Biography
American modern composer Lois V. Vierk has spent most of her career in New York City, where her projects have included work with choreographer Anita Feldman. Born in 1951 near Chicago, she pursued higher education in California and trained with Morton Subotnick and Leonard Stein. Her focus later shifted to gagaku, the court music of Japan, which she studied intensively for twelve years, beginning in Los Angeles before continuing in Tokyo under Sukeyasu Shiba, principal flutist of the Imperial Court Orchestra. The measured, accumulating structures that characterize many of her pieces reflect this extended engagement with gagaku. In 1996 she completed the gagaku composition “Silversword,” written for an ensemble directed by her former instructor Shiba; its first performance took place at Lincoln Center in New York. Vierk’s music gained wider attention during the 1980s, after which she earned commissions from pianists Aki Takahashi and Frederic Rzewski as well as accordionist Guy Klucevsek. Her scores have been presented by groups such as Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and Relâche at festivals across Europe and North America. Recordings of her work have appeared on the CRI, O.O. Discs, Tzadik, XI, and Sony labels.