THE STORY BEHIND: Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman

Joan Tower has become one of her generation's most dynamic and colorful composers. Born in New Rochelle, New York, she studied piano and composition, completing her musical education at Columbia University (D.M.A., 1978). Tower has been a champion of contemporary music. In this endeavor, she co-founded the Da Capo Chamber Players in 1969 and remained its pianist until 1984. Since then, her activities in the field of composition have left her little time for performance. From 1985 to 1988, she was composer-in-residence at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as part of the Meet-the-Composer Program. There she wrote Silver Ladders, which was performed widely by other U.S. orchestras and won her the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Other awards and grants Tower has garnered include fellowships from NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation, a Koussevitzky Foundation grant, and an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Presently, Tower is Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts in the Music Department of Bard College Conservatory of Music, where she has taught since 1972.
         
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman was commissioned by the Houston Symphony Orchestra as part of its Fanfare Project series. Tower's work was premiered in January 1987. It made such a deep impression that she later composed a Second Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman for Absolut Vodka and a Third Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman for the Carnegie Hall Centennial Celebrations. About her first Fanfare, Tower has written:

Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman was inspired by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and has, in fact, the same instrumentation. The original theme resembles the theme in my piece. It is dedicated to women who take risks and who are adventurous.

Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2021 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED