Walter Carlos, having triumphed
as a man, continues to harvest unending success as a woman, after her change of sex.
Nevertheless, one may wonder whether her success would have been the same, should she had
begun as a woman in the music field. About her and her work an article will be seen soon
in Amazing Sounds.
If you wish to purchase any recordings by Wendy (Walter) Carlos you only have to use this link.
TERESA CATALAN:
Teresa Catalán, born in 1951,
specializes in New Music after finishing her musical studies in Spain. In her music, this
composer reflects the typical traits of her cultural background. The RTVE series on
women composers from Spain and specially from the Madrid area releases her
composition "Iruñeakotaldea. Piano variaciones Nos. 2 and 7."
(Next chapter: CHEN YI)