The title Combined Efforts is a play on the name of the group for whom the work was commissioned by the International Women’s Brass Conference for IWBC 2014 – the Symbiosis Duo. It’s scored for euphonium, tuba, and piano and was premiered by Symbiosis Duo (Stacy Baker and Gail Robertson) plus Eunbyol Ko on piano. It is in three short movements. The first movement, Lullaby, presents the original melody and then varies and develops it. Different instruments maintain the melody, while the accompaniment increases in motion and intensity. In the second movement, Anger Abating, the instruments move from loud passages using extreme ranges to quiet passages. The low Ds in the piano lead to the low A at the beginning of the last movement. The last movement – learning to play – reverses the progression of the second movement, though without anger. It moves from a slow, low introduction through passages becoming louder and faster and, finally, arriving at a boisterous, loud, and playful end. The work will soon be available from the Subito music store.
Faye-Ellen Silverman, born in New York City, holds a BA from Barnard College, an AM from Harvard University, and a DMA from Columbia University. Her compositions are published by Seesaw Music Corp., a division of Subito Music, and recorded on Albany, New World Records, Capstone, Crystal and Finnadar Records. She has received awards from UNESCO, the National League of American Pen Women and ASCAP, and been awarded residencies at the Villa Serbelloni , VCCA, the Macdowell Colony, and Yaddo. She has received commissions from the IWBC for SymbiosisDuo, the Phoenix Concert series, Edinboro University Chamber Players, Seraphim, Philip A. De Simone, Larry Madison, Thomas Matta, the IWBC for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Fromm Foundation, NEA, Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, Con Spirito, the Greater Lansing Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore. She has taught at Columbia, various branches of City University, Goucher College, the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and the Aspen Music Festival and Eugene Lang College, and is currently a Part-time Associate Professor at Mannes College the New School for Music. She has also lectured on her music in Lithuania as a guest of the U.S. State Department, and lectured on American music in Poland this past spring as a representative of Mannes College. She is a Founding Member of Music Under Construction (a composers’ collective), a Founding Board Member of the International Women’s Brass Conference and the author of the 20th-century section of the Schirmer History of Music. Due, in part, to her involvement with amazing brass players over the past two decades, and the knowledge gained by attending all of IWBC’s conferences, close to 20% of her output over the years has been for brass instruments. For further information, please go to her Web site: www.fayeellensilverman.com .
