Ruth Lomon facts for kids

Ruth Lomon (born November 7, 1930 – died September 26, 2017) was a talented Canadian classical composer. She was born in Montreal, Canada, and later passed away in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Early Life and Musical Training

Ruth Lomon started her musical journey by studying at le Conservatoire de Quebec and McGill University. She loved learning and continued her studies with famous teachers like Francis Judd Cooke at the New England Conservatory of Music. She even traveled to England to learn from Witold Lutosławski at Dartington College. These experiences helped her become the amazing composer she was.

Important Musical Works

Ruth Lomon created many important musical pieces throughout her life. Her music often told powerful stories and touched people's hearts.

Testimony of Witnesses

In 1998, Ruth Lomon became a Composer/Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. During this time, she composed a large musical work called an oratorio (a big piece for singers and an orchestra) titled Testimony of Witnesses. This oratorio was written for solo singers, a choir, and an orchestra. It was a very important project, and she even received a grant from the Hadassah International Research Center (now the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute) to help her create it.

The Testimony of Witnesses oratorio was based on poems written by victims and survivors of the Holocaust. It used texts in many different languages, including Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Polish, English, and Yiddish. The music shared the personal stories of sixteen survivors and victims, including ten women and children.

Odyssey and Songs of Remembrance

Ruth Lomon was also asked by the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Boston to compose a trumpet concerto (a piece for a trumpet soloist and orchestra). This piece was called Odyssey and was written for Charles Schlueter, who was the main trumpet player for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

From 1995 to 1996, Lomon was a fellow at the Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College. Here, she composed "Songs of Remembrance," which is a song cycle (a group of songs meant to be performed together) also based on poems about the Holocaust. This hour-long work was first performed at Harvard University's John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. It has been performed many times since then, including at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and at the IAWM Congress in London, England. In London, she received the Miriam Gideon Composition award for this powerful work. In 2001, she also won the Chicago Professional Musicians Award for one of the songs in the cycle. "Songs of Remembrance" was recorded on the CRI music label.

Composer-in-Residence

Ruth Lomon was also the composer-in-residence for Boston Secession, which is a professional choir led by Jane Ring Frank. She composed parts of her oratorio Testimony of Witnesses for them, and they performed movements from the work between 2000 and 2008.