Dreams of Distant Galas: CD Release Party Program

About the Composers
Hungarian LAJOS DELEJ (1923-1945) was a young prodigy and a colleague of Janos Starker, György
Ligeti and Györgi Sebok among others; it was said that Delej could read five separate scores at once.
He was killed by the Nazis after trying to follow his sweetheart into imprisonment; sent to a different
concentration camp, she survived. The piece attributed to him on today's program (a Scherzo
from an otherwise missing cello sonata) was only preserved via a recording by the BBC in the 50s
and then transcribed more recently by violist Peter Barsony.
P.C. Mariah Tauger
P.C. Geneviève caron
P.C. frogsong photography
Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of
Lithuanian/Jewish descent, composer GABRIELA LENA FRANK (b. 1972) is currently serving as
Composer-in-Residence with the storied Philadelphia Orchestra; she was included in the
Washington Post's list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017). Identity
has always been at the center of her music and she explores her multicultural heritage through her
compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Gabriela has traveled
extensively throughout South America in creative exploration. Her music often reflects not only her
own personal experience as a multi-racial Latina, but also refract her studies of Latin American
cultures, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical
framework that is uniquely her own. glfcam.com
Juno Award-winning composer VIVIAN FUNG (b. 1975) combines idiosyncratic textures and styles
into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. Fung’s 2019–20 season includes
performances of Birdsong by Midori, a new concerto for trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden and
the Erie Philharmonic, Dust Devils by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony, Aqua
by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Earworms with the Vancouver Symphony, and
Pizzicato with the Fort Worth Symphony. Fung mentors composers at the American Composers
Forum, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, London Symphony, and Cabrillo Festival.
Born in Canada, she received her doctorate from Juilliard. Fung lives in California and is on the
faculty of Santa Clara University. vivianfung.ca
E4TT composer and founding member DAVID GARNER (b. 1954) won The American Prize in 2015
for his String Quartet No. 2. Garner's music has been reviewed as "alluring" and "a heady and
touching revelation," and his works have been performed nationally and internationally by artists
such as Suzanne Mentzner, Catherine Cook, Crystal Philippi, David Krakauer, and Matt Haimowitz.
Garner's opera, "Mary Pleasant at Land's End,” is in the final stages of pre-production. A faculty
member in composition, chamber music, music theory and literature at the SF Conservatory of
Music, Garner is a member of BMI, American Composers Forum, and the American Music Center.
davidgarner.us
JULIANA HALL (b. 1958) studied piano and composition at the Yale School of Music, earning a
Master’s degree in Music Composition in 1987; she received a Guggenheim Fellowship two years
later. A highly-regarded composer of more than 50 vocal works, she has written for Dawn Upshaw
and been recorded by Susan Narucki. Hall's music has been performed at the 92nd Street Y, Library
of Congress, Théâtre du Châtelet, Wigmore Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Norfolk Chamber
Music and Ojai Music Festivals, among others, as well as on the BBC and NPR. Her first solo CD was
released on the MSR Classics label. julianahall.com
One of America’s most performed living composers, LIBBY LARSEN (b. 1950) has created a
catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music
to massive orchestral works and over twelve operas. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded,
including over fifty CD’s of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres
by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent
place for her works in the concert repertory. A vigorous, articulate advocate for the music and
musicians of our time, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers (now the American
Composer’s) Forum, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for
American arts. A former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library
of Congress, Larsen has held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Charlotte and
Colorado Symphonies. libbylarsen.com