Contemporary Classical " ... sparing and imaginative ... bucolic and serene ... syncopated and delightfully stylized ... Beautiful and humorous too, ... created the desire to hear more of Beth Denisch." Richard Johnson, Bay Windows

17 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, CLASSICAL: Orchestral



Details:
Beth Denisch (B.M., North Texas; M.M and D.M.A., Boston University; teachers: Bernard Rands, John Harbison)

Dr. Denisch has received grants from ASCAP, Meet The Composer, American Composers Forum, Berklee College of Music, and the American Music Center. The Philadelphia Classical Symphony (PCS) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) awarded her for the instrumental septet "The Singing Tree", inspired by Maxfield Parrish's painting "Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree" as part of PAFA's Parrish retrospective and was followed by a PCS commission for "Goblins Night Out!" for full orchestra and narrator.

"Golden Fanfare" has been recorded by the Dvorak Symphony Orchestra in Prague for release on Albany Records with Julius Williams, conductor in November 2004. The Equinox Chamber Players of St. Louis commissioned "Women: the Power and the Journey" as part of their National Women's History Month celebrating women of note from St. Louis with multiple performances in St. Louis and Boston. Other ensembles that have commissioned and performed her works include the Handel & Haydn Society, the Wellesley Symphony, the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Composers String Quartet, Arcadian Winds, and the Cambridge Madrigal Singers. Additional performances include electronic music for the multi-media installation "She's Learning How to Speak" at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Rochester, Michigan; her composition "Jordan and the Dog Woman", an instrumental suite based on the Jeanette Winterson novel "Sexing the Cherry"; and the "Forth Project" for solo piano which has been performed numerous times, including in China. Dr. Denisch is Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music and teaches at Northeastern University. She founded and directs the American Composers Forum New England and continues writing for exciting and innovative ensembles and soloists.

Quotes regarding her compositions:

"... a respected Boston composer ... colorful ... pictorial ... ends joyfully and ebulliently."
Ellen Pfeifer, Boston Herald

" ... brimmed with personality and drive ... "
Anthony Tommasini, The Boston Globe

" ... great simplicity and terseness ... "
Susan Larson, The Boston Globe

"A delightfully jazzy romp ...highly entertaining and imaginative work."
Peter Burwasser, New Music Connoisseur

" ... sparing and imaginative ... bucolic and serene ... syncopated and delightfully stylized ... Beautiful and humorous too, ... created the desire to hear more of Beth Denisch." Richard Johnson, Bay Windows

"... Women, Power, and the Journey, a piece commissioned by the (Equinox) quintet that celebrates four St. Louis based women, is absolutely first-rate stuff... it puts forth very clear, cogent ideas and unfolds attractively without cloying. There's purposeful drive to this music, derived in part from the appropriation of African and pop idioms. In fact, the last movement, a tribute to Tina Turner, really rocks in a way that much similarly inspired downtown New York music does not. These wonderfully evocative character entries are simply splendid."
David Cleary, New Music Connoisseur