| Marilyn Bliss was educated at Coe College and the University of Pennsylvania; she counts among her teachers such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Jacob Druckman. She has written many widely performed orchestral, chamber, and solo works. Her many awards include the Charles Ives Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Young Composers Award, fellowships from Tanglewood, the Composers Conference and the New York Foundation for the Arts as well as commissions from numerous musical associations, chamber ensembles, and performing artists. Bliss is an active concert flutist and has served as president of the New York Women Composers. |
| Iowa-born and New York-based Marilyn Bliss (b. 1954) has written many widely performed orchestral, chamber, and solo works. Educated at Coe College and the University of Pennsylvania, she counts among her teachers such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Jerry Owen, and Harvey Sollberger. She has won such awards as a Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Young Composers Award, Best New Flute Music citations from the National Flute Association, and has received fellowships from Tanglewood, the Composers Conference, and the New York Foundation for the Arts as well as commissions from the Haydn-Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Powell Quartet, the flutists James Zellers and James Pellerite, and the National Flute Association. Ms. Bliss is particularly interested in relating music to the natural world, art, and poetry. About her orchestral piece Huatzu Hill, the Boston Globe said "…a series of rich landscapes - the colors sharp, the feelings powerfully concentrated, the language eloquent, the expression precise." Records International Catalogue calls her piano work Fantasies "a virtuosic, highly varied work, fantastic and wide-ranging." Her Rima for piccolo and piano has been used as a standard contest piece for the National Flute Association's piccolo competition. Several of Ms. Bliss's recent scores have featured the Native American flute, both as a solo instrument and in combination with other instruments. Ms. Bliss has been President of New York Women Composers since 1992. Her music has been performed throughout the world; in 1996 she was a guest of the SS. Cyril and Methodius Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria, and in 1999 a guest of the Fechin Institute in Taos, New Mexico. Her works have also recently been performed in Moscow and Armenia. Ms.Bliss is published by Marimba Productions (www.mostlymarimba.com), and Zalo/JP-Publications. Several of her works have been recorded: Fantasies for piano is on the North/South Recordings label; Rima for piccolo and piano appears on the Koch label (3-7396-2-H1), and Phantom Breeze for Native American flute can be found on the JP-Publications label. |
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