women composers

"After high school graduation, Mia Peters faces a summer full of painful goodbyes. Songwriting is her only solace. Everyone she knows is moving on, including Britt, her biggest supporter . . . and kind-of-sort-of girlfriend. Britt keeps pushing Mia to go bigger and do better than their small town, but Mia can't imagine a life beyond Sunset Cove. Besides, she refuses to follow in the footsteps of her late mother--country music star Tori Rose--who abandoned her family to pursue her dream, leaving Mia and her two grandmothers alone. Desperate for a sign of what might lie ahead, Mia finds the opposite--a mysterious letter from the past, addressed to her in her mother's handwriting. It turns out to be the first of many. One by one, they lead Mia on a wild scavenger hunt through a Sunset Cove she never knew, buried under the memorializing that has frozen her mother in time. Each new discovery brings Mia closer to the real Tori Rose, but with the clock ticking on Britt's departure, Mia knows she is running out of time. With the summer winding down, Mia must decide if she is ready to face the present, confront her feelings, and forge the destiny she truly wants"--Provided by publisher.

A picture book biography of American composer Amy Cheney Beach.

"Florence B. Price (1887-1953) was the first African American woman composer to achieve national recognition. She grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, studies at the new England Conservatory, and spent her professional career in Chicago (1927-53), where her Symphony in E Minor, premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933 under the direction of Frederick Stock, marks the first large-scale work by an African American woman composer (and the second work by an African American composer) to be performed by a major American orchestra. A prolific composer, she wrote more than 300 works in all genres: orchestra music (symphonies, orchestral suites, and concerti), vocal music, art songs and arrangements of spirituals, piano music (including teaching pieces), organ music, chamber music, and music for chorus. Her compositions reflect not only her cultural heritage, but also the romantic nationalist style of the period in which she was most active (beginning in the 1920s). Brown discusses Price in the context of the Harlem Renaissance and deals with issues of race, gender, and class. She draws on interviews with Price's colleagues, on music manuscripts located in major repositories of African American material and in private collections, on contemporary black newspapers and journals, on census records, and on archival materials as well as the relevant published sources. An appendix lists Price's compositions by genre"--.

"Six months after the end of 'Wintersong,' Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother's musical career and her own. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother, Josef, is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can't forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth, and the music he inspired in her. When troubling signs arise that the barrier between worlds is crumbling, Liesl must return to the Underground to unravel the mystery of life, death, and the Goblin King--who he was, who he is, and who he will be. What will it take to break the old laws once and for all? What is the true meaning of sacrifice when the fate of the world--or the ones Liesl loves--is in her hands?"--Provided by publisher.

After her sister is kidnapped by the Goblin King, Liesl journeys to the Underground and is faced with an impossible decision when she finds herself captivated by the strange world and its mysterious ruler.

A biography of American composer Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, discussing her early talent as a pianist and her turn to composition, and offering a critical overview of her music in the contexts of her time and of her contemporaries.

Provides brief biographical profiles of nearly two hundred women composers of the Western music tradition from the ninth century to the twenty-first century.

Describes the life of Felix Mendelssohn's sister, a highly talented composer in her own right.

Describes the lives and accomplishments of ten women composers who challenged opposition because of their gender, including Clara Schumann, Florence Price, and Ethel Smyth.