THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180098
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
1928: Thea Musgrave is born in Edinburgh. She attends Edinburgh University, after which she studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, teacher of composers from Aaron Copland to Philip Glass.
1955: Musgrave's ``Cantata for a Summer's Day'' premieres at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. She completes her first opera, ``The Abbot of Drimock.''
1967: Musgrave's second opera, ``The Decision,'' premieres in London.
1973: Musgrave conducts the premiere of her chamber opera ``The Voice of Ariadne,'' based on Henry James' work. Peter Mark is the soloist for the premiere of the Viola Concerto in London, and later plays the work in Manchester, Scotland and Pasadena, Calif.
1975: Mark is hired to direct the fledgling Virginia Opera.
1977: ``Mary, Queen of Scots,'' the composer's own libretto, premieres at Scotland's Edinburgh Festival. Musgrave conducts ``The Voice of Ariadne'' at New York City Opera.
1978: Virginia Opera gives the American premiere of ``Mary.'' The company's recording has been preserved on compact disk.
1979: Virginia Opera premieres and records ``A Christmas Carol.''
1981: The chamber opera ``An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'' (after Ambrose Bierce) and the orchestral work ``Peripeteia'' premiere in London. ``A Christmas Carol'' is produced in London, Australia and twice in the United States.
1984: Musgrave completes ``Harriet, The Woman Called Moses.'' It is produced the following year in Norfolk and London.
1986: Musgrave begins work on ``Simon Bolivar.''
1987: Musgrave composes ``Narcissus'' for flute or clarinet and digital echo system. It is subsequently performed in Hampton Roads by clarinetist F. Gerard Errante.
1988: Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra premiere ``The Seasons.''
1992-1993: Musgrave completes the orchestral score of ``Bolivar,'' working during Virginia Opera's South American tour of ``Porgy and Bess.''
1994: Musgrave is the featured composer at England's Cheltenham Festival. A bass clarinet concerto (``Autumn Sonata''), marimba and wind orchestra concerto (``Journey Through A Japanese Landscape'') and unaccompanied choral work (``On the Underground, Set No. 1'') receive their world premieres.
1995: ``Simon Bolivar'' premieres in Norfolk, with a second production (in German) following in Regensburg, Germany in March. The Concerto for Oboe (in progress) is scheduled to premiere at the St. Magnus Festival in Scotland's Orkney Islands. Musgrave says she has two to three years of commissions to fulfill. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Thea Musgrave, center, rehearses with Cynthia Haymon and Ben Holt
for the 1984 Norfolk premiere of ``Harriet, the Woman Called
Moses.''
by CNB