Interview with Gloria Coates

Please join us for an exciting evening of music with member and composer Gloria Coates at our March meeting! Member Valerie Errante, a professional Soprano, will interview Gloria about her life and her career, including playing clips from her symphonies.

 Gloria Coates was born in Wausau, Wisconsin and began composing at an early age, winning a national composition contest at the age of fourteen. She studied at Louisiana State University and at Columbia University in New York, earning a number of degrees, including a Master of Music in Composition with post graduate studies. While maintaining a residence in the United States, Gloria has lived in Europe since 1969, devoting her time primarily to composition. She organized the German-American Music Series in Munich from 1971-1984 , presented the results of her experiments with multiphonic vocal technique at the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music in 1972, and founded the music program for the University of Wisconsin's Semester Abroad in 1975. She has lectured on American music, written musicological articles, and wrote and broadcast radio programs on American music for the German radio. Her breakthrough as a composer came with the premier of "Music on Open Strings" (1973) at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1978. This same work was performed in the Musica Viva Series of the Bavarian Radio in Munich in 1980 (the first orchestral composition by a woman to be performed in the 35 years of the series), and was one of the 10 finalists for the International Koussevitzsky Award in 1986. She was invited to the First Festival for New Music- Moscow in 1981, and lectured on her music at Harvard in 1984. Gloria has composed works for orchestra (including 14 symphonies), vocal music with piano and orchestral accompaniment, numerous chamber music works for two to nine instruments (including 8 string quartets), solo instrumental pieces, choral works, electronic, and music for the theatre.

Valerie Errante is Associate Professor Emerita of Voice at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she taught from 1997-2015, serving as the chair of the voice area from 2000-2015, teaching studio voice, lyric diction, vocal pedagogy, and directing the UWM Opera Theater. Dr. Errante holds a D.M.A. from The Eastman School of Music and served as Associate in Voice in the Community Education Division of that school. She has also taught at the University of Iowa (1996-97), the Folkwang Hochschule für Musik in Essen, Germany (1991-92), and at Northern Michigan University (1979-81). She began her European career in the Opern Studio of the Bayerisches Staatsoper, followed by several seasons as leading Coloratura soprano at the opera house in the city of Kiel, where she sang over 30 operatic roles. She has been a guest in opera and concert works throughout Germany, in Italy, Israel, and Estonia, as well as her home-town of Rochester, New York, in Detroit, Dayton, Iowa City, and Washington, DC. She has sung with the Rochester Oratorio Society, the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, the Cedar Rapids Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded under the direction of Giuseppe Patané on Ariola/Eurodisc. A solo CD of both the Art Songs and the popular songs of fellow Rochesterian, the late Alec Wilder, which was issued on Albany Records in October 2000 to spendid reviews. A CD of American song, Songs of Love and Longing, recorded together with Jeffry Peterson was released in July 2008, also on Albany Records. As an author, she is represented by two articles and an edition of Selected Songs of the Munich School: 1870-1920, published by A-R Editions in 2010. Since her retirement in August 2015, she has lived in München where she is care-giver for her mentor and close friend, Rita Loving. She is a member of Hands Gallery, a cooperative for hand-made artistic goods. Her label Pudel Design features hand knitted and sewn articles (for people) but she will happily take on commissions for animals as well!

For more information about joining AAUPW or attending a future meeting, check out How to Join or contact our club president at: info@aaupw.de