Herbert Bielawa

Herbert Bielawa (1930-2016) was an American composer and educator. He was a composer in all genres, well-known for his much-performed Spectrum for Band and Tape. He was also a performing pianist and conductor, founding director of the Sounds New contemporary music ensemble and a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo with harpsichordist Sandra Soderlund. He was a professor for 25 years at San Francisco State University where he founded the contemporary performing group Pro Musica Nova, created the electronic music and computer music studios, and developed courses for both of them. Bielawa’s music covers a wide variety of genres including mixed instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band, and orchestra. Bielawa studied composition at the University of Illinois under Burrill Phillips, Gordon Binkerd, and Robert Kelly. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the University of Southern California where his teachers were Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens. At the Aspen School he worked with Darius Mihaud, Lukas Foss, Roger Sessions, and Elliott Carter. He was composer-in-residence for the Spring Branch School System in Houston under the Contemporary Music Project from 1964 to 1966. There he wrote music for the ensembles of seven local high schools. In 1975 he was the composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Summer Music Project sponsored by the San Francisco Symphony and the School District. More recent residencies were in 2000 for the San Francisco Choral Artists and in 2005 for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, California. He has had several artist residencies. Bielawa has had commissions from Meet the Composer, the Minneapolis Convention Center, the San Francisco School of the Arts, the American Guild of Organists, Earplay, and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, organist Pamela Decker and Dutch pianist Monique Copper. Some of the soloists who have performed his works are hornist Barry Tuckwell, sopranos Darleen Kliewer, Anna Carol Dudley, Marian Marsh and Judy Hubbell; baritone, Eric Howe; pianists Jerry Kuderna, Karen Rosenack, and Marvin Tartak; and organists Sandra Soderlund, Alexander Post, Delbert Disselhorst, Pamela Decker and John Fenstermaker. His music has also been performed by the San Francisco Girls Chorus under Elizabeth Appling and Sharon Paul, North/South Consonance under Max Lifchitz, the San Francisco Choral Artists under Magen Solomon, Earplay, and Sounds New. As a pianist Bielawa earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Illinois under Soulima Stravinsky and Claire Richards. At San Francisco State he performed with the university orchestra and in ensembles as pianist and conductor. His interest in American music, particularly that of women, led to a series of concerts of music by Amy Beach and himself with soprano Darleen Kliewer in 1986 and 1987. As a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo with keyboardist Sandra Soderlund, he performs as soloist and in duo music for combinations of clavichord, harpsichord and piano. He also performs with Sounds New, a Bay Area new music ensemble. Bielawa was a member of the faculties of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, and of San Francisco State University. Since 1991 he was free-lance composer and pianist living in Kensington, California. He died on December 23, 2016, at age 85.

MacDowell

MacDowell NYC

Studios

Phi Beta

Herbert Bielawa

Studios

Phi Beta

Share