Photo by Ann Marsden
Just Announced! Elizabeth is the recipient of a 2011 McKnight Foundation Composer Fellowship!* Meet the three top-notch choirs whose recordings represented Elizabeth's work to the fellowship panelists! Elizabeth Alexander's music moves effortlessly between concert stage, choir loft and jam session, invariably invoking the simple and extraordinary, the ethereal and commonplace, and the beauty and messiness of life. Her passion for language and music is reflected in her catalogue of over 100 songs and choral pieces, which have received over 20 national and international awards. Reviews of her music have referred to “the close personal resonance between the composer and the words,” as well as her music’s “delicacy and sincerity,” “elegance,” "subtle, unexpected harmonic turns," and “freshness within a well-known language.” Alexander studied composition with Steven Stucky, Jack Gallagher, Yehudi Wyner and Karel Husa, receiving her bachelors degree from The College of Wooster and her doctorate from Cornell University. She has been the recipient of grants, awards and fellowships from such organizations as the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, New York Council on the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, National Orchestral Association, International League of Women Composers, Meet the Composer and American Composers Forum. Alexander lives in St. Paul, where her frequent commissions include works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles and solo musicians. She reads voraciously, shamelessly encourages her teenagers’ jokes, and grows greens and raspberries in her backyard. She believes she has the best job in the world. INTERVIEW: "Regional Spotlight" with Steve Staruch. Minnesota Public Radio. September 8, 2011. NEWEST WORKS: We Remember Them, for SATB choir and piano. Winner of the Vincent Brown Silliman Anthem Award.
Reasons for the Perpetuation of Slavery, for SSAA choir a cappella. Commissioned by the ACDA Women's Choir Commissioning Consortium. May This Be a Working Alleluia, for children's choir, adult choir and piano, with optional flute, trumpet and drums. Commissioned Trinity Lutheran and Watertown Evangelical Free Churches, with funds from Bremer Bank's Faith Partners Composer Residency Program. Fighting Over What We Believe, for youth choir, adult choir, and piano. Commissioned by Mayflower United Church of Christ of Minneapolis. FEATURED WORK:  Go Out! - A Musical Celebration of Liberal Religion and Freedom of Thought
COMMISSIONS: Everything for Trinity Lutheran HandBell Choir. (Commissioned with funds from Bremer Bank's Faith Partners Composer Residency Program.) Premiere Fall 2011 NEW SATB ARRANGEMENT of Things That Go Bump In the Night. Premiere October 2011 How To Sing Like a Planet for Minnesota ACDA Boys Honors Choir. Premiere November 2011 Sue Loves Butter for Twin Cities Women's Choir. Premiere December 2011 Nature Creature for singer Ruth MacKenzie (Commissioned with funding from the Jerome Foundation.) Premiere December 2011 NEW CHRISTMAS WORK for Watertown Evangelical Church. (Commissioned with funds from Bremer Bank's Faith Partners Composer Residency Program.) Premiere December 2011 CONTACT SEAFARER PRESS: Mailing address: Seafarer Press / 1245 Ashland Avenue / St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-6911 / USA |
