Anyone who knows me knows I love Gloria Coates.
Ever since I started writing about her and listening to her music I knew that here was an important American composer whose work was being sorely neglected in this country (I now hear the screams from folks with laundry lists of neglected composers…I feel your pain, really I do).
Gloria lives in Munich and travels to the states very rarely, which is unfortunate and undoubtedly contributes to the general dearth of US performances of her work. But why should a composer have to be on premises to get performances of their work? Another subject, for another blog, or for my friend Frank Oteri at NewMusicBox.com.
Since this is my first post, I’ll keep it short. Naxos has a great catalog of Gloria’s work on their American Classic series, including two discs of string quartets (Naxos 8.559091 & 8.559152); and Symphonies Nos. 1, 7, & 14 (Naxos 8.559371). And, yes, I do work for Naxos–so let’s get that bit on the table (this is, after all, the “Naxos Blog”). Needless to say, I’m very excited about the upcoming December release of her Symphony No. 15 “Homage to Mozart” on Naxos American Classics (8.559371). Kyle Gann has written the liner notes for this release, which as always are wonderful. The disc also features her Cantata da Requiem, originally entitled Voices of Women in Wartime (1971-2), and Transitions (1984), a work which she later expanded to her Symphony No. 4, Chiaroscuro.
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