Introduction
While on her 80th birthday year tour, composer Joan Tower-‒-Bard LLI’s most heralded presenter—has been awarded the Gold Baton Award for 2019 by the League of American Orchestras.
Ms. Tower, who lives in Red Hook, is well-known to LLI music aficionados for her engaging classes that, with students of the Bard Conservatory, she has led since 2011.
Historic Prize
The Gold Baton recognizes individuals and institutions from the United States for their contributions to the world of symphonic music. Ms. Tower joins the ranks of honorees such as Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonard Bernstein, Beverly Sills, and John Williams, a few of the recipients during the prize’s 70-year history. She will receive her award at the 74th League of American Orchestras National Conference, in Nashville, in June.
Engaging Teacher
At Bard, she has introduced and entranced hundreds of LLI members to in-depth and provocative examinations of a broad range of musical genres and composers from the worlds of classical, romantic, jazz, baroque….or just what she was able to find that day, says class producer Bob Blacker. She’s also led a course on conducting. Following a brief introduction and then a live performance, she leads stimulating Q&As with performers, students, and LLI members.
Bard Hall has been an ideal performance space, where classes average about 60 participants.
Member Appreciation
Joan always enlightens the class with her wisdom and knowledge of musical intricacies, wrote one LLI member following last spring’s course on Creating and Playing Music.
I especially appreciated the variety of musicians that Joan recruited—composers, performers; classical, jazz, modern, strings, keyboard, percussion, winds, brass, wrote another.
This course is such an extraordinary opportunity for us to interact with so many of the ultra-talented student musicians, in addition to Joan Tower herself.
Extraordinary! Joan Tower is accessible, intelligent, talented and relaxed.
Mastering Musical Challenges
Call me Joan, Bob Blacker recalls her response when he asked how one should address the maestra whom the New Yorker called one of the most successful women composers of all time. Her compositions have been performed around the world.
Her modesty was on full display in a November 2018 New York Times interview. She recalled that she spent 40 years trying to create a piece that wasn’t a disaster, which was her description of her first work written while a student at Bennington College. She said it took many years for her confidence to grow and that she continues to test her abilities with each work: My goal is to keep learning she told the Times. It’s all in the risks.
She's Got Rhythm
She grew up in Bolivia where she became fascinated with percussion and dance. My music is basically about rhythm, she told the Times. She also married a jazz musician. A pianist as well, she founded the Da Capo Chamber players in 1969, and three years later joined the faculty of Bard where she is now the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Music.
Her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), was a tone poem that depicts a giant tree. Among her most noted compositions was the 2004 symphonic poem Made in America, which was performed in every state and earned three Grammy Awards for a recorded performance by the Nashville Symphony.
Encouraging Others
She is a strong advocate for women in the field of music, in order to remedy the paucity of women in the infrastructure, she says. Her five part Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1987-1993) is dedicated to women who are adventuresome and take risks. And it’s clear from her LLI contribution that motivating both youth and the more advanced in age are also core to her life’s work.
We come in, listen to wonderful music, listen to the enthusiastic students talk of their plans and experience, commented another LLI member. What else is there to say about a class like that?
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