Name Kay Gardner | Role Musician | |
 | ||
Albums A Rainbow Path, Moon Circles, Ocean Moon Similar People Alix Dobkin, Meg Christian, Margie Adam, Teresa Trull, Cris Williamson | ||
38 3 sections 8 years lyn liston guitar kay gardner flute
Kay Gardner (also known as "Cosmos Wonder-Child") (1941–2002) was a musician, composer, author, and musical producer involved in using music for creative and healing purposes. Her compositions include works for chamber orchestra, symphony orchestra, choir, flute, voice and piano. She was very active in promoting the work of contemporary female musicians and composers.
Contents
Biography
Born in Freeport, New York, Gardner wrote and performed her first piano composition at the age of four. She subsequently went on to gain performance experience in chamber, orchestral, and vocal music. Gardner is considered a founder of the women's recording industry, and founded her own independent record label, Even Keel Records. She produced 17 albums, both of her own music and of others'. Gardner composed works for flute, piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and choir. In 1974, Gardner and Alix Dobkin recorded and produced a nationally distributed album with explicitly lesbian-feminist lyrics (Lavender Jane Loves Women, Women’s Wax Works). In 1977, Kay Gardner wrote her first piece for orchestra "(Rain Forest"), and conducted the premiere (her conducting debut) the following year at the National Women’s Music Festival in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, with Antonia Brico in attendance. Between 1976 and 1984, Gardner worked on A Rainbow Path, a large musical composition designed for meditation on the eight energy centers, or chakras, of the human organism. She conducted a women's music orchestra production of it in 1988 at the National Women's Music Festival. Gardner also co-founded the New England Women’s Symphony. She was a choir director, radio personality, and a staff writer for HOT WIRE: The Journal of Women's Music and Culture. She is credited with envisioning the Acoustic Stage venue at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (with cellist Rachel Alexander).
Selected works
Music
Chamber Works (published by Sea Gnomes Music)
Orchestral Works
Oratorio and Opera
Choral Works (Mixed Chorus)
Solo Instrumental Works
Solo Vocal Works
Lectures and Literature
With Lavender Jane (Alix Dobkin, Gardner and Patches Attom)