Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938) is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Island Prelude, five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely performed Petroushskates.
Joan tower interview la jolla music society s summerfest
Biography
Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1938, Tower moved to Bolivia when she was nine years old, an experience which she credits for making rhythm an integral part of her work. For the next decade Tower's talent in music, particularly on the piano, grew rapidly due to her father's insistence that she benefit from consistent musical training. Tower's relationship with her mineralogist father is visible in many aspects of her work, most specifically her "mineral works" including Black Topaz (1976) and Silver Ladders (1986). She returned to the United States as a young woman to study music, first at Bennington College, in Vermont, and then at Columbia University where she studied under Otto Luening, Jack Beeson, and Vladimir Ussachevsky and was awarded her doctorate in composition in 1968.
In 1969 Tower, along with violinist Joel Lester and flautist Patricia Spencer, founded the New York-based Da Capo Chamber Players where she served as the group's pianist. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s Tower wrote a number of successful works for the Da Capo Players, including Platinum Spirals (1976), Amazon I (1977) and Wings (1981). Though the group won several awards in its early years, including the Naumburg Award in 1973, Tower left the group in 1984, buoyed by the immediate success of her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981). In 1972 Tower accepted a faculty position at Bard College in composition, a post she continues to hold today. Tower received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1976.
In 1985, a year after leaving the Da Capo Players, Tower accepted a position at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1988-1991 where she was a composer-in-residence. During this period Tower produced two of her most significant works, Amazon and Sequoia.
Tower became the first woman recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Music in 1990 for her composition Silver Ladders. In 1993, under commission from the Milwaukee Ballet, Tower composed Stepping Stones, a selection from which she would go on to conduct at the White House. Other compositions from the 1990s include the third Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, several piano concertos (notably 1996's Rapids (Piano Concerto no. 2) and Tambor (1998) written for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1999 Tower accepted a position as composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and in 1998 she won the Delaware Symphony's prestigious Alfred I. DuPont Award for Distinguished American Composer.
In 2002 Tower won the Annual Composer's Award from the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Symphony. During the 2003-2004 season two new works were debuted, DNA a percussion quintet commissioned for Frank Epstein, and Incandescent. In 2004 the Pittsburgh Symphony's recording of Tambor, Made in America, and her Concerto for Orchestra earned a Grammy nomination. In 2004 Carnegie Hall's "Making Music" series featured a retrospective of Tower's body of work, performed by artists including the Tokyo String Quartet and pianists Melvin Chen and Ursula Oppens. In 2005 Tower became the first composer commissioned for the "Ford Made in America" program, the only project of its kind to involve smaller-budget orchestras as commissioning agents of new work by major composers, in which her 15-minute Made in America was performed in every state of the union during the 2005-2007 season. In 2008, Tower's Made in America and the recording of it by the Nashville Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin won three Grammy Awards: in the categories Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
She is currently the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson,[5] New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on the Artistic Advisory panel of the BMI Foundation.
Work
Tower's early music seems to reflect the influences of her mentors at Columbia University and is rooted in the serialist tradition, whose sparse texture complimented her interest in chamber music. As she developed as a composer Tower began to gravitate towards the work of Olivier Messiaen and George Crumb and broke away from the strict serialist model. Her work became more colorful and has often been described as impressionistic. She often composes with specific ensembles or soloists in mind, and aims to exploit the strengths of these performers in her composition.
Among her most notable work is Tower's five part Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, each dedicated to 'women who are adventurous and take risks'. Inspired by Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the fanfares are scored for 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba and percussion. The first fanfare was debuted in 1987 and conducted by Hans Vonk. For the second fanfare, which premiered in 1989, Tower added one percussion while the third, debuted in 1991 was scored for a double brass quintet, and the fourth was scored for a full orchestra. The fifth, and final, portion of Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman was commissioned for the Aspen Music Festival in 1993 and was written specifically for Joan Harris.
commissioned by the Florida Orchestra (with a grant from the Lincoln Properties Company), who gave the work's première under Irwin Hoffman on 29 June 1985.
Homage to Beethoven (Piano Concerto No. 1) (1985), for piano & orchestra
commissioned by the Saint Louis Symphony, and dedicated to Leonard Slatkin, who conducted the première. The work was a prize winner in the 1988 Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, and in 1990 won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award.
premièred in Powell Symphony Hall, Saint Louis on 19 May 1996.
Rapids (Piano Concerto No. 2) (1996), for piano & orchestra
commissioned by the University of Wisconsin for pianist Ursula Oppens
Tambor (1998)
commissioned by Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony, who gave the work's première on 7 May 1998.
The Last Dance (2000)
written for the Orchestra of St. Luke's, who premièred the work under Alan Gilbert (conductor) at Carnegie Hall, New York City on 24 February 2000.
Fascinating Ribbons (2001), for concert band
commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association and was given its première at the CBDNA Conference in 2001.
Strike Zones (2001), concerto for percussion & orchestra
written for Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra, who gave the work's première under Leonard Slatkin at the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. in October 2001.
commissioned by Ford Made in America in partnership with the League of American Orchestras and Meet the Composer, for a consortium of over 60 amateur orchestras across the United States. The world première was given by the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra in October 2005.
Purple Rhapsody (2005), concerto for viola & chamber orchestra
Fantasy... Harbour Lights (1983), for clarinet & piano
Snow Dreams (1983), for flute & guitar
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1986), for eleven brass & three percussion
Island Prelude (1989), for oboe solo & string quartet/quintet or wind quintet
Second Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1989), for eleven brass & three percussion
Third Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1991), for brass dectet
Celebration Fanfare (1993), for eleven brass & three percussion
Elegy (1993), for trombone solo & string quartet
Fifth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1993), for four trumpets
Night Fields (String Quartet No. 1) (1994), for string quartet
Très lent (Hommage à Messiaen) (1994), for cello & piano
Turning Points (1995), for clarinet & string quartet
And...they're off (1997), for piano trio
Rain Waves (1997), for violin, clarinet & piano
Toccanta (1997), for oboe & harpsichord
Big Sky (2000), for piano trio
In Memory (String Quartet No. 2 (2002), for string quartet
Incandescent (String Quartet No. 3) (2003), for string quartet
For Daniel (2004), for piano trio
DNA (2005), for percussion quintet
A Little Gift (2006), for flute & clarinet
Copperwave (2006), for brass quintet
A Gift (2007), for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano
Trio Cavany (2007), for piano trio
Angels (String Quartet No. 4) (2008), for string quartet
Dumbarton Quintet (2008), for piano quintet
Rising (2009), for flute & string quartet
White Granite (2010), for piano quartet
17-minute work, co-commissioned by the St Timothy's Summer Music Festival, Montana, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado, and the LaJolla Music Society for SummerFest, California. Premièred in Georgetown Lake, Montana on 11 July 2010.
White Water (String Quartet No. 5) (2011), for string quartet, commissioned for the Daedalus Quartet by Chamber Music Monterey Bay.
Vocal
Can I (2007), for S.S.A.A. choir & two percussion
written for the Young People's Chorus of New York City, who premièred the work under Francisco J. Nuñez at the Miller Theater, New York City on 27 April 2008.
Solo
Platinum Spirals (1976), for violin
Wings (1981), for clarinet or alto saxophone
Clocks (1985), for guitar
Or like a...an engine (1994), for piano
Ascent (1996), for organ
Holding a Daisy (1996), for piano
Valentine Trills (1996), for flute
Wild Purple (1998), for viola
Vast Antique Cubes/Throbbing Still (2000), for piano
Simply Purple (2008), for viola
Ivory and Ebony (2009), for piano
For Marianne (2010), for flute
String Force (2010), for violin
Interviews
Private Interview with Joan Tower, February 23, 1988, Saint Louis, MO, in "An Analysis of Joan Tower's Wings for Solo Clarinet", August 1992, by Nancy E. Leckie Bonds
Private Interview with Joan Tower, May 21, 1988, Saint Louis, MO, in "An Analysis of Joan Tower's Wings for Solo Clarinet", August 1992, by Nancy E. Leckie Bonds,
Joan Tower (October 1, 2005). "Joan Tower: Made In America". NewMusicBox (Interview). Interview with Frank J. Oteri on September 15, 2005.CS1 maint: Multiple names: interviewers list (link)
The composer in conversation with Bruce Duffie, published in New Music Connoisseur Magazine, Spring, 2001.
Discography
Big Sky: Chamber Music of American Women Composers White Pine WPM202
