Valerie "Vally" Weigl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vally_Weigl

Vally Weigl (11 September 1894 – 25 December 1982) was an Austrian-American composer and music therapist.

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[edit]Biography

Valerie Weigl (nee Pick) was born in Vienna, Austria. She took piano lessons in childhood, and studied musicology at Vienna University. She studied piano under Richard Robert, composition under Karl Weigl and musicology under Guido Adler.

Vally married Karl Weigl in 1921, and after the National Socialists took power in in Austria in 1938, the couple emigrated with their son to the U.S. with assistance from the Quaker Society of Friends. In New York, Weigl worked as a music teacher and composer, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed her to compose and record Natures Moods, New England Suite, and four song cycles. After receiving a masters degree at Columbia University, she also worked as a music therapist and became chief medical therapist at New York Medical College.[1] She also taught at Roosevelt Cerebral Palsy School. Vally directed research projects at Mount Sinai Hospital's psychiatric division and the Hebrew Home for the Aged, and in the 1950s published a number of articles in the field of musical therapy.[2] She died in New York City in 1982.

A biography of Vally Weigl entitled Give Them Music was published by Elena Fitzthum & Primavera Gruber (Edition Praesens, 2003, ISBN : 978-3-7069-0191-8).

[edit]Works

Vally Weigl composed a large number of works for orchestra and solo instruments. She enjoyed an extensive discography. Selected works include:

Toccatina pour piano

Nature Moods for Tenor, Clarinet and Violin

New England Suite for Clarinet, Violoncello and Piano

Songs of Remembrance (Poèmes de Emily Dickenson)

Dear Earth for baritone, horn, violin, cello, and piano, words by Frederika Blankner

Brief Encounters for clarinet, horn, bassoon, and oboe

Songs of Love and Leaving for mezzo-soprano, baritone, clarinet and piano, words by Carl Sandburg

Echoes from Poems

Lyrical Suite for voice, piano, flute and cello

Songs from "Do not Awake Me"

Songs from "No Boundary" for voice, piano, flute and cello

Songs Newly Seen in the Dusk

Songs of Remembrance

Requiem for Allison

In Springtime pour voix et piano

Songs from "No Boundary" pour voix, piano, flûte et violoncelle

Oiseau de la vie pour flûte

Lyrical Suite pour voix, piano, flûte et violoncelle

Old Time Burlesque pour alto et piano