Olga Gorelli

Olga Gorelli, (born June 14, 1920 Bologna, Italy, died February 18, 2006) was well known for her musical talents as a composer and pianist.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Born14 June 1920

Bologna, Italy

Died18 February 2006 (aged 85)

Pennington, New Jersey, USA

AlmamaterImmaculata College, the Curtis Institute of Music, Smith College, Yale University School of Music

OccupationsComposer, Pianist

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Olga Gorelli
Born	(1920-06-14)14 June 1920 Bologna, Italy
Died	18 February 2006(2006-02-18) (aged 85) Pennington, New Jersey, USA
Alma mater	Immaculata College, the Curtis Institute of Music, Smith College, Yale University School of Music
Occupations	Composer, Pianist

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Life and career

Olga Gorelli, maiden name Gratch, she immigrated to the United States in 1937 with her family and settled in New Jersey. She married a physician, and had two children. She was a resident of Pennington, New Jersey.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Gorelli began composing as a child in Italy and her first little piano pieces were published in Italy when she was ten years old.^[7] She pursued her music studies in the U.S., graduating from Immaculata College, the Curtis Institute of Music, Smith College, and the Yale University School of Music, and pursued graduate work at the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers included Rosario Scalero, Gian Carlo Menotti, Quincy Porter, Paul Hindemith, and Darius Milhaud.^[8]^[9]

Gorelli taught music theory at Hollins College, and piano at Trenton State College. She also taught privately at her home and composed each morning up until the last weeks of her life.

She has written orchestral and choral pieces, many songs for voice with various instruments, a mass, two operas, two dance dramas, and several works for different combinations of strings, brass, and woodwinds.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

Recordings

Rosenfeld, Jayn and Vas, Meg. "The River." By Olga Gorelli. Jersey Sessions, Volume 2. Composers Guild of New Jersey Archived 2012-03-30 at the Wayback Machine (CGNJ1290), 1990. CD.
Cervantes, Ana. "Serenade: I Carry Your Heart With Me." By Olga Gorelli. Amore de la Danza. Ana L. Cervantes and John Baker Recordings (CERV1198), December 1998, July 2002. CD.
Anderson, William and Wolf, Marc. "Paolo e Francesca." By Olga Gorelli. Hausmusik. 20th Century Chamber Music for the Home. Furious Artisans (FACD6802), 2000. Innova (INNOVA310), 2010. CD.
Anderson, William and Wolf, Marc. "Silent Moon." By Olga Gorelli. Hausmusik. 20th Century Chamber Music for the Home. Furious Artisans (FACD6802), 2000. Innova (INNOVA310), 2010. CD.
Anderson, William and Wolf, Marc. "Mechanical Man." By Olga Gorelli. Hausmusik. 20th Century Chamber Music for the Home. Furious Artisans (FACD6802), 2000. Innova (INNOVA310), 2010. CD.

Pedagogical writings

Manual for teaching music skills. Book 1. With songs by Olga Gorelli. Minneapolis, T.S. Denison. 53p. T.S. Denison & Co. Inc. 27 March 1968; Library of Congress record A97B936. Accessed July 5, 2011.
Manual for teaching music skills. Book 3. With songs by Olga Gorelli. Minneapolis, T.S. Denison. 65 p. T.S. Denison & Co., Inc. 10 Dec 1968; Library of Congress record A35636. Accessed July 5, 2011.

Notes

[1]
Holland, Bernard. "Concert: N.Y.U. Offers New Music", New York Times, June 26, 1983, p.44. "New York University has been offering a series of new-music concerts at the Loeb Center and Thursday installment centered mostly on composers from New Jersey. The evening varied widely in quality and style, ranging from rigorous and ascetic-sounding music for solo clarinet by Ron Mazurek and Eve Beglarian to Rachmaninoff-like Russianisms from Olga Gorelli."
[2]
Fruchter, Rena. "Composers to Star in Three-Day Festival", New York Times, June 3, 1990, p.NJ19. "Of the composers whose works will be represented on Friday's program, six are New Jersey residents - Mr. Pollock, Frank Brickle, Olga Gorelli, Phillip Moore, Paul Gallaher and Milton Babbitt."
[3]
Fruchter, Rena. "Pageant is Returning with a More 'Joyful' Air", New York Times, December 16, 1990, p.NJ10. "The free program will also feature music by four New Jersey composers - Claudio Spies, Moshe Budmore, Olga Gorelli and Gordon Myers."
[4]
Strauss, Elaine. "A Concert to Honor Volunteers for the Homeless", U.S. 1 Newspaper, January 26, 2005. Accessed February 15, 2011. "Olga Gorelli is a Pennington-based composer and leader in New Jersey's musical life; her compositions experiment with both words and music."
[5]
Fruchter, Rena. "Sounds of Christmas", New York Times, December 15, 1991, p. NJ15. "The Composers Guild of New Jersey will hold its annual holiday program on Saturday at 4:00 P.M. Called "A Winter Solstice Holiday Benefit Celebrations", will be held at the Pennington home of the composer Olga Gorelli and will feature works for guitar by Ms. Gorelli and by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Milton Babbitt, a Princeton resident."
[6]
"Piano Recital to Benefit Roosevelt Bulletin" Deprecated link archived 2013-01-25 at archive.today, The Examiner, November 1, 2000. Accessed August 20, 2011. "The program will reprise some of the music from Cervantes' November 3 concert, part of the Smithsonian Institution's "Piano 300" exhibit in Washington, D.C., as well as works of New Jersey composers Olga Gorelli, Laurie Altman and Brad Garton."
[7]
Plett, Nicole. "Poems from Nature and Beyond” Archived 2012-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. 1 Newspaper, September 23, 1998. Accessed July 5, 2011. "Gorelli, who began composing music as a child in her native Italy, studied in the United States with Gian Carlo Menotti, Paul Hindemith, and Darius Milhaud."
[8]
Lowen Finn, Terri. "New Works to be Heard at Free Concert", New York Times, October 21, 1984, p. NJ10. "Miss Gorelii, who lives in Pennington, studied with Darius Milhaud at Tanglewood and Paul Hindemith at Yale."
[9]
Fruchter, Rena. "Day for Composers to Be in Spotlight", New York Times, January 8, 1995, p. NJ14. "Ms. Gorelli will speak about her experiences with three influential composers with whom she studied - Paul Hindemith, Gian Carlo Menotti and Darius Milhaud."
[10]
Kozinn, Allan. "Flutist's Debut Displays Variety of Styles", New York Times, November 30, 1988, p. C20. "She (Elizabeth Tallman) also brought the picturesque flute writing in Olga Gorelli's "River" suite to life. Ms. Gorelli's work, which was given its world premier, is based on a poem by Ms. Tallman and was a likable addition not only to the flute literature but also to the growing body of abidingly lyrical 12-tone works."
[11]
"On the Towns", New York Times, April 6, 1997, p. NJ14. "The Cygnus Ensamble in Works by Joyce Orenstein, Justinian Tamusuza, Rashid Kallimoullin, Olga Gorelli and William Anderson."
[12]
Rose, Pete. “In Living Color! Some Music Can Be Brought Alive with the Use of a Broad Palette of Color Fingerings” Archived 2012-03-31 at the Wayback Machine, American Recorder, March 1996, volume 37, issue 2, p. 12-15. "To provide an accessible example of how color fingerings can be used, I have selected a piece called Longing by Olga Gorelli. It was originally written for flute, but is thoroughly playable on alto recorder."
[13]
Broege, Tim. "On the Cutting Edge. Contemporary Legato", American Recorder, January 2008, volume 49, issue 1, p. 24-25. "In the lovely solo piece Longing by the late New Jersey composer Olga Gorelli, the long slurs are phrase indications. On flute, for which the music was originally written, full slurring (complete legato) is effective and quite beautiful."
[14]
"Weekend Plus Soundings" Archived 2011-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, The Cranford Chronicle, February 24–26, 1993. Accessed August 20, 2011. "New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra. Sunday, March 7, 3 p.m. United Methodist Church, George Street, New Brunswick. Premier of yet-to-be-titled work by Olga Gorelli."

Life and career

Recordings

Pedagogical writings

Notes

External links

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