Marjorie Merryman (born 1951) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, author, and music educator. She is a member of the composition faculty at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

since 2007, where she also served as Interim President, Provost and Senior Vice President at Manhattan School of Music. She previously taught at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and

Macalester College Macalester College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college ha ...

. While at BU, she was commissioned by many professional musical ensembles to write pieces ranging from small chamber works to a full opera. She has written and published pieces such as "Chinese Moon Poems", a women's choral piece based on Chinese poems about the moon. Merryman categorizes herself with other twentieth-century composers heavily influenced by

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

—in particular, serialist composers such as those of the

Second Viennese School The Second Viennese School () was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was initially characterized by late ...

. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including two prizes from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Walter Hinrichsen Award, presented annually by

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

and in 2014, the "Arts and Letters Award in Music: "This award is given in recognition of "…. outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges the composer who has arrived at his or her own voice." She has also received the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music, the WBZ Fund for the Arts, and ComposersInc (Lee Ettelson Award). Among her other awards are fellowships or grants from Tanglewood, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts - Meet the Composer program. She has been Composer-in- Residence of the New England Philharmonic and the Billings (MT) Symphony Orchestra, and has served on the boards of the New England Composers’ Orchestra, the Lily Boulanger Foundation, Alea III and many others. Her works are published by C.F. Peters, E.C. Schirmer, APNM, and G. Schirmer; and recorded on the Koch and New World labels.

Publications

*Merryman, Marjorie (1996): ''The Music Theory Handbook'' Schirmer; 1st edition 144 pp . (This is a concise and methodical introduction to both tonal and atonal music analysis. The book is taught at many American music schools, including Boston University.)

References

External links

Manhattan School of Music faculty page, accessed 8 February 2010Arts Editor (D'lynne Plummer) on Cantata Singers performing Boston Premiere of Merryman's One Blood, accessed 8 February 2010
1951 births 20th-century American classical composers 21st-century American classical composers American women classical composers Boston University faculty Living people Macalester College faculty Manhattan School of Music faculty American music educators American women music educators 20th-century American women composers 21st-century American women composers American women academics {{US-composer-20thC-stub