Wendy Rolfe, flute, and Eric Charnofsky, piano, performed Three Women, on August 10, 2012 at the National Flute Association convention in Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV.
Three Women’s movments: I. Miriam’s Ballad, II. Rachel’s Song, and III. Ruth’s Dance are songs arranged for flute and piano from Denisch’s One Blazing Glance song cycle.
The Lapland Chamber Orchestra, John Stogårds, conductor will perform (Finland premiere) "The Suite of Five Seasons" on May 16, 2012 in Rovaniemi, Finland. Inspired by the 2008 Beijing Olympics this woodwind quintet explores the dreams and aspirations of athletes who came to work and play together from all over the world. Musical influences from the five continents are heard throughout the work and reflect the spirit of the participants and their homelands. The five Olympic mascots: happiness, prosperity, good fortune, passion, and vitality, represent elements of traditional Chinese philosophy and provide distinct temperaments for each movement. "The Suite of Five Seasons" was commissioned by the Equinox Chamber Players; world premiere March 22, 2009 in St. Louis, MO as part of ECP's Olympic Harmony! project
The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland
Beth Denisch, Composer in Residence at the University of Missouri - St. Louis and featured speaker at the Women in the Arts Festival at UMSL, November 10-12, 2011
Vocal Point, James Henry, Director with Beth after the premiere at UMSL on Nov. 11, 2011
Performers with the composer in St. Louis: David Doran, Alla Voskoboynikova, Wm. Shane Williams, Joanne Mendoza, and Donita Bauer
Vocal Point, under the direction of Dr. James Henry, premiered "Love is, Love Says." Denisch based her choral piece on Samuel B. Hanser's two poems, "Love Is" and "Love Says" from his book “Many Blessings: The Remembrance of One" (published posthumously, 2010). “This song is meant to inspire and empower others to fill their lives with love,” according to Denisch, “it has been a blessing and healing experience to meditate on Sam's words.”
This concert, exclusively Denisch's compositions, was performed by UMSL faculty and other St. Louis performers: David Doran, "Forth Project"; Donita Bauer and Wm. Shame Williams, "Star II"; Joanne Mendoza, Alla Voskoboynikova, and Shane, "Night Forest Fantasia"; and the Equinox Chamber Players*, also with Shane, on "Jordan and the Dog Woman." This concert was part of the Women in the Arts Conference and Denisch's Composer in Residency at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, J.C. Penney Conference Center Auditorium on November 11, 2011. (*ECP: Paula Kasica, Ann Homann, Donita Bauer, Jeanine York Garesche, and Carole Lemire, Director)
STAR II for bassoon and percussion
Lost and found, Played and published!
When Christin Schillinger asked Juxtab Music for a copy ofStar II it was not to be found. It had slipped out of our current inventory and the original was missing. Searching for someone who might have a copy we luckily found bassoonist Margaret Phillips. We retrieved the sole copy and the handwritten score was scanned and sent. Dr. Schillinger and her percussionist Andrew Heglund loved the piece so much that they played it multiple times in 2010. Christin mentioned Star II to Trevor Cramer of TrevCo publishing, a large publishing house for double reed music. Trevco took on the challenge of digitizing the score, including its graphic and visual music notations. Star II is now available at TrevCo Music www.trevcomusic.com
MOTHERWELL LORCA'S BAGPIPE LAMENT WINS!
Motherwell Lorca's Bagpipe Lament, for solo piano, won 2 prizes in the 2009 Composers Guild Composition Competition: the Certificate of Excellence for Best Short Composition and the Award of Excellence in the Keyboard Category. Motherwell Lorca's Bagpipe Lament has also been arranged for bassoon quartet.
The Lydian String Quartet played Denisch's "Phantasmagoria" on March 29th as part of the Music by Women of the Americas from three centuries with additional music by Teresa Carreño (Venezuelan, late
19th century), Florence Price (African-American, mid-20th c.), Ruth
Lomon and a new piece by Cuban composer
Magaly Ruiz Lastres. The concert was organized by the Brandeis Women's Research Study Center's scholar Liane
Curtis as part of Curtis' new Women in Music Project.
Triple Helix Concert, March 25, Voices of Eve: Celebrating Women
Composers Co-sponsored by Berklee's Office of Cultural Diversity
included variations on Rebecca Clarke's "Down by the Salley Gardens"
by Denisch and other Berklee Composers. (David Russell, cello)
On March 22, 2009 the Equinox Chamber Players of St. Louis premiered Denisch's "The Suite of Five Seasons," a woodwind quintet commissioned by the ensemble and inspired by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The New England Bassoon Quartet commissioned Beth Denisch as part of their lively, eclectic, and accessible program of new works by Berklee College of Music faculty titled "5/4" — 5 composers/4 bassoons. NEBQ performed Denisch's "Drivin' Rain Blues" at the Berklee College of Music and Boston College in the fall of 2008 and at the University of New Hampshire, January 2009. NEBQ has commissioned Denisch for a new bassoon quartet to be premiered in the fall.
New England Bassoon Quartet: Boston Symphony member, Suzanne Nelsen and Portland Symphony members, Janet Polk, Ardith Keef and Margaret Phillips
March 2008: Scott Woolweaver commissions Night Forest Fantasia
Scott premiered Night Forest Fantasia with Matthew Gold, percussion and Doris Stevenson, celesta on March 5, 2008 at WIlliams College, Williamstown, MA as part of the Williams Chamber Players series.
One Blazing Glance was most recently performed May 30, 2009 at the Galvanizing and Improvising: Feminist Theory and Music Conference 10 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC. Soparno soloist Kathryn Wright and flutist Wendy Rolfe were joined by Scott Rawls, viola, Helen Rifas, harp and Peter Zlotnick, marimba.
One Blazing Glance was also performed atThe Women’s History Network Conference during their 17th Annual Conference, on September 6, 2008, at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Kathryn Wright, soprano, and Wendy Rolfe, flute, both professors at Berklee College of Music, traveled to Scotland with the composer. Additional performers from the BBC Scottish Symphony were Jacqui Penfold, viola, Sharon Griffiths, harp, and Heather Corbett, marimba.
One Blazing Glance, a song cycle celebrating women's life-cycle events, was premiered on November 13, 2007 in Boston, MA with assistance from the American MusicCenter, the PatsyLu Fund of the Open Meadows Foundation, Berklee College of Music, the Institute of Leadership and Change at Simmons College and hosted by Our Bodies Ourselves, a women's health advocacy organization. Kathryn Wright and Kathleen O'Brien, sopranos; Wendy Rolfe, flute; Melissa Howe, viola; Felice Pomeranz, harp and Winnie Dahlgren, marimba.
Fire Mountain Intermezzo (2006) for string orchestra - The Chamber Orchestra Kremlin premiered this piece in Moscow on June 2, 2006. Fire Mountain Intermezzo was selected as a finalist in Kremlin Orchestra's International blitz-competition for composers Homage to Mozart and has been performed numerous times by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Misha Rachlevsky, Music Director, including at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, New York City.
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin
Equinox Chamber Players
"... Women: the Power and the Journey (2003), a piece commissioned by the (Equinox) quintet that celebrates four St. Louis based women, is absolutely first-rate stuff... it puts forth very clear, cogent ideas and unfolds attractively without cloying. There's purposeful drive to this music, derived in part from the appropriation of African and pop idioms. In fact, the last movement, a tribute to Tina Turner, really rocks in a way that much similarly inspired downtown New York music does not. These wonderfully evocative character entries are simply splendid." David Cleary, New Music Connoisseur
“…fierce rhythmic patterns,”Bernard Holland, New York Times
"… absolutely first-rate stuff … purposeful drive ... wonderfully evocative … simply splendid." David Cleary, New Music Connoisseur
“... a respected Boston composer ... colorful ... pictorial ... ends joyfully and ebulliently.” Ellen Pfeifer, Boston Herald “ ... brimmed with personality and drive ... “ Anthony Tommasini, The Boston Globe
“ ... great simplicity and terseness ... ” Susan Larson, The Boston Globe
“A delightfully jazzy romp …highly entertaining and imaginative work.” Peter Burwasser, New Music Connoisseur
