Biography

Ruth Schonthal's compositions, which reflect the concerns of today's world, display a unique blend of her deeply rooted European tradition, depth of feeling and masterful blending of traditional and contemporary techniques.

Borojhn in Hamburg in 1924 of Viennese parents she began composing at five and became the youngest student ever accepted at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin where she received piano and theory lessons. In 1935, as Jewess, she was banished from the Conservatory. The persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany led the family into exile and settle in Stockholm. Because of her exceptional talent she was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, in spite of not meeting the standard regulations for admission, a fact the Swedish press noted and duly protested. In 1940 her first Piano Sonatina was published. At the Academy Ruth Schonthal studied piano with Olaf Wibergh and composition with Ingemar Liljefors.

In 1941 the political situation became too dangerous again and the family was forced to flee a second time, this time to settle in Mexico City. There Ruth Schonthal continued her studies of composition with Manuel M. Ponce. When she was nineteen years old she was the soloist at the world premiere of her own Piano Concerto in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. In 1946 she met Paul Hindemith, who was on a concerttour in Mexico City. She accepted his offer to study with him at the Yale University on a scholarship that Mr. Hindemith procured for her. She graduated in 1948, one of the few who graduated with honors.

Ruth Schonthal never followed the prevalent contemporary aesthetic fashions. At a time when Anton Webern and John Cage were the American role models, she followed her own musical path, never denying her own classic-romantic heritage. The extraordinarily varied impressions she absorbed in the course of her life in the different parts of the world provided the foundation of her musical style. Through the exposure to diverse influences and methods in Germany, Sweden, Mexico and the USA, Ruth Schonthal was able to extrapolate from these experiences an unusually rich mixture of compositional techniques. She used these to form a comprehensive stylistic synthesis.

What makes her work so remarkable? First of all the great openness and curiosity with which she manages to combine and melt stylistic elements of the European musical tradition, the Mexican folkmusic, the aleatoric and minimalism techniques into a new synthesis. The deployment of special techniques was never an end in itself for Ruth Schonthal, but was chosen to express the intent and fit the content of each given work. The emotional quality of the music is foremost in her mind. She once said that she envisions her work as a mirror held up to a world full of complex human emotions. She endeavors to translate human gestures and motions in her melodic and rhythmic material and attempts to communicate with her listeners through her music. A Bird Flew Over Jerusalem deals with the clash of different cultures and religions. Fragments of a Woman's Diary deals with the conflicts inherent in the traditional role of women, and like many others of her works, the great Cantata for chorus and orchestra cantata The Young Dead Soldiers, deals with the horrors of war.

Ruth Schonthal has received commissions for chamber music, operas, symphonic works as well as compositions for piano and organ. In 1994 she was the recipient of the Intemationaler Kunstlerinnen Preis of the City Heidelberg and was honored by the Prinz Carl am Kommarkt Museum in Heidelberg with an exhibition of her life and work. Also in the USA she is the recipient of many honors and awards, amongst them Meet the Composer grants and ASCAP awards. She was a finalist in the New York City Opera Competition with her opera The Courtship of Camilla (A.A. Milne) and a finalist in the Kennedy- Friedheim Competition with her 'In Homage of ...'(24 Preludes). In addition she received a Certificate of Merit from the Yale School of Alumni Association for outstanding service to music and an Outstanding Musician Award from New York University as well as numerous honors and awards from local Arts and Cultural organizations. Her works find wide circulation inand outside the USA. Her music is published by Furore Verlag, Oxford University Press, Southern Music Co, Carl Fischer, G. E. Schirmer, Sisra Press, Fine Arts Music Co and Hildegard Music Publishing Co. Since 1997 the publisher Furore Verlag in Kassel (Germany) is publishing Ruth Schonthal's compositions exclusively. Discs containing her music are to be found on the Crystal, Leonarda, Opus One labels, many of them reissued on CDs on the Cambria, Leonarda & Capstone label.

A lengthy and comprehensive biography and analysis of her life and work Ruth Schonthal - Ein Werdegang im Exil (Ruth Schonthal, a Development in Exile) by Dr. Martina Helmig has been published by the Olms Verlag and is currently slated to be published in the USA in its English translation by Scarecrow Press. Shorter biographies and analyses of her work have been published in many American and German dictionaries and compilations by Theodor Presser, Greenwood Press, Scarecrow Press, Pro Am, Feminist Press. Various newspapers and magazines have published articles about her life and work. She is also featured in the new Grove's Dictionary of Woman Composers and is slated for a comprehensive article in the next issue of the Grove's Dictionary of Women Composers to be published in the year 2000. Ruth Schonthal is on the composition faculty of New York University and SUNY, Purchase.

Ruth Schonthal passed away in 2006.

Published Compositions

• Opera
• Orchestra
• Piano/Harpsichord
• Organ
• Guitar
• Harp
• Strings
• Winds
• Mixed Ensemble
• Vocal Music

Further Information

For more information about Ruth Schonthal, please visit her website at ruthschonthal.com

• Pan Pipes 2004-2005 Annual American Composer Update
• Pan Pipes 2002-2003 Annual American Composer Update
• Pan Pipes 1999-2000 Annual American Composer Update
• Pan Pipes 1996-1997 Annual American Composer Update
• SAI's Music for Young People section

Contact Information

78 Genesee Blvd.
Atlantic Beach, NY 11509-1314
E-mail: ruthschonthal@earthlink.net