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Laura
Clayton, composer, Hancock
Laura
Clayton (b. in Lexington, Kentucky) began compositional studies
with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School in 1968. Having
studied piano through her college years, she came to seriously
composing in her early twenties when Gunther Schuller became
the new president of the New England Conservatory (NEC). After
receiving a Master of Music Degree in Composition from NEC,
she traveled to Brazil where she lived, worked, and collaborated
with a group of musicians. She created two prize-winning works
while there. When she returned to this country, she continued
her studies at the University of Michigan where she received
her Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree in 1986.
In 1980,
Clayton was one of two composers whose works were chosen to
represent the United States at the International Rostrum of
Compsers/UNESCO. That same year, she received the Charles
Ives Award given by the American Academy and Institute of
Arts and Letters. She has been a MacDowell Fellow; the Walter
B. Hinrichsen Publishing Award, grants from the Jerome Foundation,
University of Michigan, the Alice M. Ditson Fund and the Guggenheim
Foundation. The American Composers Orchestra commissioned
Terra Lucida, premiered in Carnegie Hall in 1988. Subsequently,
it was included in a special radio series that was broacast
on American Public Radio in 1992. A new composition, O Train
Azul, for solo classical guitar, was recently commissioned
by another Fellowship recipient, Christopher Kane.
The
Fellowship Award will allow Laura Clayton to begin a new chamber
work for soprano and guitar which she hopes to submit to the
Aspen Music Festival. As part of her "report to the New
Hampshire Community," she would give informal talks on
the challenge and process of creating this new work at the
Concord Community Music School.
back
to 2001 fellows page
Last
updated:
March 31, 2008
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