Betsy Jolas

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Elizabeth Jolas
Betsy 004.jpg
Betsy Jolas in 2006
Born5 August 1926 (1926-08-05) (age 98)
Paris, France
NationalityFranco-American
OccupationComposer

Elizabeth Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a Franco-American composer.

Contents

Biography

Jolas was born in Paris in 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, also studied singing. Together with Betsy's father, the poet and journalist Eugene Jolas, she founded and edited the magazine transition , [1] [2] which published over ten years most of the great names of the interwar period.

Her family settled in the United States in late 1940. While completing her general studies in New York, then specializing in music at Bennington College, she joined the Dessoff Choirs, thus discovering notably Renaissance music which was to have a lasting influence on her work. [3]

After graduating from Bennington College, Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, notably with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. From 1971 to 1974 she served as Messiaen's assistant at the Conservatoire and was appointed herself to the faculty in 1975. She has since then also taught in the United States, at Yale, Harvard, Mills College (D. Milhaud chair), the University of California (campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego), Tanglewood, and the University of Michigan. [4]

Jolas is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995). [4]

Her numerous works (she has been composing steadily since 1945) are written for a great variety of combinations and have been widely performed internationally by artists such as Kent Nagano, Anssi Karttunen, Claude Delangle, William Christie, Håkan Hardenberger, Antoine Tamestit, Nicolas Hodges, and Sir Simon Rattle, and leading ensembles and orchestras including the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Among Jolas's notable students is the composer Robert Carl. [5]

Style

Descriptions of Jolas’s individual style note her early experience of 16th-century polyphonic vocal music of Western Europe (in particular, the works of Orlando di Lasso), continual exploration of vocality encompassing both vocal and instrumental works, and pursuit of a flexible but steady flow free from the conventional stresses of metric pulse. [3] [6] [7] Though drawn to some aesthetic aspects of the serialism of close contemporary Pierre Boulez and others, Jolas has steadfastly remained an independent figure who never adopted serial technique. [3] [7]

Personal life

Jolas married the physician Gabriel Illouz in 1949; the pair had three children. She retains dual U.S./French citizenship. [8]

List of major works

Operas

Orchestral

Solo works with orchestra or ensemble

Works for large ensemble

Chamber music

Chorus

Vocal

Honors

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References

  1. McDowell, Edwin (7 March 1987). "Maria Jolas, 94, A translator and Paris Magazine Founder". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. "Eugene and Maria Jolas Papers, GEN MSS 108". General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
  3. 1 2 3 Jeremy Thurlow, "Jolas, Betsy", Grove Music Online , accessed 24 July 2017.
  4. 1 2 ""Berlin Prize Fellow – Class of Fall 2000", American Academy in Berlin
  5. Biography, Robert Carl
  6. "Jolas Betsy". Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine. 17 February 2010.
  7. 1 2 Ramaut, Alban. "Betsy Jolas : œuvre". IRCAM.
  8. "Betsy Jolas Papers, MSS 106". Gilmore Music Library. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  9. "Betsy Jolas (biography, works, resources)" (in French and English). IRCAM.
  10. "Music Sales"
  11. "BBC Proms 2022: Premieres and performances". Wise Music Classical. 26 April 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.

Bibliography