Lawrence University Presents Women's Music Festival

APPLETON, WI -- ­ The Lawrence Conservatory of Music will present a Women¹s Music Festival, featuring lectures and recitals by five prominent women in music ­ composer and performer Kitty Brazelton, musicologist Susan Cook, jazz composer and conductor Maria Schneider, renowned American composer Joan Tower, and award-winning Chinese composer Chen Yi. The festival offers a weeklong schedule of events, beginning on Saturday, May 19 and continuing through Friday, May 25. The Women's Music Festival is co-sponsored by the Marguerite Schumann Memorial Lectureship. All festival events are free and open to the public.

A Concert of Music by Women Composers

The opening event, entitled "A Concert of Music by Women Composers," features chamber and solo works, along with commentary by Susan Cook, director of graduate studies and professor of musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This concert, part of the Bjorklunden 2001 Music Series, begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 at Bjorklunden, Lawrence's northern campus in Baileys Harbor.

Susan Cook's teaching and research focus on the 20th century and American music of all types. She holds a joint governance position in the University¹s internationally recognized Women's Studies program and is one of only a few musicologists in the country whose research includes issues of Women's history and feminist methodologies. She co-edited and contributed to the award-winning collection of essays, "Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music." She is currently writing a book on ragtime dance and American culture before World War I.

Performance of music by Kitty Brazelton, preceded by a talk by Susan Cook, and followed by a panel discussion

The first festival event taking place on the Lawrence campus consists of a pre-concert talk by Susan Cook, followed by a concert of music by Kitty Brazelton, a panel discussion, and a reception. The talk ­ "What Does it Mean to be Thinking about Women in Music?" ­ will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 20 in Harper Hall. The panel discussion will include Kitty Brazelton, Susan Cook, and composer Joan Tower.

Kitty Brazelton, who received her D.M.A. from Columbia University in 1994, is currently an adjunct assistant professor for Columbia University's music humanities program. A composer, performer, bandleader and teacher, her compositions include orchestral works, chamber music and modern rock music. Ms. Brazelton has been a BMI Composer-In-Residence at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York City, a visiting artist at the Lincoln Center Institute, and faculty member at NYU and Columbia University.

Exploring different fields, she combined modernism, medieval plainchant, free jazz and acid rock into her first band Musica Orbis, whose recording "To The Listeners" won an avid following and national critical acclaim. Her other bands have included Hide the Babies, Dadadah, BAT?, and the Hildegurls. Her second CD with the nonet Dadadah, "Love Not Love Lust Not Lust," was hailed by "Rolling Stone" magazine as an "album of impressive nerve." Her other duos and ensembles include twisted tutu, Double Edge, Kitchen House Blend, and Relâche.

Main Hall Forum: "Where is Your Daughter this Afternoon: Dance in American Culture"

Co-sponsored by the Main Hall Forum lecture series, Susan Cook will be giving a talk entitled "Where is Your Daughter this Afternoon: Dance in American Culture" at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, May 21 in Main Hall, Room 202. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session and discussion.

Concert of Music by Joan Tower

A concert of music by Joan Tower, along with commentary by the composer, will be held at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 21 in Harper Hall. The performance will be followed by a question and answer session.

Joan Tower, the Asher Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College, has been described in The New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time." Tower is currently the Composer-in-Residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City, and at the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. She has been the subject of several television documentaries, including one for CBS Sunday Morning.

Ms. Tower has previously served as the Composer-in-Residence for the St. Louis Symphony from 1985-1988. In 1990, she won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and in 1998 was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is perhaps most well known for her composition "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman," which has been performed by more than 200 different ensembles.

Lecture on Chinese Music

Composer Chen Yi, Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, will deliver a lecture about Chinese music at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22 in Harper Hall.

Chen Yi was born in Guangzhou, China, and began studying violin and piano when she was only 3 years old. When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, her family was split up, and she was sent to a rural area to be re-educated as a laborer. She continued to play the violin for the other children in the forced labor camp, performing officially-approved songs that promoted hard work. At the age of 17, she was sent to Beijing to become the concert master of the Beijing Opera Orchestra. Ms. Chen then attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, becoming the first woman in China to receive a master's degree in composition.

Ms. Chen recently was awarded the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award, a $225,000 grant paid over three years to enable her to compose full time. She has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been given commissions to write compositions for the Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chamber Music America, among others. Her works have been premiered by world-renowned musicians and ensembles, such as the National Symphony Orchestra, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

East Asian Studies Lecture: "Tradition and Creation"

Chen Yi will give a talk entitled "Tradition and Creation," at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23 in Main Hall, Room 202.

Concert of Music by Chen Yi

There will be a concert of music by Chen Yi, including commentary by the composer, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23 in Harper Hall.

University Jazz Ensemble Concert with Maria Schneider

The Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble will perform with composer and conductor Maria Schneider at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 25 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Ms. Schneider will participate in a question and answer session at 4:10 p.m. on Friday, May 25 in Harper Hall.

Maria Schneider, world-renowned jazz composer and director, has been studying music since the age of 5. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree in theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, studied at the University of Miami, and received a Masters degree from the Eastman School of Music. After moving to New York, she received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study composition with Bob Brookmeyer. She has worked with the famous composer and arranger Gil Evans, and has written and arranged for the Woody Herman and Mel Lewis bands. She has written compositions for and conducted the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, the Danish Big Band, and others.

Receiving a total of four Grammy nominations since 1995, Ms. Schneider formed her own group, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, in 1989. The group's latest release, "Allégresse," featuring original music by Ms. Schneider, was named by Time magazine as one of the top ten music releases of the year 2000.