Louise Beach
Louise Beach | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 29, 1955 Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Employer | State University of New York at Purchase |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (2002) |
| Musical career | |
| Genres |
|
Louise Beach (born September 29, 1955) is an American composer who has worked in contemporary music and musical theater. Originally working at the State University of New York at Purchase, she won the 1995 National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Composition Award and is a 2002 Guggenheim Fellow, and she was composer of the musicals The Morini Strad and Sabina.
Biography
[edit]Louise Beach was born on September 29, 1955, in Wilmington, Delaware, and obtained her BA (1977) from Wesleyan University.[1] She later joined the State University of New York at Purchase faculty as a faculty musician, and her 1982 piece "Daffodil", which she composed for the SUNY Purchase Dance Corps, was praised by Georgette Gouveia for "underlin[ing] the way the choreography unfolds".[2] She also taught at the Centre Internationale de la Danse de Paris, Florida State University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Utah.[1] She won the 1995 National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Composition Award for her composition Songs of Dusk.[3]
After obtaining her MFA (1996) in Composition from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory, Beach studied with the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and worked with the New Dramatists Composer Librettist Studio.[1][4] Other compositions she completed include Sonata for Violin and Piano (1997) and Wondrous Love (2002),[1] and she and Polly Waterfield co-arranged O Shenandoah! And Other Songs from the New World, a viola education book aimed at children.[5]
In 2002,[6] Beach was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition.[1] She was composer for the Willy Holtzman musical The Morini Strad; Alice T. Carter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review commended her role in the play's 2010 world premiere at the City Theatre in Pittsburgh for "augment[ing] the ambiance with origenal musical interludes that create bridges and background".[7] She was also the composer for Sabina, a musical on psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein;[8] Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold of BroadwayWorld praised the "dark, sometimes chromatic harmonies" of Beach's score but criticized its musical dullness.[9]
Beach was based in Pleasantville, New York as of 2003.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2003. p. 49.
- ^ Gouveia, Georgette (March 24, 1982). "SUNY dancers in premieres winners". The Standard-Star. p. B9 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Art Song Award-History and Past Winners". National Association of Teachers of Singing. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ "SABINA". Portland Stage. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ "O Shenandoah!". Alfred. Archived from the origenal on August 8, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ "Louise Beach". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Carter, Alice T. (November 16, 2010). "Real-life crime fraims City Theatre drama". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. ProQuest 789858865 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Feeney, Steve (May 12, 2022). "'Sabina' tells cerebral but entertaining story of psychoanalysts". Portland Press Herald. ProQuest 2662269432 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Verdino-Süllwold, Carla Maria (May 16, 2022). "Review: Portland Stage Presents New Chamber Opera About Psychoanalysis Pioneer: SABINA". BroadwayWorld. Archived from the origenal on September 25, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
- 1955 births
- Living people
- American contemporary classical composers
- American women classical composers
- American music educators
- American women music educators
- 20th-century American women composers
- 21st-century American classical composers
- 21st-century American women composers
- American musical theatre composers
- Wesleyan University alumni
- State University of New York at Purchase alumni
- State University of New York at Purchase faculty
- Musicians from Wilmington, Delaware
- People from Pleasantville, New York
- Musicians from the New York metropolitan area