Biography
Vivian Fine entered the world in Chicago in 1913 as a pianist and composer who displayed prodigious talent from an early age. A scholarship to the Chicago Musical College arrived when she was five. Her studies continued with Ruth Crawford Seeger, Djane Lavoie-Herz, and Adolf Weidig. After moving to New York in 1931, she worked on piano technique with Abby Whiteside and Roger Sessions.
Around 1935 Fine took positions as rehearsal pianist with New York dance troupes and soon began creating music for their performances. Ballet scores she supplied include “The Race for Life” for Doris Humphrey, “Opus 51” for Charles Weidman, “Tragic Exodus” and “They Too Are Exiles” for Hanya Holm, “Alcestis” for Martha Graham, and “My Son, My Enemy” for Jose Limon. Symphonic works encompass “Elegiac Song” and “Meeting for Equal Rights 1866.”
In 1938 she helped establish the American Composers Alliance and later served four years as its vice president beginning in 1961. One of her most recognized pieces, the 1978 opera The Women in the Garden, drew on writings by Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Isadora Duncan. Among her last projects was the 1994 multimedia opera The Memoirs of Uliana Rooney.
Election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters followed, along with a 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship. She taught composition at New York University, the Juilliard School of Music, the State University of New York at Potsdam, and Bennington College in Vermont. Vivian Fine died at age 86 on March 20, 2000, in Bennington, VT, after an automobile accident.
Vivian Fine-related releases are 20th Century Harpsichord, Vol. 2 - Barbara Harbach, and Fine: Concertante and Five Premiers - Chamber Works With Guitar.
Around 1935 Fine took positions as rehearsal pianist with New York dance troupes and soon began creating music for their performances. Ballet scores she supplied include “The Race for Life” for Doris Humphrey, “Opus 51” for Charles Weidman, “Tragic Exodus” and “They Too Are Exiles” for Hanya Holm, “Alcestis” for Martha Graham, and “My Son, My Enemy” for Jose Limon. Symphonic works encompass “Elegiac Song” and “Meeting for Equal Rights 1866.”
In 1938 she helped establish the American Composers Alliance and later served four years as its vice president beginning in 1961. One of her most recognized pieces, the 1978 opera The Women in the Garden, drew on writings by Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Isadora Duncan. Among her last projects was the 1994 multimedia opera The Memoirs of Uliana Rooney.
Election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters followed, along with a 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship. She taught composition at New York University, the Juilliard School of Music, the State University of New York at Potsdam, and Bennington College in Vermont. Vivian Fine died at age 86 on March 20, 2000, in Bennington, VT, after an automobile accident.
Vivian Fine-related releases are 20th Century Harpsichord, Vol. 2 - Barbara Harbach, and Fine: Concertante and Five Premiers - Chamber Works With Guitar.