Barbara Kolb Explained

Birth Name:Barbara Kolb
Birth Date:10 February 1939
Birth Place:Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Education:Hartt College of Music
Occupation:Composer

Barbara Kolb (born February 10, 1939) is an American composer. Her music uses sound masses and often creates vertical structures through simultaneous rhythmic or melodic units (motifs or figures). Kolb's musical style can be identified by her use of colorful textures, impressionistic touch, and atonal vocabulary, with influences stemming from literary and visual arts.

Life and music

Kolb was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She received her B.M. (cum laude, 1961) and M.M. degrees (1964) from the Hartt College of Music (now The Hartt School) at the University of Hartford, where she studied with Arnold Franchetti, Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller.[1] Following her graduation, Kolb relocated to Vienna, Austria, from 1966 to 1967 with a Fulbright Fellowship grant. She was the first female American composer to win the Rome Prize [Prix de Rome], in 1969.[2] From 1979 to 1982, Kolb served as the artistic director of contemporary music at the Third Street Music School Settlement, where she presented the "Music New to New York" concert series.[3] Additionally, she has had a teaching career teaching at Rhode Island College and at Eastman School of Music as a visiting professor in composition, as well as an association with The MacDowell Colony. A selection of Kolb's compositions were featured at the Kennedy Center, performed by the "Theatre Chamber Players" as part of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She has received multiple commissions from The Fromm Foundation at Harvard University.[4] However, Kolb was not only known as a composer; she was also proficient at the clarinet.[''[[Wikipedia:Citation needed|citation needed]]]

Her compositions include All in Good Time (1993), commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, and Voyants (1991), a concerto for piano and chamber orchestra dedicated to the memory of Aaron Copland. Voyants was most recently performed by Kathleen Supové with the Rhode Island College Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Edward Markward on October 16, 2006, in Providence, RI. Discs devoted solely to Kolb's music have been released to the general public by CRI and New World Records. Her orchestral composition All in Good Time was recorded by the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Carlos Kalmar, along with works by John Corigliano, Aaron Jay Kernis, John Harbison and Michael Hersch on a CD released by Cedille Records in the summer of 2006. Her music is published exclusively by Boosey and Hawkes.

Selected compositions

Discography

All Barbara Kolb discs

Others

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. limited. 2001. Amadeus Press. 224.
  2. Web site: Barbara Kolb - Artist . 2024-07-10 . The MacDowell Colony Artist Fellows Database . en.
  3. Web site: "Barbara Kolb" . 2024-07-10 . New Music USA Online Library.
  4. Web site: Barbara Kolb . 2024-07-10 . Fromm Music Foundation Commissions Database . en.