VERCOE, Elizabeth

“an exceptionally gifted composer with a fine technical command and a keen sensitivity to sound materials” (Gardner Read )

Elizabeth Vercoe has been a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, the St. Petersburg Spring Music Festival in Russia, the Cité International des Arts in Paris, and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. She has written works on commission for Wellesley College, Austin Peay State University, and the Pro Arte Orchestra. Her awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the Artists Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council, and her music is published by Noteworthy Sheet Music, Certosa Verlag, and Arsis Press and recorded on the Owl, Capstone, Navona, Leonarda, and Centaur labels. In 2014 her Elegy for viola and piano was selected for performance at Bruno Walter Hall in Lincoln Center for a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the American Music Center, and in 2016 and 2019 her Irreveries from Sappho was performed at Tanglewood.. A dissertation (J. Capaldo, Elizabeth Vercoe: Composing Her Story) about her vocal music is available online.

Described by Gardner Read as “an exceptionally gifted composer with a fine technical command and a keen sensitivity to sound materials,” she has attended concerts of her music in London, Paris, Bangkok, New York, and San Francisco, as well as international Festivals in Russia and Alaska. After receiving her doctoral degree at Boston University, she promoted women’s music as a board member of the International League of Women Composers, Director of the Women’s Music Festival/85, and author of articles on the subject. In 2003 she held the Acuff Chair of Excellence at Austin Peay State University. Her music includes the Herstory series of vocal works on texts by women, two staged monodramas, Changes: A little music for Mozart for orchestra,and music for various chamber combinations.