(1927 -
)
There is a midwestern grassroots quality to her music, and it is perhaps partly her midwestern upbringing (she hails from Kansas City, Missouri) that helped form her long-held belief "that music related to the people rather than to a theory or a formula speaks most clearly and most effectively." Thus, her compositions are written always within the context of particular situations, for as many mediums as possible, for various levels of performers and listeners and, quite importantly, for people other than herself and her fellow composers - which is not to say that musicologists looking for complexity, innovation and experimentation will not also find these in her music.
That she is also a practicing musician - an organist, she plays the organ at church on Sundays whenever she can - has surely helped her compose music that is worthwhile and that she hopes will appeal to many discerning music lovers and pass the test of time. Her works include many choral works, a lot of organ music, concertos (for piano, harpsichord, flute, oboe, marimba and other instruments), chamber music, song cycles, hymns and a few band works. For her compositions, commissions, recordings and other achievements, she has received numerous awards and prizes.
Today, she resides in Santa Barbara where she is Professor Emeritus at the University of California and composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony and where she continues to write music and explore new media, this time with the aid of computer and synthesizer --- a composer who, in her own well-chosen words "has lived twice as long as Schubert!, as long as Bach!, eventually - if all goes as planned - an active octogenarian-composer à la Verdi."