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Alexina Louie, OC FRSC (born July 30, 1949) is a Canadian composer of Chinese descent who has written many pieces for orchestra, as well as pieces for solo piano.

Biography[link]

Alexina Louie was born in Vancouver and received an ARCT in Piano Performance at the age of 17, studying with Jean Lyons School of Music. She received a Bachelor of Music in Music History from the University of British Columbia in 1970 and a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of California, San Diego in 1974. She taught piano, theory and electronic composition in the Greater Los Angeles Area until 1980. Since then she has lived in Toronto.

Louie has composed for various instrumental and vocal combinations in virtually every major genre. One of her earliest compositions, completed in 1972, is an electronic piece for 4-channel tape entitled Molly. Her object in this composition, based on the last segment of James Joyce's novel Ulysses was to make an electronic composition sound "human". Her piano compositions include Scenes from a Jade Terrace, Distant Memories and I Leap Through the Sky With Stars for solo piano, Dragon Bells for prepared piano and pre-recorded prepared piano, and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (which was commissioned by the CBC).

Her chamber music includes The Distant Shore for piano trio, Edges for string quartet, Music from Night's Edge for piano quintet, Riffs for oboe, clarinet and bassoon, and Gallery Fanfares, Arias and Interludes (commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1993). Orchestral scores include The Ringing Earth (composed for the opening of Expo 86 in Vancouver), The Eternal Earth (commissioned by the Toronto Symphony), Music for a Thousand Autumns (commissioned by the Ensemble SMCQ) and Music for Heaven and Earth (commissioned by the Esprit Orchestra).

Louie and her husband Alex Pauk, conductor of the Esprit Orchestra, have collaborated on several film scores, including Don McKellar's Last Night, which received a Genie nomination for Best Original Score in 1998, and The Five Senses, a film by Jeremy Podeswa that was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the following year. Along with playwright David Henry Hwang she composed a full-length opera, The Scarlet Princess. An erotic ghost story based on a 17th century Japanese Kabuki play, it was premiered by the Canadian Opera Company in 2002. Her 8-minute comic mini-opera Toothpaste, based on a libretto by Dan Redican, has been broadcast in over a dozen countries.

Along with Redican she completed Burnt Toast, consisting of eight comic mini-operas for television, in 2005. Each mini-opera depicts a different stage of romantic love: Attraction, Connection, Commitment, Marriage, Consummation, Perseverance, Disintegration and Starting Over. Louie used a variety of different styles in this work and even borrows from other composers. Most notably, she utilizes the music for the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute and music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Louie's compositions have garnered numerous awards over the years. In 1986 the Canadian Music Council named her Composer of the Year. In 1988 she received the Juno Award, Best Classical Composition, for her orchestral composition, Songs of Paradise. Songs of Paradise were re-recorded by the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Geoffrey Moull in 2004 and released on the CD Variations on a Memory. It became the best-selling disc of the Canadian Music Centre in 2005.^[1] In 1990, 1992, and 2003, she received the SOCAN Concert Music Award for the most performed Classical composer of the year. In 1996 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. In 1999 she became the first woman to win the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for Nightfall, a work for 14 strings written for I Musici de Montreal.

Works[link]

Louie first attained national and international recognition in 1982 with her O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould. Louie also composed the opening music for Expo 86 in Vancouver, The Ringing Earth.

Some of her other compositions include Three Fanfares from the Ringing Earth, which opened the new National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and Scenes from a Jade Terrace, which opened the new Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Her Infinite Sky With Birds, a National Arts Centre commission, debuted on February 22, 2006.

Louie's most recent composition Mulroney: The Opera, is a musical satire of Brian Mulroney's life. It was released by Alliance Films in April 2011.

Awards[link]

In 1986, Louie was named Composer of the Year, and in both 1988 and 1998, she won Juno Awards. In 1990, 1992, and 2003, she won the SOCAN music award. In 1996, Louie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. In 2001 she received the Order of Ontario, the province's highest honour.

In 2005 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2006, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[2]

Family[link]

She and her husband, Alex Pauk, have two daughters, Jasmine and Jade. Her sister is documentary filmmaker Jari Osbourne (NFB title Unwanted Soldiers, Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story).

Further reading[link]

• Steenhuisen, Paul. "Interview with Alexina Louie". In Sonic Mosaics: Conversations with Composers. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-88864-474-9

See also[link]

• Music of Canada
• List of Canadian composers

	Music portal
32x28px	Music of Canada portal

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.tbso.ca/news/press.htm
2. ^ Royal Society of Canada website

• Parker, Jon Kimura. "East and West in the Music of Alexina Louie." SoundNotes. SN3:14-25.

External links[link]

• Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
• Interview at artslive.ca

Dorel Golan ,an Israeli pianist.

She has studied with acclaimed pianists Daniel Gortler and Vadim Monastirsky. Golan currently completes her Masters studies with Prof. Arie Vardi at the Buhmann-Mehta Academy of Music in Tel Aviv.

Golan has performed with some of the most important orchestras in the world, as well as with all the major orchestras in Israel including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

She appeared successfully in recitals at the Salle Cortot in Paris, at the Tivoli Hall in Copenhagen,at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, were she recorded her first CD.She also played in many other important centers.

Dorel played in various festivals, including the Ruhr Klavier Festival in Germany. In 2006 she performed in the Israel Festival in Jerusalem.

Awards and Prizes[link]

• Israel America Culture Foundation award, since 1992
• First Prize – Marsala International Piano Competition in Italy, 1992
• First Best Young Pianist Prize Bremen International Piano Competition, 2001
• First Prize – Clairmont Competition, 1996
• First Prize - Ariana Katz Competition, 1999
• First Prize - Ariana Katz Competition, 2006
• First Prize - Rubin Academy Competition, 2004
• First Prize - Rubin Academy Competition, 2006

External links[link]

• Le Festin dÉsope Op. 39, n° 12 by Alkan
• Klavierstücke, Op. 118, no. 6 by Brahms
• Etude "Pour les huit doigts" by Debussy
• fastforward by Alexina Louie
• La Leggierezza by Liszt
• Andante and variations in F minor, Hob.VII.6 by Hayden

Agency Europe: KulturMusikKonzepte[1]

Elizabeth Clarke (c. 1565–1645) was the first woman persecuted by the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins in 1645 in Essex, England. She was accused of witchcraft by local tailor John Rivet. Local magistrates appointed John Stearne and Hopkins to investigate. This led to further accusations and the deaths of up to 200 people. She was a woman over 80 with only one leg, who confessed after being deprived of sleep for many nights. She was then hanged.

Rebecca West, the daughter of Anne West (another of the accused), gave evidence against her in return for a reprieve.

References[link]

• The Essex Witch Trials
• The Witch-Cult in Western Europe

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