Janet Maguire (born 1927) is an American composer who was born in Chicago and resides in Venice, Italy.
Biography
Maguire is known particularly for her arrangement of the finale of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, in which she exclusively used the sketches Puccini left for it at his death. Maguire is also known for her dramatic contemporary opera in three acts, Hérésie, and has worked in a wide variety of musical expressions throughout some fifty orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral and stage works.
Born in Chicago and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Janet Maguire began musical studies at the age of six: on piano, French horn, and cornet. She completed a BA degree in Piano at Colorado College, then went to Paris to study composition with René Leibowitz for five years. They co-authored the book Thinking for Orchestra: Practical Exercises in Orchestration (published by G. Schirmer), and a book about the orchestration of some of Jacques Offenbach's works, Nuits Parisiennes (RCA, Bote & Bock), as well as Carl Maria von Weber's opera Die Drei Pintos. Several summers spent at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse influenced Maguire's style, as did the music of György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Maguire continued to develop independent paths in musical thought with the help of several musicians specializing in experimental music.
Maguire was the recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship as well as a residence at Copland House in 2006.
Maguire was music critic for the Paris Herald Tribune while she lived in Paris. After moving to Venice, she founded there the association "Musica in Divenire", of which she was elected president, and organized concerts of new music. Her compositions have been heard throughout Italy and Germany, and in France, Spain, Ireland, the UK, the US, Austria, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria. New World Records issued a CD with seven of her works, and Albany Records released a CD with ten of her works in 2009.
List of works
Orchestral
Shuffle (1991) La Mia Serra (poem by Luisa Milos) with mezzo-soprano solo and chorus (1992) Hark (1995) Glass (1997) Le Jardin de Versailles (1998) Fantasia with piano solo (1990) Etude Osmotique with chorus SATB (2000)
Solo piano
Frills (2002)
Piano duet
Ebb and Flow (1999)
Piano with orchestra
Fantasia (1990) Hark (2000)
Piano with chamber ensemble
Treize A Table for piano and 12 percussionists
Quest for piano and 2 percussions
L'Intervista for piano, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello and percussion Tragedy for piano with string quartet
Vocal with ensemble
Canzone D'Amore for tenor and 20 strings
Un Momento for speaker, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 percussionists
Wisp for soprano, 2 flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto sax, horn, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass Five Chinese Poems (poems by Joseph A. Precker) for bass voice, cello, clarinet, zheng, 3 percussionists Lace Knots for string quartet and soprano L'Intervista for soprano La Mia Serra (poem by Luisa Milos) for orchestra, chorus, contralto Gone, (poem by Carl Sandburg) for mezzo-soprano, flute, viola, harp
Vocal with piano
Cosi (poem by Paola Bozzini) for soprano
Cummings Lieder (poems by e.e. Cummings) for soprano
Three Love Songs (poems by Joseph A. Precker) for tenor
Chorus
Southern Trees (poem by Lewis Allan) for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, with chimes Il Fiume Tchirek (poem by Altun the Tartar) for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, 2 tenors, 2 baritones and bass Lightly for women's chorus with 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, with tamburello, crotales, guiro, rainstick Inno A Dio for SATB chorus Per Acqua (poem by Luisa Milos) for two SATB choruses