Annual American Composers Update

Judith Lang Zaimont*'s Sonata for Piano, scheduled for recording on Koch International Classics, summer 2000, was on Piano and Keyboard magazine's century list and timeline (Nov./Dec. 1999). She holds commissions from the Focus on Piano Literature 2000, at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, for the piano suite Jupiter's Moons; from the Bergen Wind Quintet for a composition for summer 2001; and from the American Composers Forum for a work for its New Band Horizons project, spring 2001. In July 1999, she was one of four composers invited to discuss American music in the American Music Center's NewMusicBox Internet magazine. Her article, "On Being a Composer -- Ruminations on an Undescribable Art," reprinted for the Composing a Career conference, held in Nov. 1999 at the New School, in New York, NY, co-curated by Mannes College, The New School, and Women's Philharmonic, is available on the composer's website, www.joblink.org/jzaimont. In Jan. 2000, an interview with her by Jeff Dunn appeared in 21th Century Music magazine. Michael Cherlin has written an article in The Clarinet (Mar. 2001) about five of her chamber quintets. Stillness, a tone poem for orchestra, is in progress. On average, Zaimont's music has over 50 performances a year.

Tanya Remenikova presented "Couplet" and "Sestina", the first two movements of Tanya -- Poems for Cello, Feb. 2000 at the University of Minnesota. In 2000, Sonata premiered with Bradford Gowen, piano, at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC (May); with the second movement, Canto, heard first in Minnesota at the MTNA national convention (Mar.). Ensemble Capriccio introduced Spirals (The Spiral -- Ancient Song, Whirligig, Closed Fist, Entropy, The Rose, and Chambered Nautilus), a CMA Millennium Commission, May 2000 at the Walker Art Gallery, in Minneapolis. In June 2000, Jupiter's Moons (The Moons Swim in Orbit, Europa, Leda, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto), for piano, had its first performance with Paul Stewart, at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Snazzy Sonata, on the 1999 Italian tour of Duo Pianistico di Firenze, Dec. 1998 in Pantelleria; Feb. 1999 in Lanciano; Mar. 1999 in Livorno; Mar. 1999 in Bolzano; and Apr. 1999 in Florence; was played by duo-pianists Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack at the Weisman Art Museum, in Minneapolis, MN, Feb. 2000. Under the baton of Kate Tamarkin, the East Texas Symphony played Elegy, for strings, the second movement of Remember Me -- Symphony No. 2, Mar. 2000. 1999 performances of Doubles, for oboe and piano, occurred in London, England, at the International Congress for Women in Music, with Patricia Morehead and Eileen Hutchins (July); and at Arizona State University, with Martin Schuring and Madeline Williamson (Dec.). Heard on Museum of Modern Art Summergarden concert series was Russian Summer -- Piano Trio No. 1, with Juilliard's Mota Trio, Aug. 1999, in a program curated by Joel Sachs. From the Great Land had performances with Judy May, mezzo-soprano; Bob Spring, clarinet; and Williamson, piano, at Arizona State University, Dec. 1999; and with the Dominion Trio with Fay Putnam, mezzo-soprano, in Bakersfield, CA, Jan. 2000.

Tanya (Couplet, Sestina, Envoi, 14'30"); three poems for solo cello; Sounds Alive!

Sacred Service for the Sabbath Evening; James Maddalena, baritone, the Rundfunk Sinfonie and the Ernst Senff Chor, Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Milken Archive.

• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1997-1998 American Composers Update
• 1996-1997 American Composers Update
• SAI's Composers Bureau Online.
• SAI's Music for Young People section.