website: elizabethvercoe.com
publications:
Arsis Press
Noteworthy Sheet Music
Certosa Verlag
recordings:
Navona Records (all Vercoe)
MSR Classics (MS 1421)
Capstone Records (CPS-8613)
Centaur Records (CRS-2273)
Centaur Records (CRS-2663)
Leonarda Records (LE-338)
Starkland Recordings (Owl-35)
Capstone Records (CPS-8806)
"Her music possesses power and strength as well as great warmth and imagination." (Gardner Read)
"...one of the most inventive composers working in America today." (Washington Post)
In recent years Dr. Vercoe has been a composer at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, the Cité International des Arts in Paris, and the St. Petersburg Spring Music Festival in Russia. In 2009 she attended concerts of her music in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand. In 2003 she held the Acuff Chair of Excellence at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. She has written works on commission for the Pro Arte Orchestra, Wellesley College, the MTNA, and Austin Peay State University and has received grants from the Artists Foundation, the Massachusetts Council for the Arts, NEA, and Meet the Composer.
She has collaborated with soloists and ensembles on performances in London, Paris, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Bangkok, Australia, and New Zealand, including international festivals in Russia and Alaska and collaborative concerts of music and dance with the Beth Soll Dance Company.
A native of Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, she earned a doctorate in composition at Boston University where she studied with the late Gardner Read. She teaches at Regis College and divides her time between Maine and Massachusetts. Her music is recorded on Owl, Capstone, Leonarda, Centaur and Navona compact discs, and is published by Arsis Press, Noteworthy Sheet Music, and Certosa Verlag (Germany).
Elizabeth Vercoe's principal works include the Herstory series of vocal works on texts by women, two staged monodramas, Despite our differences #2 for piano and chamber orchestra and Changes: A little music for Mozart for chamber orchestra.
Selected Works:
Orchestra
Changes for orchestra (1991) Composer Facsimile Edition, 10 min.
Despite our differences #2 for piano & chamber orchestra (1988) 10 min.
Rhapsody for violin and orchestra (1977) 13 min.
Ensemble
A la fin-tout seul for mandolin and optional piano (1985) Plucked String Editions, 7 min., CD (pending release)
Butterfly Effects for flute & harp (2009) 16 min.
Butterfly Effects, rev. for oboe & harp (2010) 13 min.
Despite our differences #1 for violin, cello & piano (1984) 13 min.
Elegy for viola & piano (1989) 8 min.
Fantavia for flute & percussion (1982) Centaur CD, 10 min. [on N. American bird calls]
Five Inventions for horn and piano (2005) 6 minutes
Four Humors for clarinet & piano (1992) Centaur CD,12 min.
Kleemation for flute and piano (2003) 14 min. [on 5 drawings by Paul Klee]
Umbrian Suite for piano 4-hands (1999) 14 min.
Vocal
A Dangerous Man for baritone & piano (1990) 35 min. [monodrama on abolitionist John Brown]
Five True Remarkable Occurrences for soprano or mezzo & guitar (2008) 8 min.
Herstory I for soprano, piano & vibraphone (1975) 20 min. [on texts by American women poets]
Herstory II: 13 Japanese Lyrics for sop, piano & perc (1979) Arsis Press & Capstone CD, 19 min.
Herstory III: Jehanne de Lorraine for mezzo or soprano & piano (1986) Arsis Press & Owl CD, 25 min.
Herstory IV for mezzo or soprano & mandolin or marimba (1997) 12 min.
Irreveries from Sappho for mezzo or soprano & piano or for SSA & piano (1981) Arsis Press & Capstone CD, 7 min.
Varieties of Amorous Experience for soprano & piano (1994) 15 min.
Solo
Corollaries for solo horn (2007) 6 min.
Fantasy for piano (1975) Arsis Press & Capstone CD, 10 min.
Parodia sopra 'Lasciate mi morire' for harp (1984) 13 min.
Sonaria for unaccompanied cello (1980) Arsis Press, 9 min.
Suite francaise for violin (1983) 10 min.
Three Studies for piano (1973) Arsis Press, 3 minutes [easy to intermediate students]
To Music for flute (2003) Capstone CD, 5 min.