Biography
Judith Shatin Allen stands out as a versatile composer whose command extends across numerous musical styles. She earned Phi Beta Kappa honors upon completing her studies at Douglass College, later obtaining an M.M. from Julliard School and a PhD from Princeton. Her recognitions include two NEA Composer Fellowships, a Chamber Opera Commission awarded by the Ash Lawn Summer Festival, a New Jersey State Arts Council Grant, and further honors from both "Meet the Composer" and the American Music Center.
Ensembles that have presented her music encompass the Houston Symphony, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Contemporary Music Forum, the E.A.R. Ensemble, and the Sylvan and Clarion Wind Quintets. Icarus for Violin and Piano received a hearing at the National Gallery's American Music Festival in Washington, D.C., while Glyph for Viola, String Quartet And Piano was introduced at the 13th International Viola Congress in Boston.
Composed in 1981 with support from an NEA Composer Fellowship, Aura for Orchestra reached its premiere the following year through the Charlottesville University and Community Orchestra. The Richmond Symphony, led by Jacques Houtmann, subsequently performed and recorded the piece in 1985; that recording remains obtainable on vinyl through Opus One Records.
Running just under twenty minutes, this large-scale orchestral work draws its core material from a tone-row selected for whole-tone properties. The composer notes, "The surface of the piece focuses on small subgroups from the underlying row, with a resultant tonal quality; "Aura" also refers to traditional form in its dramatic use of transposed recurrent themes which reach a state of resolution at its close." The score maintains a post-romantic character alongside tonally flexible liberty, deploying orchestral colors that evoke the mystical "Aura" enveloping blocks or, more frequently, clouds of sonic material. As Ms. Allen has observed of the composition, "Just as every verbal utterance has its own tone of voice, its affective extension, so does every sound. It is this ineffable extra that "Aura" celebrates." ~ Philip Krumm
Ensembles that have presented her music encompass the Houston Symphony, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Contemporary Music Forum, the E.A.R. Ensemble, and the Sylvan and Clarion Wind Quintets. Icarus for Violin and Piano received a hearing at the National Gallery's American Music Festival in Washington, D.C., while Glyph for Viola, String Quartet And Piano was introduced at the 13th International Viola Congress in Boston.
Composed in 1981 with support from an NEA Composer Fellowship, Aura for Orchestra reached its premiere the following year through the Charlottesville University and Community Orchestra. The Richmond Symphony, led by Jacques Houtmann, subsequently performed and recorded the piece in 1985; that recording remains obtainable on vinyl through Opus One Records.
Running just under twenty minutes, this large-scale orchestral work draws its core material from a tone-row selected for whole-tone properties. The composer notes, "The surface of the piece focuses on small subgroups from the underlying row, with a resultant tonal quality; "Aura" also refers to traditional form in its dramatic use of transposed recurrent themes which reach a state of resolution at its close." The score maintains a post-romantic character alongside tonally flexible liberty, deploying orchestral colors that evoke the mystical "Aura" enveloping blocks or, more frequently, clouds of sonic material. As Ms. Allen has observed of the composition, "Just as every verbal utterance has its own tone of voice, its affective extension, so does every sound. It is this ineffable extra that "Aura" celebrates." ~ Philip Krumm
Albums