Women Composers

* 1993 in Germany

Susanne Hardt is a music theorist and (film) composer. She completed a bachelor’s degree in music theory (Dresden, 2016) and a master’s degree in film music (Potsdam Babelsberg, 2020) and is currently doing her PhD on models in film music and their influence on the audience’s perception (Dresden, Lausanne). She has received several awards for her compositions. In addition to contemporary pieces, she wrote music for various films, TV series and ­computer games.

* 1987 in USA

Jessi Harvey is a Montana-born, American freelance composer and teacher, gardener and reader, thinker and walker. Also known as George, their works are based in nature, integrating social curiosity, humor, and occasionally a wryly jovial look at the state of the world; described by Seattle Mag as “full of surprises and consistently attention-hold­ing” and by commissioner Julia Lougheed as “diving into the absurd corners of the human condition - the moments where you have to laugh so you don’t cry”.…

* 1957 in Wiesbaden

Gabriele Hasler was born on April 18th 1957 in Wiesbaden and grew up in Stuttgart. More information about Gabriele Hasler

* 1961 in Waibingen

Karin Haußmann studierte an der Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen Rhythmik, Musiktheorie bei Wolfgang Grandjean und Komposition bei Walter Zimmermann und Nicolaus A. Huber. 1997 war sie Stipendiatin der Akademie der Künste Berlin und erhielt den ersten Preis beim Internationalen Kompositionswettbewerb Biennale Neue Musik Hannover. 1998 folgte der Förderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen für junge Künstlerinnen und Künstler. Seitdem entwickelte sich eine Zusammenarbeit mit renommierten Ensembles wie dem Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Trio Accanto, Thürmchen-Ensemble, Musikfabrik NRW, Ensemble Aventure, La Art pour la…

* 1936 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein

Darmstädter Music price  2019 for Barbara Heller Barbara Heller was born into a family of restaurateurs in 1936 in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine. She studied music in Mannheim and Munich, and taught piano from 1958 to 1962 at the Mannheim College of Music. She studied composition under Hans Vogt (Mannheim) and Harald Genzmer (Munich). She won a scholarship to study in Sienna in 1963 (film music) and was awarded several scholarships of the “Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik” (International vacation…

* 1941 in Quirindl, Australien

Moya Henderson wurde 1941 in dem kleinen australischen Landstädtchen Quirindl im Staat Neusüdwales geboren. Den größten Teil ihrer Kindheit verbrachte sie jedoch in Geelong, Victoria, wo die Familie sich 1947 niedergelassen hatte. Im Alter von sechs Jahren bekam sie Klavierunterricht und als sie mit 17 Jahren das Internat in Melbourne verließ, war sie bereits eine perfekte Klavierspielerin und Sängerin. Im Jahre 1960 trat Moya Henderson dem Sacre-Coeur-Orden bei, um Lehrerin zu werden. Diese Berufswahl unterbrach ihre musikalische Ausbildung für neun…

* 1805 in Hamburg
✝ 1847 in Berlin

Fanny Hensel grew up in a well-situated and highly cultured Berlin family. She and her younger brothers and sister Felix, Rebecca and Paul all received excellent education. The banker Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his wife Lea were quick to recognise Fanny's exceptional musical talent and, just like her brother Felix, she received instruction from the best music teachers available. In 1816, during a period of several months spent in Paris, the children studied piano with Marie Bigot de Morogues, who…

* 1896 in Sheffield
✝ 1983

This English composer and piano pedagogue was born in Sheffield. Her father, Frederick William Herbert was a schoolmaster and later an insurance agent, her mother Emily Godefroy was an accomplished amateur singer with sound knowledge of the theory of music. Her father died when she was just twelve years old. Muriel started composing from a young age and was greatly encouraged by her older brother Percy, a fine pianist himself, and Hugh Farrie, a Liverpool man of substance. The Eng-lish…

* 1847 in Paris
✝ 1892 in San Remo

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, the third child of the Hanoverian Chamberlain Bodo, Baron of Stockhausen and his wife, Clothilde Annette, Countess of Baudissen, was born in Paris on 13 April 1847. She spent her youth in Vienna and received her first instruction in music theory and piano from the Protestant organist Theodor Dirzka, before starting her musical education in 1861 under Julius Epstein. In 1863, she was also taught for a short time by Johannes Brahms. She married the composer Heinrich…

* 1097
✝ 1177

Hildegard von Bingen has decisively shaped Western culture. A Benedictine abbess of Rupertsberg convent in central Germany during the 'Twelfth-Century Renaissance,' she wrote and composed profusely. Her works range from religious visions to philosophical and scientific exposition, from political proposals to poetic, artistic, and musical achievements. They have in significant ways enlightened her own time, and also have cast their shadow across the ages. The present series offers Hildegard's sacred chants entitled Symphonia Armoniae Caelestium Revelationum, a collection of over…

Dorothea Hofmann is a pianist (1993 prizewinner of International Gaudeamus Competition/Rotterdam) and composer (2007 scholarship in Venice). Her oeuvre includes orchestral works as well as chamber music, songs, choir and solo works up to music for puppet theatre. She teaches as Professor of Musicology and Sociology of Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Foto: Thomas Stimmel

* 1847 in Paris
✝ 1903 in Paris

Holmès Augusta Mary-Anne {Patricia} [also composed under the pseudonym Hermann Zenta] 16.12.1847-18.1.1903 Besides for operas, sinfonic and sacred music, Augusta Holmès also composed salon pieces, e.g. this "gipsy-dream" with virtuosity, arpeggios and melodic sighs within the gipsy-scale. Bei Furore: Salonstück für das Klavier, "Zigeunertraum": virtuos, in Arpeggien und melodischen Seufzern durch die Zigeunertonleiter. fue 143 ISMN: M-50012-043-8

* 1952