Joan Tower is 85 today!

I saw her at intermission during one of the concerts at the Bard Music Festival devoted to Ralph Vaughan Williams, but I didn’t ask her for a picture, because I’d never interviewed her or worked with her in any way, and I didn’t want to come across as a trophy hunter!

And now, well, here we are.

Tower, widely regarded as one of America’s foremost living composers, is also one of the most successful women in the field. I have to say, she looks great for 85. I wouldn’t have guessed it.

Treat yourself to a Tower of power. Happy birthday, J.T.!

“Petroushskates” (1980), combining Tower’s loves of Stravinsky – and figure skating! Either start or end with this one, because it’s a treat.

“Made in America” (2004), a musical appreciation of the United States by a composer who spent many of her formative years in Bolivia (where her father managed the tin mines). Listen to how she weaves “America the Beautiful” into the orchestral fabric.

“Island Prelude” (1988), an atmospheric landscape employing solo oboe

“Fifth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” (1993). The first five in this loose collection of fanfares were composed between 1986 and 1993. A sixth followed two decades later. The works were conceived as tributes to “women who are adventurous and take risks.”

Tower speaks on the importance of new music. She’s been refining some of these observations for at least the past three decades. There has been some improvement in terms of the development of new music groups, powered by some preternaturally talented young musicians. Still, a lot of the points remain pertinent and many of them sadly unaddressed.

An earlier expression of these concerns in an interview conducted by Bruce Duffie in 1987

http://www.bruceduffie.com/tower.html

Tower has been on the faculty of Bard College since 1972.