Annual American Composers Update

Sondra Clark

Sondra Clark, retired from university teaching and music criticism, works out of her home studio. In the 1997 California Composers Today State Contest, she won first prize in the One Piano, Four Hands Teachers Category, for Two Scenes from New Orleans; and second prize in the Professional Composers Category for The Coming of Light.

Premieres

In 1996 Requiem for Lost Children was introduced by The San Jose Symphonic Choir and Orchestra and the Cantabile Children's Choir, conducted by Leroy Kromm, with mezzo-soprano Helene Joseph-Weil, tenor Neil Rogers, and baritone William Neeley, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, San Jose (Nov. 8) and at the United Methodist Church, Los Altos, CA (Nov. 9), benefiting the Kevin Collins Foundation for Missing Children. In 1997 premieres at the Palo Alto (CA) Cultural Center included Two Scenes from New Orleans, with duo-pianists Marsha Rocklin and the composer (Apr. 27); and Four Homages to American Composers, with the Onyx String Quartet (May 31).

Performances

A program at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, included Summmer Lake, with SAI's Kathleen Purcell, flute; Sue Larson, cello; Evangelina Estrada, vibraphone; and Clark, piano, Mar. 16, 1997. Clark played Four Miniature Homages, May 30, 1997, at the International Alliance for Women in Music's Congress in Los Angeles. At the Centennial Convention of the California Music Teachers Association, held at the Sheraton Palace in San Francisco, Kathleen Nitz, Kristina Anderson, and Clark presented The Coming of Light, for soprano, violin, and piano, July 7, 1997. A Palo Alto Cultural Center event featured Two Scenes from New Orleans, with Debra Tucker, flute; Michael Kimball, clarinet; John Beeman, bass viol; and Jeana Ogren, piano, Nov. 15, 1997.

Publications

Three Scenes from New Orleans, piano, four-hands; Neil A. Kjos Music Co.

Further Information

For more complete information, see Sondra Clark's entry in our Composers Bureau Online.