San Domenico's second annual “Women in Music” program will be a celebration of historical and contemporary women composers, featuring Sacramento Philharmonic Principal Harpist Anna Maria Mendieta playing with the School's Orchestra da Camera.
In addition to a guest solo from Mendieta, who will collaborate with the orchestra on the Tango Suitecreated just for her, the program will feature senior Caitlin Gowdy’s violin solo on Maria-Theresia von Paradis’ Sicilienne. The School’s string sections will shine in Dianne Wachsman’s Fanfares for String Orchestra.
“The six featured women composers are among those who have defied the odds and challenges of making their voices heard [in a traditionally male-dominated field] for nearly 300 years,” says Krinitsky, who is San Domenico School’s Virtuoso Program Director.
The “Women in Music” repertoire will also include Austria’s Marianna Martines, whose Sinfonia in C was the only symphony composed by a woman during the Classical period in music; Ohio-born Ruth Crawford, whose pulsing and turbulent Andante movement from her String Quartet (1931) reflects a familiar and troubling time in our nation’s history; Floridian Gabrielle Chou, a mere 14 years old when her Canon and Postlude was selected as a winner at the 2010 Young Composers Challenge; and New Yorker Jennifer Higdon, whose multi-layered and rhythmically complex style has earned her the honorable titles of Composer-In-Residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.
About the Virtuoso Program
The Virtuoso Program at San Domenico is an intensive training program for talented string players. Nestled in the hills of Marin County, San Domenico’s all-girls high school provides an ideal environment for the serious young musician: college-preparatory academics, excellent music faculty, dormitories, and state-of-the-art music conservatory facilities. San Domenico has been named “Best High School Orchestra” three times by the American String Teachers’ Association (ASTA). For more information, visitwww.sandomenico.org/music.
