Name Jeanne Shaffer | Role Composer | |
Books The Swimmer with a Rope in His Teeth | ||
Jeanne Ellison Shaffer (1925–2009) was an American composer and musician.
Shaffer was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was interested in music from a young age, singing on radio beginning at age four. When she was eleven she began touring with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. She also appeared in Girl of the Golden West as Jeannette MacDonald. Shaffer studied at Samford University, Birmingham Southern College, and Vanderbilt University. She married Robert S. Barrnettler in 1989 while at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Joan Tower.
Shaffer's compositions have been published by 12 companies and in at least three languages. They include three musicals, orchestral pieces, chamber music, a chamber opera, a ballet, organ music, cantatas, and song cycles. Her Three Faces of Woman was recorded in orchestral arrangement by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. She has earned grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Aspen Music Festival. She has also served as a choir director, organist, and teacher, and hosted a radio program called Eine Kleine Frauenmusik about female composers.