Wiki Category: Women Composers

Cutler, Zoe

American composer and trombonist

Zoe Cutler Official Website

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • I Don’t Really Care What You Call It On Your Program (2017) for brass quintet
  • Personality Test (2020) for brass quintet
  • Fanfare for Some Bad Bitches for brass quintet
  • 3 Sad Songs that were supposed to be 4 Love Songs for trombone choir
  • Beethoven? for trombone sextet
Biography

Zoe Cutler is a trombonist, composer, improviser, and multimedia artist based in Detroit, Michigan. She performs regularly with a large variety of classical, jazz, and world music ensembles. She is an active member of brass quintet Salmontet, free improvisation group Polyglot, and klezmer band Vaguely Yiddish, among others. She has performed with artists including Terence Blanchard, Ingrid Jensen, Wynton Marsalis, Ignacio Berroa, Anat Cohen, Charles McPherson, Jamey Haddad, Sergio Assad, Ellen Rowe, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes, Alon Yavnai, Petros Klampanis, Alex Conde, Romero Lubambo, Honey Monsoon, and the Planet D Nonet.

Passionate about new music, Zoe has participated in premieres including Ricardo Lorenz’s “Olokun’s Awakening,” Cenk Ergün’s Formare, Robert Deemer’s Iron, Steel, Rust, Meilina Tsui’s Brass Quintet No. 1, Judy Jackson’s I Have These Thoughts in the Summertime, Too: An Opera, Milo Talwani’s Healing in Circles, and Tori Ervin’s ~ p e r c o l a t e ~.

Zoe Cutler’s arrangements and compositions are published by Zoe’s Sounds Publishing (ASCAP). Her work has been performed by the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble, Oberlin Brass Ensemble, Oberlin Trombone Choir, Ann Arbor Symphony Woodwind Quintet, Appalachian State Trombone Choir, and Ann Arbor Trombone Choir. She holds an M.M. in Trombone Performance from the University of Michigan and a B.M. in Trombone Performance and Jazz Arranging from Oberlin Conservatory. Her teachers have included trombonists Robin Eubanks, Lee Allen, David Jackson, and Jonathan Holtfreter, as well as writers Jay Ashby, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Ellen Rowe.

Moorman, Joyce Solomon

11 May 1946 – Tuskegee, AL
American composer and educator

Official Joyce Solomon Moorman Website

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • Jazz Quintet (1979) for brass quintet
  • Celebration 2020 for brass quintet
Biography

JOYCE SOLOMON MOORMAN was born in the campus hospital of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her childhood was spent in Columbia, South Carolina, where she attended segregated public elementary and high schools. She earned the B. A. degree from Vassar College, the M. A. T. degree from Rutgers University, the M. F. A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College, and the Ed. D. degree from Columbia University. In 1990 she was a finalist in the first Detroit Symphony African-American Composers’ Competition. Her compositions have been performed by Lilan Parrot, Triad Chorale, Wilson Moorman, LonGar Ebony Ensemble, the Woodhill Chamber Ensemble, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, After Dinner Opera Company, Sandra Billingslea, the Plymouth Chorus and Orchestra, the Cygnus Chamber Ensemble, the Moravian Philharmonic, the Afro-American Chamber Music Society of Los Angeles, the Richmond County Orchestra and Louise Toppin.

 

 

Coleman, Valerie

American composer and flutist

Works for Brass ensemble
Biography

Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as a founding member of the Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In the year 2019, Valerie Coleman composed a piece titled Umoja, Anthem for Unity which was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. This achievement was a very special one because it was the first time that a living African-American woman composer was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Coleman is known for her many contributions to wind chamber music and with Imani Winds, she released a number of studio albums with the group, one of which was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2005.[1]

A graduate of Mannes College of Music and taught by musicians such as Julius Baker, her compositions frequently incorporate diverse styles such as jazz with classical music and many times incorporate political or social themes. Her piece Umoja in 2002 was listed as one of the “Top 101 Great American Works” by Chamber Music America.[2] She is an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center CMS Two Fellowship program, laureate of Concert Artists Guild competition.

Valerie is a highly sought-after recitalist and clinician with a reputation of transformative skill and has conducted masterclasses and performances at top institutions.

Resources

Valerie Coleman Official Website

Valerie Coleman Wikipedia Page

Dowlin, Nancy

12 July 1954; North Wales, Pennsylvania – 15 June 2007; Newtown, Pennsylvania
American composer, trumpet player, & educator

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • Valerie’s Smile

Hsu, Chia-yu

Banciao, Taiwan
(b 1975) Taiwanese-American composer and educator

Chia-yu Hsu Official Website

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • Sparkle (2011) for brass quintet
  • Fanfare for JS (2016) for brass ensemble and percussion
  • Confluence Fanfare (2018) for brass ensemble
Biography

Chia-yu is an active composer of contemporary concert music. Chia-yu has been interested in deriving inspirations from different materials, such as poems, myths, and images. Particularly, however, it is the combination of Chinese elements and western techniques that is a hallmark of her music.

Chia-yu is an associate professor of composition at UW-Eau Claire. She has received her Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from Yale School of Music, and Ph.D. from Duke University. She has been in different residencies in the United States and Europe, including Yaddo, Wildacres Retreat, the Camargo Foundation, and Dora Maar House. She has studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Aspen Music Festival, American Conservatory (Fontainebleau), and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Her teachers have included Jennifer Higdon, Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, Ezra Laderman, David Loeb, Anthony Kelley, Jeffrey Mumford, Donald Crockett, Jonathan Berger, Christopher Rouse, Robert Beaser, Joseph Schwantner, Joan Tower, Marco Stroppa, Scott Lindroth, and Stephen Jaffe.

– extracted from the composer’s website

Biol, Amparo Edo

28 January 1988, Valencia, Spain

Amparo Edo Biol Official Website

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • Bossa (2011) for brass quintet
  • Brass Therapy (2015) for horn, trombone, & tuba
  • Aragón Brass (2017) for brass ensemble
Biography

Amparo Edo Biol is a composer, orchestrator and conductor for Film, TV and New Media. She has written music for movies, shows and games, as well as concert and stage music for acoustic and hybrid performances. She has contributed as an arranger and performer on many commercial recordings, including Grammy nominated albums.

Her background and versatility has put her in the map as a creative leader in music productions looking for a tasteful pairing of musical flavors. She is artistically committed to bring music styles together by respectfully fusing popular and folkloric genres with the colors and dimensions of her innate symphonic ensembles.

She holds degrees from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) and Joaquin Rodrigo Conservatory (Valencia, Spain) with concentrations in Composition for Film, Orchestral Conducting, Classical Composition and Performance.

(biography from IMDB)

Ruehr, Elena

1963; Ann Arbor, Michigan
American composer and educator

Works for Brass Ensemble
  • Five Dance Overtures for brass quintet
  • The Voyage Out (1995) for brass ensemble
  • In Time of Silver Rain (2005) for brass ensemble
References

Elena Ruehr Official Website