Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season May-June 2016 | Page 15

B er n i e Mi n di ch

DOWNTOWN

BALTIMORE

Joan Tower

conductor and educator. Her works have
been commissioned by major ensembles,
soloists and orchestras.
In 1990, Ms. Tower was the first woman
to win the Grawemeyer Award for Silver
Ladders, a piece she wrote for the St. Louis
Symphony where she was composer-inresidence from 1985-1988. She was the
first composer chosen for a Ford Made in
America consortium commission of 65
orchestras. The Nashville Symphony and
conductor Leonard Slatkin recorded the
result, Made in America, along with Tambor and Concerto for Orchestra for the
Naxos label; the recording won three 2008
Grammy awards, including best classical
album. Nashville’s latest all-Tower recording includes Stroke, which received a 2016
Grammy nomination for best contemporary classical composition. 
Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
was commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop to help celebrate
its centennial season as part of the Eric
Daniels Helms New Music program.
This short work is the sixth in a series
of fanfares written for "uncommon"
women who are adventurous and take
risks. The first five were commissioned by
the Houston Symphony, Absolut Vodka,
Carnegie Hall, the Kansas Symphony and
the Aspen Music Festival and dedicated to
strong leaders and pioneers in the music
world including conductors Marin Alsop
and JoAnn Falletta, former ASCAP Executive Frances Richards, philanthropist Joan
Harris and former St. Louis Symphony
Executive Joan Briccetti.
This work has yet to find a visionary
dedicatee.

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Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two
oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
two trumpets, three trombones, timpani,
percussion, piano, and strings.

May–June 2016 |

O v ertur e

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