Emma Lou Diemer

Dr. Cynthia Perry Jones, Chair of the Department of Music and Professor of Piano at Montevallo (AL) University, is performing and recording the complete piano works of Emma Lou Diemer. Dr. Jones has a DMA in piano performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Jennifer Morgan Flory, Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, GA, completed her doctoral dissertation in 2005 on the choral/orchestral works of Emma Lou Diemer. Her DMA in choral conducting is from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (OH).

Premieres

Requiem for Woodwind Quintet and String Quintet was introduced in April 2005 on the 25th anniversary concert of North/South Consonance, conducted by Max Lifchitz, Christ and St. Stephen’s Church, New York, NY. Joan DeVee Dixon premiered Psalms for Piano in April at the Rising Phoenix Retreat Center in Western Maryland; Dixon also introduced the organ work Fantasy and Faith at Oxford in August at Oxford Town Hall, Oxford, England, U.K. Consider the Lilies for choir and organ was heard in a May performance conducted by Constance Speake, St. Peter Community Church, Northbrook, IL. The Calvin College Alumni Choir, under the direction of Pearl Shangkuan, and organist Larry Viser gave the premiere of Psalm 63 for chorus, congregation, and organ, at the American Guild of Organists Region V Convention, Grand Rapids, MI, in June. Songs for the Earth (texts by Emily Dickinson, Omar Kháyyám, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Hildegard von Bingen, Mary Oliver) was first heard in an August performance by the San Francisco Choral Society and Orchestra, led by Robert Geary, in Davies Hall, San Francisco.

Performances

Before Spring was performed by violinist Laura Kobayashi and pianist Susan Keith Gray in April 2005, at the Music Teachers National Association National Conference, Seattle, WA. There Is a Morn Unseen was heard in a May performance by the Calliope Women’s Chorus and Minnesota Center Chorale and Orchestra, conducted by Michele Edwards, St. Cloud, MN. The St. Catherine Choral Society and Orchestra, under the direction of Patricia Cahalan Connors, presented To Come So in May at the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN. The Esoterics Vocal Ensemble, led by Erick Banks, performed Verses from The Rubaiyat in October, Seattle, WA. Homage to Poulenc, Mozart, and MacDowell was presented in October by flutist Suzanne Duffy and cellist Geoffrey Rutkowski, with the composer at the piano, for Santa Barbara (CA) Music Club, Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara.

Publications

Consider the Lilies, chorus and keyboard; MorningStar Music Publishers. Fantasy and Faith at Oxford, organ; Dixon Broyles Productions. In Frauen Komponieren (Female Composers): Fiesta, organ; Schott. Holidays, piano; National Music Publishers/Emerson Music. Celebrate the Journey, The Hymns of Emma Lou Diemer; United in Love: New Solos for Weddings: Wedding Song, voice and keyboard; both from Zimbel Press.

Recordings

O Viridissima Virga, Peninsula Women’s Chorus, Patricia Hennings, conductor; DJ Records. Piano Works: “Seven Etudes,” “Seven Pieces for Marilyn,” “Fantasy, Sonata No.3,” Cynthia Perry Jones; Albany Records. An Emily Dickinson Suite, Cappella Clausura, Amelia LeClair, conductor.

Further Information

• 2003-2004 American Composers Update
• 2002-2003 American Composers Update
• 2001-2002 American Composers Update
• 2000-2001 American Composers Update
• 1999-2000 American Composers Update
• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1997-1998 American Composers Update
• 1996-1997 American Composers Update
• SAI's Composers Bureau Online
• SAI's Music for Young People section