MINNIE.
Opus. 65
Instrumentation: Solo Violin
Duration: 10.5 Minutes, Three Movements
Commissioned By: Megan Healy for the Maud Powell Project
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purchase options, and commissioner biography
PROGRAM NOTE.
The Maud Powell Project celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and Women's Suffrage with five new works for solo violin inspired by and dedicated to violinist Maud Powell. The works, commissioned by violinist Megan Healy and written by American female composers Lauren Bernofsky, Elisabeth Blair, Stephanie Ann Boyd, Jessica Meyer, and Hilary Purrington, were recorded at the University of Denver in August 2020 and will be premiered in Chicago in May 2021. The works will subsequently be performed in a variety of contexts, including solo violin recitals, lecture recitals, and outreach performances with dancers from Life/Art Dance ensemble for children and for senior citizens living in low income housing communities in the Denver Metro area. The album, Aurora: A Tribute to Maud Powell, will be released in early 2021.
MINNIE, dedicated to the memory of Maud Powell, is a three movement meditation on her life. The first movement, AURORA, is a fantasia that seeks to convey the magic of a childhood spent on the plains of the midwest and of her growing skill and prowess as a young violinist. The second movement, BERLIN, is an elegia/lullaby that takes into account her lonely years in Europe with her mother and their shared Hungarian heritage. The third movement, ANTHEM, is a perpetuum moto that uses Americana and fiddling references to bring forth echoes of her triumph and confidence throughout her life as she broke barriers and created an entirely new paradigm for violin soloists.
Details // Concert Prep
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PDF Score + Part(s) sent via email within 2-3 business days. I’m excited to connect with you!
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I want to meet you! Purchase of this pdf in the 23/24 season comes with a 30 min zoom session, if you’d appreciate that during your rehearsal process. You’ll receive scheduling instructions in the delivery email with your music.
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If you already have a concert date in mind, you’ll receive instructions on sending me concert info in the delivery email with your music.
commissioner biography.
Michigan-based violinist Megan Healy is an active pedagogue, recitalist, and performer of orchestral and chamber music. Megan enjoys a multifaceted career as a freelance performing artist and teacher. Megan has held positions with the Kalamazoo, Southwest Michigan, Cheyenne (WY), Holland (MI), and Southeast Iowa symphony orchestras. Additionally, she has performed with the West Michigan Symphony, Battle Creek Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Fort Collins Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra. Recent special engagements have included a performance as guest soloist with the Elgin (IL) Youth Symphony, interdisciplinary collaborations with Life/Art Dance Ensemble, and the live premiere of Julián Brijaldo's Atravesa'o for violin and delay pedal.
Megan maintains a thriving private studio of students between ages 5 and 75. Inspired by her adult students, her doctoral research focused on engaging the adult learner in beginning violin lessons. In addition, Megan is currently a violin and viola instructor for Kalamazoo Kids In Tune. A partnership between the Kalamazoo Symphony and the Kalamazoo Public Schools, KKIT is an innovative after-school orchestra and youth development program. Students from early elementary through high school study instruments and chamber music and participate in daily lessons and orchestra rehearsals. After-school meals and busing make the program widely accessible. Inspired in part by the El Sistema movement, Kids in Tune combines elements of Social Justice, Social and Emotional Learning, and traditional music instruction to create conscientious global citizens first and skilled musicians second.
Megan is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Megan is a student of Károly Schranz and Harumi Rhodes, the former and current second violinists in the world-renowned Takács quartet. Megan also holds Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from Western Michigan University, where she served as graduate teaching assistant to Professor Renata Artman Knific, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of Iowa under the tutelage of Dr. Scott Conklin. She has studied viola performance with Professor Igor Fedotov and Dr. Megan Gray.