Elizabeth R. Austin

Elizabeth R. Austin (born 1938) is an American organist and composer.

Life

Elizabeth Austin was born in Baltimore and studied at the Peabody Conservatory Preparatory school. She continued her studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris,^[1] and graduated with a master's degree from the Hartt School, University of Hartford, and a doctorate from the University of Connecticut.^[2]

While completing her studies, Austin taught music at the Hartt School, and she continues to work as an organist at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Windham Center. She married Gerhard Austin, and lives in Mannheim for three months of each year. In 1990 she helped initiate a faculty/student exchange with the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik Heidelberg-Mannheim. She translates books and scholarly papers and acts as an interpreter for German-speaking composers. In 1997 she assisted with an international exchange between Connecticut Composers, Inc. and Brandenburg composers, supported by the Musikakademie Rheinsberg of Germany.^[3]

Honors and awards

• First Prize, David Lipscomb Electronic Music Competition for Klavier Double (1983)
• First Prize, IAWM's Miriam Gideon Composition Competition for A Hommage for Hildegard (1998)
• Selected by GEDOK (Society of Women Artists in German-speaking countries) to represent Mannheim-Ludwigshafen in the Lubeck seventieth-year anniversary exhibition (Spring, 1996)
• GEDOK retrospective concert in Mannheim, June 1998

Works

Selected works include:

• When the Song of the Angels is Stilled for mixed chorus a cappella
• Homage for Hildegard (1997)
• Klavier Double for piano and tape (1983)
• Water Music I: Beside still waters... for cello octet
• Drei Rilke Lieder for middle voice and piano (1958)
• B-A-C-Homage for viola and piano (2007)

Her music has been recorded and issued on CD, including:

• Society of Composers, Inc.: Songfest (1995)

References