ES on Music Theory Print

Esa Pietilä

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esa Pietilä is a Finnish saxophonist and composer (b. 1964) who works diversely on the field of contemporary music. He studied saxophone and composition in Sibelius- Academy jazz department in Helsinki and privately in US with David Liebman. In his home country, the Yrjö Jazz award 2016 was given to him for his original, genre-defying work in the field of avant-garde jazz. Career Esa Pietilä started his career as a jazz musician and later on has expanded his expression to many different musical genres. He has performed with his jazz groups e.g. Liberty Ship, Esa Pietilä 3, with his duo collaborations with contemporary classical & new music chamber musicians, as soloist for chamber orchestras, other larger ensembles and performing totally free improvisations at his solo concerts. Pietilä has worked e.g. with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Ville Matvejeff, Tibor Boganyi, Hossein Piskar, Jan Söderblom and Erkki Lasonpalo, with Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. Pietilä has premiered the saxophone concerto of Kalevi Aho, Eero Hämeenniemi and Pietilä´s concerto “Graffiti Play” for chamber orchestra & contemporary jazz trio and Pulses, Waves & Dialoques for tenor saxophone

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the principal conductor designate of Orchestre de Paris and creative director designate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is also conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 2020 to 2025. Life and career Early work Born in Helsinki, Finland, Salonen graduated from Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu (SYK), one of the top high schools in Finland, in 1977 and then went to study horn and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, as well as conducting with Jorma Panula. His conducting classmates included Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Osmo Vänskä. Another classmate on the composition side was the composer Magnus Lindberg and together they formed the new-music appreciation group Korvat auki (“Ears open” in the Finnish language) and the experimental ensemble Toimii (lit. “It works”). Later, Salonen studied with the composers Franco Donatoni, Niccolò Castiglioni, and Einojuhani Rautavaara. His first experience with conducting came in 1979 with the Finnish Radio Symphony

Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh (; born 15 March 1941 in Tehran) is an Iranian pioneer film composer, songwriter, and filmmaker. He is recognized for his contribution to film and pop music in Iran. His major works include Qeysar, Toughi, Dash Akol, Tangna, The Deers (Gavaznhā). Career Early years He started his career early in his teens as percussionist and accordionist in the National Iranian Radio Children’s Program. In 1958, he joined the Youth Orchestra of National Iranian Radio as contrabassist where shortly after he would be trusted with all the music arrangement and the conductor duties. Cinema From his early ages, he was fascinated by cinema and filmmaking. This was the dream which he and his lifelong friend Masoud Kimiai (Iranian film director, screenwriter, and producer) shared. Finally, in 1967, when Masoud Kimiai got a chance to direct his first film (Come Stranger, 196, Monfaredzadeh composed the score. However, it was their second collaboration (Qeysar, 1969) that made history. Months before Qeysar was released, he had left Iran to continue his studies in Germany where he had the opportunity to be acquainted with the Confederation of Iranian Students which helped him to resha

Eskil Hemberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Eskil Hemberg ( – ) was a Swedish composer and conductor. He held positions including CEO and artistic director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, as well as president of the International Federation for Choral Music. Life and career Hemberg studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm where he received a Music Teacher’s degree in 1961, a higher cantor’s degree in 1961, and a higher organist’s degree in 1964. Together with Herbert Blomstedt he also conducted the orchestra at the Royal College of Music during this period. Hemberg became an executive producer for the Swedish Radio’s choir, from 1963 until 1970. From 1970 to 1983 he was the planning manager and director of foreign relation at the National Institute of Concerts, and from 1984 to 1987 the general manager and artistic director of the Gothenburg Opera. During this period, he was also the director of the Stockholm University Chorus (1959–84). In 1968-78 Hemberg wrote Messa d’oggi, a choral piece with texts by Quasimodo and Dag Hammarskjöld. Furthermore, in 1970 he wrote a choreographic choral suite, which Hemberg described as “an opera in four acts” based on poems by Robert Graves. Hemberg served as general man

Esmeralda Athanasiu-Gardeev

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esmeralda Athanasiu-Gardeev (also Esméralda Athanassiou-Gardéev, 1834–1917) was a Romanian pianist and composer. She studied piano and composition in Paris with Julius Schulhoff and composition in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein. She married a Russian general, who introduced her to European aristocracy. Athanasiu-Gardeev taught singing, lute and piano, and her compositions are influenced by Romanian folklore. She published a large number of salon compositions, often with French titles, and dedicated to members of the aristrocracy. Life Athanasiu-Gardeev was born in Galaţi, Moldavia, in 1834. Scott describes some of Athanasiu-Gardeev’s piano compositions as technically extremely difficult, and also says “her Rumänisches Charakterstück contains examples of rich romantic harmony, such as half-diminished sevenths and dominant ninths, and there is a Lisztian cadenza… but despite her composition lessons, there are plenty of examples of amateurish technique.” Works Many of Athanasiu-Gardeev’s compositions were based on Romanian folklore. She published a large number of salon compositions, often with French titles, and dedicated to members of the aristrocracy. Selected works include

Espen Selvik

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Espen Selvik is a Norwegian conductor, composer, music reviewer in , writer, advisor of the Reksten Foundation and director of Gulatinget. He is also honorary consul of the republic of Lithuania. Selvik has composed five symphonies and two oratorios. He composed and performed a special piece, for lur (a wooden shepherd’s horn), choir and orchestra, marking the visit of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon to Orkney in April 2014. He played a lur originally given to Norway’s King Olav V and donated by his son Harold V, to raise funds for a community centre on Orkney. Compositions * * * * * * * * References External links * Kalevala’s gentle giants weekly.ahram.org 2003 * Uken14

Espinoza Paz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Isidro Chávez Espinoza (born 29 October 1981), better known as Espinoza Paz, is a Latin Grammy nominated Mexican musician and songwriter of regional Mexican music. Early career Espinoza Paz (Isidro Chávez Espinoza) was born on 29 October 1981 in La Angostura, a small town in the north of the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. He was 11 years old when he wrote his first song, which was dedicated to a girl on whom he had a crush. By the time he was 13, he had already written 20 songs; however, it was not until his father sent him money from the United States that he decided to buy his first guitar and teach himself to play it. Success His big break came when he showed some of his creations to El Coyote—a popular Sinaloan banda singer—who recorded his songs “Besitos En El Cuello” (“Little Kisses On The Neck”); “Prohibido” (“Forbidden”); and “Para Impresionarte” (“To Impress You”). In December 2006, Paz met Martín Fabian, a well-known personality within the radio and music industry, who immediately foresaw the extraordinary talent within the young singer-songwriter. They soon began collaborating on his debut album “Paz En Tu Corazón” (literally, “Peace In Your Heart”—the title being a wordplay

Este Haim

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Este Arielle Haim (born March 14, 1986) is an American musician. She is the bassist and a vocalist of the pop-rock trio Haim, which she formed with her younger sisters Alana and Danielle in 2006. She co-writes all of Haim’s songs. Since 2021, Este has composed scores for film and television. She acted as a music consultant for the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus. Este was also the executive music producer for the mini-series A Small Light (2023). Early life Este grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California and studied at LA County’s High School For The Arts. Her family is Jewish. Este’s father, Mordechai “Moti” Haim, is an Israeli-born retired professional soccer player who moved to the United States in 1980. Her mother, Donna Rose, is a former elementary school art teacher from Philadelphia. Este’s paternal grandmother was originally from Bulgaria. The Haim sisters were taught to play instruments from an early age by their parents, with Este being encouraged to learn bass guitar by her father. She has described being influenced by bassist Tina Weymouth after her father showed her the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Donna, Moti, and their children formed a fa

Esteban Benzecry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esteban Benzecry (born 1970) is an Argentine classical composer. Early years Benzecry was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1970 to Argentine parents. He grew up in Argentina where he studied musical composition with Sergio Hualpa and Haydee Gerardi. He moved to Paris in 1997, where he studied composition with Jacques Charpentier, Professor of the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris. He obtained the “Premier Prix a l’unanimitè” in composition in 1999. He also studied composition with Paul Méfano, and Electro acoustic music with Luis Naón and Laurent Cuniot. He became a French citizen in 2011. Career In 1992 he was named “The young revelation of the Season” by the Musical Critics Association of Argentina. The same association awarded him with the prize “The best Argentine work premiered in the Season 1994, 2006, 2009, 2017”. He has been a fellow of the Interamerican Music Friends of Washington (USA), Mozarteum Argentino, and Academie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France. In 1995 he was invited as Resident Composer at the Yehudi Menuhin Academy (Switzerland). The Academie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France awarded him the prize from the Foundation Delmas in 1999, the prize Tronchet in

Esteban Daza

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esteban Daza (or Estevan Daça) (c. 1537 in Valladolid – between 1591 and 1596 in Valladolid) was a Spanish composer and vihuelist of the Renaissance. He was one of the last major vihuelists of the 16th century, as the instrument’s popularity was eclipsed by that of the guitar. Daza came from a middle class family, and was the eldest of fourteen children. He studied at the University of Valladolid, where he graduated probably in the early 1560s. There is no evidence that he ever practised a profession, he was able to survive on income from his family’s investments. As revealed by the research of John Griffiths (musician), he lived in his parents’ home until at least the time of his father’s death 1569, although probably until long after the publication of his vihuela music. The last documents that mention in the early 1590s indicate that he was living outside the city wall of Valladolid in a house owned by his brother Baltasar. El Parnaso (Parnassus) is the only known book of music published by Daza. It was printed in 1576 in Valladolid, and contains works for solo vihuela and for vihuela and voice. The full title of the work is Libro de música de cifras para vihuela, intitulado El

Esteban Servellón

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esteban Servellón Torres (16 October 1921 – 12 August 2003) was a Salvadoran musician, composer, and pedagogue. He composed, among other works, a Requiem Mass, a sonata for guitar, and several serenades and quartets. Early life and career The son of Pedro Servellón and Lucía Torres, from a young age he played the viola, cello and violin. At age 16, he moved with his mother and siblings to Ciudad Delgado, near the capital of San Salvador. He studied at the Rafael Olmedo National School of Music in that city, and in 1941, joined the Banda de los Supremos Poderes, the State Symphony Orchestra. Later life and career In 1952, Servellón received a government scholarship to study composition and conducting at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he remained for four years. In the same year, he created the ballet Rina. In 1956, he returned to El Salvador where he assumed the position of director of the National Conservatory of Music. By 1960, he was the Assistant Director of the Salvadoran Army Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica del Ejército de El Salvador). Renamed the El Salvador Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica de El Salvador; OSES) in 1960, Servellón went o

Estelle Ricketts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Estelle Ricketts (c. 1867 – after April 1, 1940) was an American composer. Personal life Ricketts was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, which is now a suburb of Philadelphia. Her parents were Allen and Mary (Carroll) Ricketts. Allen was born into slavery in Maryland and self emancipated about age 11. He ended up in Darby, Pennsylvania, and taken in by Quakers, John and Rachel Hunt, where he worked as their gardener and chore boy. There he was educated at the Darby Friends School. He graduated and became a farmer at the Sharon Boarding Academy. In June of 1847, Allen was tricked, kidnapped, and taken to Baltimore and sold to a slave trader named Hope H. Slatter. Because Allen was literate, he was able to write a letter to George S. Truman, a friend back in Darby. Upon receiving the letter, Truman went with a friend, John Needles, to find Slatter and bargain for Allen’s release. Slatter agreed to take $800 for the release of Allen, but only if the money was provided by the same day the following week. With the help of Darby Monthly Meeting minister, John Jackson, they were able to get word out about Allen’s kidnapping and they had soon collected $500 from residents of Darby, with a wealth

Estelle White

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elizabeth Estelle White (4 December 1925 – 9 February 2011) was a British composer who wrote over 160 hymns, several Masses, and music for theatre. White grew up in a musical family on Tyneside, where she learned to play the piano, guitar, clarinet and tenor saxophone. Her musical influences included Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and musical theatre. White’s first works were composed during her years as a nun; some were published or copyrighted under the name Sister Estelle, though most were published under the name Estelle White She is best remembered for her school assembly favourite, the hymn Autumn Days. World War II White joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, when she was 17, and played saxophone with a British army band on many ceremonial occasions, including the 1946 Victory Parade. She also travelled to entertain troops in the Central Mediterranean Force in Palestine and Egypt. After World War II After the war, White trained as a physiotherapist at Newcastle on Tyneside, and worked with children who had cerebral palsy. She acted, directed, painted scenery and composed music for productions at the People’s Theatre in Newcastle before moving to Ontario,

Ester Mägi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ester Mägi (10 January 1922 – 14 May 2021) was an Estonian composer. She has been called the “first lady of Estonian music.” Education She trained under Mart Saar at the Tallinn Conservatoire, then from 1951 to 1954 at the Moscow Conservatory under Vissarion Shebalin. Much of her work was inspired by Estonian folk music. References External links * Ester Mägi at the Estonian Music Information Centre *

Estêvão Lopes Morago

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Estêvão Lopes Morago () (c. 1575 in Vallecas, Spain – 1630 in Viseu, Portugal) was a Spanish-born composer who studied, lived, worked and died in Portugal. He is one of the most important polyphonists in the music history of Portugal. Another representative of the high level of cultural interchanges between the two countries, as some of the highest figures of the peninsular cultural history have moved around between the two countries freely and mostly in a way unrelated to the political events of the time (Diego Velázquez was of Portuguese origin; and Alonso Sánchez Coello are some of the examples). Life Lopes Morago was born in Vallecas, near Madrid, but he passed the vast majority of his life in Portugal. He was a student of Filipe de Magalhães at the Cathedral of Évora, where he obtained his licentiate degree. After that, in August 1599, he went to the Cathedral of Viseu where he was appointed canon and mestre de capela. In 1626, the chapter of the Cathedral allowed him to go to Lisbon to publish his works. These included the Livro Comum and the Vesperal, which have survived. The place and year of his death are uncertain. There are indications that Morago moved to Spain and died

Esther Allan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esther Allan (née Boyarsky; April 28, 1914 – July 21, 1985) was an American composer, pianist and organist. Early years Esther Allan was born Esther Boyarsky in Suwałki, Poland. Her father was a cantor. She began playing the piano when she was only five, and took her first piano lessons with her mother. Her family moved to England when she was very young, and then to America. Career She began working in New York City, both as a “classical” pianist (for example she performed Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Gershwin’s Concerto in F during a recital at Carnegie Hall) and as a “jazz” pianist, in the vein of the “classical jazz” initiated by George Gershwin and Dana Suesse. On June 16, 1935, she married in Detroit American jeweler and department store owner Norman Allan (1912–1999) , to whom she later dedicated her Norman Concerto, a 6-minute piece for piano and orchestra in the vein of the Warsaw Concerto, which gained some success at the time and launched her as a composer. Once married, she used only her “American” name Allan, abandoning her maiden name. as well as an affiliate pianist of Aileen Shirley’s all-girl orchestra, “The Minoco Maids Of Melody”. As a composer, aside from "

Esther Ballou

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esther Williamson Ballou (17 July 1915 – 12 March 1973) was an American composer, music educator, organist, pianist, and accompanist. She was born in Elmira, New York, and died in Chichester, England. Career Ballou began piano lessons at 4 years old, organ lessons at age 13, and began composing in her twenties. She graduated from Bennington College in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts, Mills College in 1938 with a Master of Arts, and The Juilliard School of Music in 1943 for a graduate fellowship. During her time at Bennington College, Ballou fostered a musical interest in Modern Dance and Ballet, and began composing music. While a student there, she composed two ballets, Earth Sage for Louise Kloepper, and Lysistrata for José Limón. Until 1942, she toured the United States with multiple dance troupes as an accompanist and composer, including for Marion Van Tuyl’s dance group. She won fellowships to the MacDowell Colony in 1944, 1945, 1954, and 1955. She also participated in the Middlebury Composer’s Conference and the Bennington Composer’s Conference as a member of the composer’s staff. Ballou describes her music as ‘tending towards classicism in that it stresses clarity of design and

Esther Rofe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esther Rofe (14 March 1904 26 February 2000 ) was an Australian musician and composer. Biography Esther Rofe was born in 1904 in Melbourne, Australia. Rofe studied piano with Harold C. Smith and Ada Freeman During World War II Rofe worked at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and the Colgate-Palmolive Radio Unit in Sydney where she began arranging and composing music. Rofe began composing for ballet in 1943. The Esther Rofe Songbook was published in Melbourne in December 1999. Rofe and her sister Edith moved to Southport where Rofe lived and worked for twenty years by the sea. Rofe never married, but fostered a child, Carden James Rofe. Carden had two sons – Hamer Rofe and Malcolm Rofe. Rofe died on 26 February 2000 The Esther Rofe Award was established in her honor at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Honors and awards *1993 Composer-of-Honour in the School of Music Conservatorium at Monash University. *1998 Australia Day Citizen of the Year award from the City of Boroondara *1998 Became a represented composer at the Australian Music Centre (AMC). Compositions (incomplete list) Piano solo *Choral Prelude II (1927) *Echo de Vienne *Mathinna (1954) ballet choreogr

Esther Scliar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Esther Scliar (28 September 1926 – 18 March 1978) was a Brazilian pianist and composer. Biography Esther Scliar was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil to Isaac and Rosa Scliar. Scliar worked as a pianist and taught harmony, music theory, analysis, and composition at the Instituto Villa-Lobos and Seminários de Música Pró-Arte. In 1952 she studied choral conducting with Nilda Müller in Montevideo and founded and was the first conductor of the Choir of the Musical Youth Association of Porto Alegre. In 1966 she wrote the music for the movie The Loss of Mario Fiorani and received an award for “Best Song” at the Brazilian Film Week II. In 1952 she found she had contracted tuberculosis and in 1968 had a stroke, after which she left her position at Villa-Lobos Institute. Her father died in 1975, and she died by suicide at age 51 in 1978. Works Scliar’s compositions were often inspired by folk music. She composed about ninety works. Selected compositions include: *1950 Ao sair da Lua for chorus *1952 A pedrinha vai for chorus *1953 Vira a Moenda for chorus *1953 Dorme-Dorme for chorus *1953 Beira Mar *1953 Maracatu Elefante (after a melody by Capiba) *1953 Papagaio louro (text: