Caroline Lloyd

Caroline Grace Parkhurst Lloyd (April 12, 1924 – 1980) was an American composer, pianist and music director. Her best-known composition was the Spanish-language opera ''Doña Bárbara'' performed in the Teatro Municipal of Caracas, July 1967. The opera's libretto was provided by Isaac Chocrón and orchestrated by Hershy Kay. Other compositions include works for voice, solo piano and chamber ensemble; of note is the ().

Life and career

Caroline Grace Parkhurst was born in Uniontown, Alabama, US, on April 12, 1924. The daughter of "Mr. and Ms. T. Harmon Parkhurst", she was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1945, after piano study with both Nina Ancona and George Robert, and composition study with John Donald Robb. Her UNM education was partially funded by a scholarship from the Sigma Iota fraternity. At UNM she met Andrew Richard Lloyd, whom she married in 1946, adopting her husband's surname. The Lloyds had four children: Timothy, Angela, Richard and Christopher. Like her mother, Angela later later pursued a career in the arts as a storyteller-entertainer.

Caroline Lloyd later studied with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music. As a composer and pianist, Lloyd had taught privately since 1946, which she continued to do in Caracas, Venezuela, where the family moved in 1951. In Caracas, Lloyd was musical director of (the Venezuelan American Center) from 1955 to 1968.

Lloyd's time in Caracas saw a flurry of composition activity. Her ''Six Songs''—in full, the ()—were premiered at the of the Central University of Venezuela, shortly before 1965. The ''Six Songs'' received later performances at the UNM () and Schenectady, New York (1967). Other vocal works were written in 1968: the Three Songs to texts by Federico García Lorca and the Two Songs to texts by José Ramón Medina. Lloyd composed her best known work in Caracas, the opera ''Doña Barbara'', celebrating the city's 400th anniversary. She began composing the work in 1964, finishing in November 1966; it was premiered in July 1967 at the Teatro Municipal of Caracas. Based on the eponymous novel by Rómulo Gallegos, the Venezuelan writer Isaac Chocrón wrote the libretto, while American arranger Hershy Kay orchestrated the work.

After returning to the US, Lloyd studied at Columbia University with Donata Fornuto, Arpad Szabo and Charles Wuorinen. She continued to teach until her graduation in 1973, when Lloyd and her family moved to Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Andrew worked in Algeria, joining the family on weekends. After a year and a half, the family moved to Quito, Ecuador, returning to the United States in 1977. Caroline Lloyd died in 1980.

List of compositions

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

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* – Account run by the composer's daughter; includes archival material

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Caroline
1924 births
1980 deaths
Eastman School of Music alumni
Musicians from Santa Fe, New Mexico
20th-century American classical composers
Pupils of Bernard Rogers
American women classical composers
20th-century American women pianists
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American women composers