The Women Composers Festival of Hartford is pleased to announce Hilary Tann as their guest composer for its 2013 festival. A celebration of the diversity of women’s music, the festival is scheduled March 6-10 at institutions across the Greater Hartford area, featuring the Welsh-born composer in multiple programs. The festival will include performances of Dr. Tann’s music, in addition to an international selection of historical and living women composers.
Hilary Tann lives in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she is the John Howard Payne Professor of Music at Union College, Schenectady. She holds degrees in composition from the University of Wales at Cardiff and from Princeton University. From 1982 to 1995 she held a number of Executive Committee positions with the International League of Women Composers and she was Composer-in-Residence at the 2011 Eastman School of Music Women in Music Festival. Praised for its lyricism and formal balance, her music is influenced by her love of Wales and a strong identification with the natural world. A deep interest in the traditional music of Japan has led to private study of the shakuhachi and guest visits to Japan, Korea, and China. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Meininger Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBCNOW, and KBS Philharmonic in Seoul, Korea. As composer-in-residence, she is speaking at The Hartt School’s Institute for Contemporary American Music, Central Connecticut State University’s Music Forum, the Musical Club of Hartford and other regional institutions. Information on her music and recordings can be found at www.hilarytann.com.
The Women Composers Festival of Hartford has, for the last twelve years, provided an educational and entertaining platform for the promotion of women’s music. Recognized as a champion of women’s music by institutions such as Meet the Composer, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund, the festival’s goals include informing audiences through performances of music that has been and still is being written by women in an effort to broaden people’s understanding of musical literature and women’s contributions to this field.