Libby Larsen

Synopsis

Today marks birthday of the American composer Libby Larsen. In 1973, while a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, she and fellow composer Stephen Paulus founded The Minnesota Composers Forum– originally as a means to get their own music performed on and off campus.

In a 1988 interview, Larsen said: "When I got my Ph.D. in 1978, I looked around and saw that there were certain paths that I could take, as a composer, to be happy. One was to teach at a university, another was to write music for performance. I chose to write music, to try not teaching for a while, and see where that led me."

Larsen's path led to the creation of well over 400 vocal and instrumental works, from songs to large-scale symphonic and operatic scores, residencies with several symphony orchestras, and even a prestigious post at the Library of Congress. Ironically, while never taking a teaching post, Larsen has become very much in demand as a popular visiting lecturer at colleges and universities!

"The path that led me to become a composer was a series of lucky self-discoveries," says Larsen, "No one ever encouraged me to be a composer, but I've always had the desire to tell everybody what I see and what I feel. To do that through music seemed to me the most elegant and most deeply communicative way."

Oh, and that organization Larsen and Paulus founded back in 1973 is still around, renamed The AMERICAN Composers Forum.

Music Played in Today's Program

Libby Larsen (b. 1950) Symphony: Water Music Minnesota Orchestra; Sir Neville Marriner Nonesuch 79147

On This Day

Births

• 1879 - Russian composer and pianist Nicolai Medtner (see Jan. 5, 1880);

• 1881 - American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman, in Johnstown, Pa.;

• 1950 - American composer Libby Larsen, in Wilmington, Del.;

Deaths

• 1453 - English composer John Dunstable, age c. 65, in London;

• 1935 - Austrian composer Alban Berg, age 50, in Vienna;

• 1975 - American composer and conductor Bernard Herrmann, age 64, in Los Angeles, after completing the filmscore for Scorsese's "Taxi Driver";

Premieres

• 1739 - Handel: revival performance of oratorio "Acis and Galetea" (Julian date: Dec. 13);

• 1871 - Verdi: opera "Aida" in Cairo, Egypt, at the Khedival Theater;

• 1951 - Menotti: opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" as a TV broadcast on the NBC network; According to Opera America magazine, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade;

Others

• 1920 - Last operatic appearance ever of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, in an evening performance of Halevy's "La Juive" (The Jewess) at the old Metropolitan Opera in New York City; Caruso would die in Naples (where he made his operatic debut on March 15, 1895) at the age of 48 on August 2, 1921;