Emma Lou Diemer

Emma Lou Diemer (born November 24, 1927 [ [http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1927/november_24_1927_87106.html Emma Lou Diemer, composer November 24 in History ] ] in Kansas City, Missouri [ [http://www.voxnovus.com/composer/Emma_Lou_Diemer.htm Emma Lou Diemer ] ] ) is an American composer.

Biography

She received both her B.M. and her M.M from the Yale School of Music in 1949 and 1950, respectively. She then went on to study composition in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship from 1952 to 1953, ultimately returning to the United States to receive her Ph.D from the Eastman School of Music in 1960 [ [http://www.tritone-tenuto.com/diemer.htm Emma Lou Diemer - Gemini Press ] ] . Diemer has written many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus (women's, men's), electronic media. She was professor of theory and composition at the University of Maryland 1965-70, and joined the faculty of the University of California in 1971. She is professor emeritus, 1991-present. While at UCSB she helped to establish the computer/electronic music program. She was composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony 1990-92. The symhony premiered 4 of her works: Concerto for Piano in One Movement (which received a Kennedy Center Friedheim award in 1992), Santa Barbara Overture, Homage to Tchaikovsky, Chumash Dance Celebration. It also performed her Concerto for Marimba in One Movement, which was commissioned by the Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco. Other notable works: SONGS FOR THE EARTH, commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society, performed in Davies Hall, 2005. The work is for chorus and orchestra, with texts by Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Omar Khayyam, and Hildegard von Bingen; MASS for chorus, 2 pianos, percussion. Almost all of Diemer's works are published. She has received awards from the Eastman School of Music, Yale School of Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP (annually since 1962), the American Guild of Organists (1995 Composer of the Year), Mu Phi Epsilon, and received an honorary doctorate in 1999 from the University of Central Missouri.

Diemer is a keyboard performer and over the years has given concerts of her own organ works at Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and others. Her publications include many collections and single works for organ as well as many for solo piano, piano 4 hands, and two pianos. Her major chamber works include a piano quartet, string quartet, piano trio, and sonatas and suites for flute, violin, cello, and piano as well as settings of the psalms for trumpet and organ, trombone and organ, percussion and organ, flute and organ. Her choral works are numerous, with many for mixed chorus and a number for women's chorus and men's chorus. She has written several hymns, several of which appear in church hymnals. Her songs number in the dozens, using texts by many contemporary and early poets including Walt Whitman, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, Alice Meynell, Thomas Campion, Shakespeare, John Donne, her sister Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Emily Dickinson, Robert Lowell, and many others.She may be contacted by email.

External links

* [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/pa/pamss41.html Emma Lou Diemer papers] , at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.