Tamara Cashour
Composer/Arranger/Collaborative Pianist
RESUME (for a list of compositions see COMPOSITIONS tab)
COMPOSER’S STATEMENT:
My special area of interest as a composer is in the creation of new interdisciplinary and hybrid forms that test the boundaries of reified amalgams of music, theatre and performance. Many composers today (myself included) work by commission or otherwise in pre-conceived or older forms: I seek new forms that
may or may not include avant-garde content. Much of the contemporary avant-garde is developed in the domain of technics, yet new technologies do not necessarily produce new, groundbreaking forms. Form differs from: adaptation, arrangement, reimagining and deconstruction, although the latter may give rise to new forms.
"Stop worrying if your vision is new...Let others make that decision...they usually do...just keep Moving On"--Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George)
COMPOSER AWARDS:
2022--The American Prize; 2nd Place: Music-Social Justice Related. 3rd Place: Professional Choral Composition, Short-form (Both awards for FORBEARANCE)
2021--City Arts Corps Award (in conjunction with the New York Foundation for the Arts and with my opera company OperAvant Inc.))
2020--Bronx Council on the Arts ARTS Award for a New Composition/Project (FORBEARANCE)20--Bronx Council on the Arts ARTS Award for a New Composition/Project (Forbearance)
2015--Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Award for Musical Composition,
2015--IAWM (International Alliance of Women in Music) International Conference Winning Score: Queens Suite
2007-2023--ASCAPlus Awards (selected years)
2008--First Place: FOR WOMEN ONLY Composition Contest (New York Treble Singers)
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COMPOSER COMMISSIONS:
Bronx Concert Singers (choral work)
Miriam de Leon (musical theatre arrangements)
Mark Northcross (chamber music work for strings and vocal trio S,M,T)
Carol Stone (song cycle of Emily Dickinson songs)
OperAvant, Inc. (theatre incidental music)
Elizabeth Szynczak (blues/jazz arrangements)
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RECENT REVIEWS:
Vocal Concert Review:
"Tamara Cashour’s Five Introits followed. Conceived for the brief, crucial and defining introductory moment of Protestant services that open the liturgy, these five extremely short works were jewels of effective musical writing: each work captured the essence of the sacred text coherently and immediately. As a Hart Longs was a paradigm of spiritual yearning; Be Strong and of Good Courage! was operatic in its noble vigor; O Sing Unto the Lord a New Song danced." ---Jean Ballard Terepka for Theatrescene
Instrumental Concert Review:
"Tamara Cashour's original intention with her Two Short Pieces was to combine the highest and lowest orchestral instruments. Ultimately, she opted for solo works instead. Barto trilled her way through the first one on piccolo. Harry Searing followed, steady, thoughtful and serious on contrabassoon for the second: to the composer’s credit, she managed to avert the trap where a device like a fanfare or a jovial stroll can get unintentionally droll if you take it far enough down the scale. ---delarue for New York Music Daily. February 14, 2023. Fun With New Pieces From the New York Composers Circle | New York Music Daily (wordpress.com) ***
ACADEMIC DEGREES:
B.A. Music Theory, Columbia University 1983
M.A. Music Directing and Performance, New York University 2000
MFA Music Composition, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2023
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WRITER: MUSICOLOGICAL ARTICLES AND PAPERS AND/OR ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS/READINGS:
Presenter/”Provacateur”: GETTYSBURG COLLEGE (for The Mayday Group): The Impact of Music Technologies on Music Education, June 2014
Panelist: THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, Washington, D.C. (for the “Words and Music by Note-able Women” panel discussion sponsored by The American Women Writers Museum), Janice Law, Director, October 2013
Presenter (Pianist/Composer): BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY (for the Alive By Her Own Hand Conference, (women composers who play their own music): Six Lyrics of Marilyn Hacker, January 2011
Presenter (Reader/Lecturer): TRUMAN STATE UNIVERSITY (for the Composing Women Conference)--Deconstructing Poulenc-Cocteau’s LA VOIX HUMAINE,
October 2010
Presenter (Lecturer/Video): ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, (for the National Association Of Women’s Studies Association Annual Convention)--It Ain’t Over Til the Fat Lady Dies: Feminist Flouting of Operatic Convention, June 1997
Unpublished Paper: Marilyn, The Opera: The Persistence of Pathos: an analysis of the New York City Opera’s 1993 staging of Ezra Laderman’s opera MARILYN (recommended for publication by Professor Peggy Phelan, Chair Performance Studies at NYU [now at Stanford University]), 1993
Paper pending publication; will make available on Academia.edu when that process is secured.
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MUSIC AND MUSIC BOOK CRITICISM/WRITINGS (published online and hard copy):
IAWM JOURNAL (INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF WOMEN IN MUSIC) BOOK & CD REVIEWS
--Book Review: Read here: (21) IAWM BOOK REVIEW-Technology & the Gendering of Music Education | Tamara Cashour - Academia.edu
Book available here: Technology and the Gendering of Music Education - 1st Edition - Victor (routledge.com)
--CD Review: Jane Wang Considers the Dragonfly: The Music of Elena Ruehr Read here: Fall 2009 TOC nov9.pmd (iawm.org
CD available here: Elena Ruehr: Jane Wang Considers the Dragonfly by Elena Ruehr - Amazon.com Music
--CD Review: Elena Ruehr: Six String Quartets Read here: Vol24_No2_Fall2018.pdf (iawm.org
CD available here: Elena Ruehr: Six String Quartets by Cypress String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet & Stephen Salters on Amazon Music - Amazon.com
--CD Review: Lydia Kakabadse: Ithaka: Vocal and Choral Works Read here: iawm-journal-volume-27-no2-2021v1.pdf
CD available here: Lydia Kakabadse: Ithaka - Divine Art: DDA25188 - CD or download | Presto Music
MUSIKPRODUKTION HOEFLICH PREFACES
--Franz Lachners' orchestration of Schubert's Miriam's Siegesgesang: Franz Schubert / F. Lachner - Mirjam’s Siegesgesang (musikmph.de)/prefaces/4049/html
--Alexandre Glazunov's Introduction et Danse du Salomee: Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov - Introduction et la Danse de Salomé Op. 90 (musikmph.de)/4464/html
--Richard Strauss - Walzerfolgen 1 and 2 from Der Rosenkavalier: Richard Strauss - Walzerfolgen 1 and 2 from Der Rosenkavalier (musikmph.de)/prefaces/4678.html
MUSIC CRITICISM/CONCERT REVIEWS:
--Womens Philharmonic Advocacy Concert Review:: https://wophil.org/concert-review-ustvolskaya-and-eckhardt-gramatte-featured-by-the-symphony-of-the-city-of-new-york/?doing_wp_cron=1575952245.7451899051666259765625
--Book Review for The Journal of the Kapralova Society. Ania Bunzel: The Songs of Johanna Kinkel: Genesis, Reception, Content
Read here: journal37.pub (kapralova.org)
INTERDISCIPLINARY:
--Phenomenology Online (reviews@ophen.org): http://reviews.ophen.org/2018/09/01/dana-s-belu-heidegger-reproductive-technology-the-motherless-age-review/
COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY WRITINGS:
-The Barnard Bulletin (college newspaper of Barnard College) --request pdfs of music reviews (opera/chamber/piano/choral, and other articles)
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COMPOSER AFFILIATIONS:
NEW YORK COMPOSERS CIRCLE, INC. (NEW YORK COMPOSERS CIRCLE)
ASCAP (AMERICAN SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS, AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS)
INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF WOMEN IN MUSIC (IAWM)