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Elisabetta Brusa facts for kids

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Elisabetta Brusa at home, 2015
Elisabetta Brusa, a talented composer.

Elisabetta Olga Laura Brusa was born on April 3, 1954. She is a composer from Italy and Britain. A composer is someone who writes music, often for orchestras or other groups of musicians.

Early Life and Musical Journey

Elisabetta Brusa was born in Milan, Italy. Even as a child, she loved music and wrote 32 pieces for the piano! She went to a special music school called the Milan Conservatory. There, she studied how to compose music with teachers like Bruno Bettinelli and Azio Corghi. She finished her studies in 1980.

After graduating, Elisabetta became a teacher herself. She taught composition at music schools in Vicenza, Mantova, and Brescia. Later, in 1985, she returned to teach at the Conservatorio of Milan, the same school where she had studied. She also learned from famous musicians like Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In 1983, she even appeared on a TV show called Young Italian Composers.

Awards and Recognition

Elisabetta Brusa started winning awards for her music early on. In 1982, she won first prize at a competition in Washington for a string quartet piece. A string quartet is a group of four musicians playing string instruments like violins and cellos.

The next year, she received special awards called the Fromm Music Foundation Fellowship and the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission Fellowship. These awards helped her attend special composition classes at the Tanglewood Music Center in the United States. She also received three more awards from the MacDowell Colony later on. In 1997, she married a conductor named Gilberto Serembe. A conductor is the person who leads an orchestra.

Elisabetta Brusa's Music

Elisabetta Brusa is well-known for her orchestral music. An orchestra is a large group of musicians playing many different instruments. Her music has been recorded on five albums by the Naxos Records company.

She often finds ideas for her music in books, art, and other music. However, she doesn't copy or imitate other works. Instead, she uses them as inspiration to create something new.

Some of her famous pieces include:

  • Two Symphonies (a symphony is a long piece of music for an orchestra).
  • A Requiem and a Stabat Mater (these are types of religious music).
  • Florestan: This piece is inspired by a character from the mind of the composer Robert Schumann.
  • Nittemero Symphony: This symphony gets its name from ancient Greek words for "night" and "day."
  • Messidor: This piece reminds listeners of the music from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn. She dedicated this work to her husband.
  • Other works for orchestras of different sizes, like "Fanfare," "Adagio," "Firelights," "Requiescat," "Favole," "Merlin," and "Simply Largo."

Elisabetta Brusa describes her music as "Neo-Tonality" and "Neo-Romanticism." This means her music often sounds like older, more traditional music but with a fresh, modern twist. Her harmonies, which are the way different notes sound together, are often "pandiatonic." This means they use notes from a musical scale in a free and open way.

Where Her Music Has Been Played

Elisabetta Brusa's music has been performed by many famous orchestras around the world. Some of these include:

  • The BBC Symphony Orchestra
  • The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
  • The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
  • The Ulster Orchestra
  • The BBC Philharmonic
  • The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
  • The Royal Scottish National Orchestra
  • The CBC Vancouver Orchestra
  • The State Hermitage Orchestra
  • The St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra
  • The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
  • The Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco

Notable Recordings

Here are some of the albums featuring Elisabetta Brusa's orchestral works:

  • Orchestral Works, volume 1 (Florestan, Messidor, La Triade, Nittemero Symphony, Fanfare): Naxos 8.555266, 21st Century Classics
  • Orchestral Works, volume 2 (Firelights, Adagio, Wedding Song, Requiescat, Suite Grotesque, Favole): Naxos 8.555267, 21st Century Classics
  • Orchestral Works, volume 3 (Symphony No.1, Merlin): Naxos 8.573437, 21st Century Classics
  • Orchestral Works, volume 4 (Symphony No.2, Simply Largo): Naxos 8.574263, 21st Century Classics
  • Orchestral Works, volume 5 (Requiem, Stabat Mater): Naxos 8.574589, 21st Century Classics
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