The United States Navy Band gave the world premiere performance of Ellen’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble with soloist Dana Booher on January 13, 2023, at the 43rd International Saxophone Symphosium.
The Composers Now Visionary Award recognizes members of the arts community who, through their own creative practice and advocacy for others, have made a profound, positive and lasting impact in our culture. The 2023 Composers Now Visionary Awards were presented to Adolphus Hailstork and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
Praise continues to roll in for the Delos recording of Ellen’s music. MusicWeb International’s review calls the Cello Concerto “exceptionally enjoyable, rich in diverse moods, glorious melodies, and catchy rhythms,” saying of the entire disc, “performances by soloists and orchestra are all one could wish for, and the sound quality is good.” The critic, David Barker, concludes by saying, “The Australian composer Graeme Koehne, whose music I love, has said that ‘music which does not set out to entertain often ends up being boring’. He clearly has a soulmate in Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. On the basis of this excellent recording, I will be seeking out more of her music.”
You can read the entire review here.
Kevin Filipski writes in The Flip Side, “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich writes music of bountiful imagination, and this disc of several orchestral works cements her reputation as among our very best contemporary composers.” Read the review here. And Phil’s Reviews for the Atlanta Audio Club says, “In the works heard on this album she reveals her mastery of all the elements that make for great music, including color, form, texture, and movement.” Read the review here.
On the tenth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, this performance of Ellen’s work “Memorial (for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre)" by the New York Virtuoso Singers led by Harold Rosenbaum. For the victims.
ZKM, the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, has featured Ellen in its “Femmes4Music” series, with a video interview and playlist. “Gramophone Magazine lists Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in an August 2022 article on the 10 must-hear women composers. The explanation for this is: ‘A prolific figure, Zwilich’s compositions range from large-scale symphonies to solo works. The works are regarded for their vigour, assertiveness and ability to challenge both the performer and audience.’”
“A cello concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b.1939) was always going to be big news,” says The Strad magazine in its review of the Delos recording of Ellen’s works, praising “this sassy, jazzy work in which Zwilich’s hallmark propulsive energy in passages of incisively bowed syncopated semiquavers, alternates with moments of profound calm. The orchestration is original and very effective, with the solo cello … dialoguing with different instruments, and sounding particularly effective when playing in its uppermost reaches, above high violins, at the start of the third movement.”
The review continues, “The tightly worked Prologue and Variations (1983) shows a particular affinity for the string-orchestra medium, and the Romance, for the composer’s own instrument, is beautifully characterised by concertmaster Joseph Edelberg.”
A new disc of Ellen’s music including the debut recording of her Cello Concerto (2020), performed by soloist Zuill Bailey and the Santa Rosa Symphony led by its music director, Francesco Lecce-Chong, is a new release from Delos Records, available September 16, 2022. The recording also features three of the composer’s popular works: Peanuts® Gallery for piano and orchestra (1996), featuring soloist Elizabeth Dorman; Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (1993), featuring soloist Joseph Edelberg; and Prologue and Variations for String Orchestra (1983).
Ellen is featured a June 2022 article from Gramophone magazine, “10 female composers whose music you need to hear” - “A prolific figure, Zwilich’s compositions range from large-scale symphonies to solo works. The works are regarded for their vigour, assertiveness and ability to challenge both the performer and audience.”
The BMI Foundation, in collaboration with BMI, has announced seven young classical composers, ages 19 to 28, as winners of the 70th annual BMI Student Composer Awards. This year’s ceremony was held yesterday at Tribeca 360 and winners were announced by the Chair of the BMI Student Composer Awards, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
“Celebrating these young composers is the highlight of our year at BMI Classical,” said Deirdre Chadwick, President of the BMI Foundation. “As emerging artistic voices, it’s so important for them to receive recognition and encouragement, and we are thrilled to honor their achievements.”
The 2022 award winners are:
Cheng Jin Koh, 26 - Awarded the William Schuman Prize for most outstanding score; Student of Elizabeth Hoffman at New York University
Oliver Kwapis, 25 - Student of Jeffrey Stolet at Oregon University School of Music and Dance
Alan W. Mackwell, 24 - Student of John McDonald at Tufts University
Abel M.G.E., 28 - Student of Julian Anderson
Sehyeok (Joseph) Park, 19 - Student of Abigail Richardson-Schulte at the University of Toronto; Awarded the Carlos Surinach Prize honoring the youngest winner of the competition
Nina Shekhar, 27 - Student of Donnacha Dennehy at Princeton University
Kari Watson, 24 - Student of Augusta Read Thomas at the University of Chicago
On April 8, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) presented its “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Portrait Concert” featuring four of Ellen’s orchestral works: Upbeat! (1998), Concerto Elegia for flute and orchestra (2015), Commedia dell’Arte for violin and orchestra (2012), and Symphony No. 5 (2008). The reviews are in:
“It may still be true that many listeners know more about Zwilich’s accomplishments than her music, but it’s high time for that to change. Fortunately, BMOP recorded the concert for release on its in-house label BMOP/sound; unfortunately, we’ll all have to wait till 2023 to hear it. Until then, go to YouTube, pick one, and hit play.” -A.Z. Madonna, The Boston Globe (Click here to read)
“After the sudden death of her husband, the violinist Joseph Zwilich, in 1979, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich began moving away from harsh, atonal sonorities to a lyrical style balancing light and darkness. Where other composers might wall off joy from sorrow and laughter from tears, Zwilich poignantly offers both at once.” -Aaron Keebaugh, Boston Classical Review (Click here to read)
“Though Taaffe Zwilich’s music relies heavily on contrasts among different instruments, rhythms, dynamics. and styles, it achieves these juxtapositions in a melodic yet refreshingly modern manner. The well-deserved applause for BMOP and its dedicatee honored both one of the leading interpreters of contemporary music and a composer thereof.” -Stephanie Oestreich, Boston Musical Intelligencer (Click here to read)
The Santa Rosa Symphony just announced that they have commissioned Ellen to write a Concerto for Two Pianos. The work will premiered by the orchestra, led by its music director, Francesco Lecce-Chong, and soloists Christina Naughton and Michelle Naughton, May 6-8, 2023.
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) presents an “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Portrait Concert” featuring three of Ellen’s more recent orchestral works: Concerto Elegia for flute and orchestra (2015), Commedia dell’Arte for violin and orchestra (2012), and the Symphony No. 5 (2008). The 2020 BMOP-NEC composition competition winner, Lavell Blackwell, will have his Effleurage premiered by BMOP to open the concert.
“As BMOP kicks off its extended 2022-2023 Quarter-Century Celebration season, this return to historic Jordan Hall and portrait concert of an icon of American symphonic composition is not one to be missed.”
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center hosted an online talk with the famed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio in which host James Thompson talked with Joseph Kalichstein, Jaime Laredo, and Sharon Robinson about their four-decade career: working together, collaborating with others, teaching, recording, and playing new music.
Ellen, who has written six works for members of the trio, is interviewed about them, and Joseph Kalichstein, who describes their relationship with Ellen as “like [that of] Oistrakh and Prokofiev,” talks about how receiving “each new piece [of hers] is like adding a member to the family.”
Watch the talk here; Ellen’s appearance is at the 1:01 mark.
“A Song for Ruth,” a 12-minute documentary video about Ellen’s work Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg, features interviews with Ellen, poet Lauren Watel, and pianist Jeffrey Biegel.
The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas/Fort Worth NBC affiliate previewed the October 7 premiere of Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg with features that included interviews with the event’s principals, including Ellen. As NBCDFW quoted, “‘Act II is about all she tried to do to change things,’ Zwilich said. ‘She stopped knocking on bolted doors and started knocking them down. It’s all very active, getting rid of the dropped ceilings, the bolted doors and then helping women down from the pedestals.’”
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra hosted a Zoom talk with Ellen, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and pianist Jeffrey Biegel about the upcoming October 7 premiere of Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg. DSO VP of Artistic Operations Katie McGuinness leads the conversation about Jeffrey Biegel’s inspiration for the work, the text by Lauren Watel and how Ellen shaped the piece, and Denyce Graves’s friendship with Justice Ginsburg.
On October 13, 1990, much to Ellen’s amazement, the Peanuts cartoon strip was all about her. Ellen became good friends with Charles and Jean Schulz, and in 1997 Ellen wrote the piano concerto Peanuts Gallery inspired by the iconic Peanuts gang.
The strip that inspired it all is currently on view at the Charles M. Schulz Museum’s Strip Rotation Gallery, through November 8, along with its story:
“Charles M. Schulz referenced many empowered women in the Peanuts comic strip, including Billie Jean King, Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Tiegs, and Peggy Fleming. One inspiration for two strips, a daily strip and a Sunday strip both on display in this exhibition, was Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first woman composer to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Music. Born in 1939 in Miami, Florida, Zwilich attended The Juilliard School for music in 1975, and was also the first woman ever to receive a degree in Doctor of Musical Arts.
“Schulz heard about Zwilich through The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in 1990 and incorporated her into a Peanuts comic strip on October 13, 1990, which can be seen in this exhibition and on the back of this handout. The initial strip led to a friendship between the two, and in 1997 Zwilich composed a 13-minute piano concerto inspired by the Peanuts Gang.”
BMI and the BMI Foundation yesterday announced the six young classical composers, ages 18-27, who are the winners of the 69th annual BMI Student Composer Awards, as well as two who received honorable mentions. The awards recognize exceptional musical talent and potential, and include annual educational scholarships totaling $20,000.
The winners: Micangelo Ferrante, Elizabeth Gartman, Grey Grant, Lara Poe, Nicholas Denton Protsack, and Elliot Roman. Lucy Chen and Sofia Ouyang received honorable mentions.
Ellen is permanent chair of the annual competition, and this year’s finals judges were John Adams, Daniel Roumain, Kristin Kuster, and Sean Shepherd.
In the final pre-concert talk this spring with Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong, Ellen talks about writing the work honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg that will premiere in October; what she aimed for in composing Peanuts Gallery, her work for young listeners; her friendship with Charles Schulz; and what she foresees in concert life post-pandemic.
Watch the pre-concert talk here (the segment with Ellen begins around 14:00).
The Santa Rosa Symphony’s April 25 concert featured Ellen’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra. In the pre-concert talk, Ellen spoke with Santa Rosa Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong about her favorites among the violin giants of the 20th century, at around the 24:!5 mark in the YouTube video.