Miriam Gideon

about

Miriam Gideon (23 October 1906 - 18 June 1996) was an American composer. She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with Martin Bernstein, Marion Bauer, Charles Haubiel, and Jacques Pillois. She studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition with Lazare Saminsky and at his suggestion also composition with Roger Sessions after which she abandoned tonality and wrote in a freely atonal or extended post-tonal style (Hisama 2001, pp. 6-7). Born in Greeley, Colorado, she moved to New York City where she taught at Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY) from 1944 to 1954 and City College, CUNY from 1947 to 1955. She then taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at the invitation of Hugo Weisgall in 1955, and at the Manhattan School of Music from 1967 to 1991. She was rehired by City College in 1971 as full professor and retired in 1976. (ibid) In 1949 she married Frederic Ewen. Both political leftists, they became victims of McCarthyism, Ewen resigning from Brooklyn College to avoid naming names, Gideon being fired from the same and resigning from City College to also avoid naming leftist colleges (ibid.). Gideon composed much vocal music, setting texts by Francis Thompson, Christian Morgenstern, Anne Bradstreet, Norman Rosten, Serafin and Joaquín Quintero and others (ibid.). She was the second woman inducted into American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1975, Louise Talma being the first in 197

top songs

albums

A Miriam Gideon Retrospective

▥

Psalms Of Joy And Sorrow

Music of Miriam Gideon

▥

Childhood Memories: Music for Younger Pianists

▥

Solo Piano Works by 20th Century Women Composers

▥

New Historical Anthology of Music by Women

▥

Aequalis: Brody/Davidovsky/Gideon/Steiger/Ung

▥

New Music for the Piano (Robert Helps, piano)

Elation: Works by Gideon, Jaffe, and Lindroth

▥

Vocal Recital: Field, Lucille - Rogers, P. / Crawford, R. / Van De Vate, N. / Gideon, M. / Price, F. / Klotzman, D.

▥

New Cantatas and Madrigals

▥

Miriam Gideon & Hugo Weisgall: Song Cycles

similar artists