Eleanor Alberga

Eleanor Alberga (born 1949) is a Jamaican contemporary music composer.

Life

Eleanor Alberga was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She decided at the age of five to be a concert pianist and began composing short pieces. She studied music at Jamaica School of Music and in 1970 she won the biennial West Indian Associated Board Scholarship which allowed her to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After completing her studies, she performed as a concert pianist. In 2001 she ended her career as concert pianist to concentrate full-time on composition and was awarded a NESTA Fellowship.[1]

Alberga works as a guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has been pianist and Music Director for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and a member of the Jamaican Folk Singers and an African dance company. Her music has been performed by the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players and The Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco, and in countries including Australia, South America, Canada, Europe and China.[2]

She married violinist Thomas Bowes in 1992[3] and performs with him in a duo called Double Exposure.[4]

Works

Selected works include:

Opera:

  • Letters of a Love Betrayed

Orchestra:

  • Roald Dahl's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
  • Violin Concerto (dedicated to Thomas Bowes)
  • Mythologies

Chamber Orchestra:

  • Sun Warrior
  • Chamber ensemble version of Roald Dahl's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Chamber Music/Ensemble:

  • Nightscape (The Horniman Serenade)
  • Animal Banter
  • Dancing with the Shadow
  • String Quartet No. 1
  • String Quartet No. 2
  • Glinting Glancing Shards
  • Remember
  • Clouds
  • On a Bat's Back I do Fly
  • Suite from Dancing with the Shadow
  • String Quartet No. 3

Solos/Duos:

  • Resolution
  • Duo from Dancing with the Shadow
  • The Wild Blue Yonder
  • No-Man's Land Lullaby

Piano Solos:

  • Jamaican Medley
  • Ice Flow
  • Only a Wish Away
  • Fizz
  • If The Silver Bird Could Speak

Piano, 2 to 6 players:

  • 3-Day Mix
  • Two-Piano Suite
  • Hill & Gully Ride
  • Chasm

Vocal: Chamber Pieces

  • Her Lament: One Cezanne Apple

Vocal: Choral

  • De Profundis
  • My Heart Danceth

References

  1. ↑ Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994). "The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers" (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Eleanor Alberga" (PDF). Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  3. ↑ Pasles, Chris. "Double Exposure Marries Careers". LA Times. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "Eleanor Alberga (b. 1949) Jamaican Composer & Pianist". Retrieved 11 October 2010.
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