Regina Kastberg Hansen Willman (October 5, 1914 – October 28, 1965) was an American composer, born in

Burns, Wyoming Burns is a town in Laramie County, Wyoming, United States. It is part of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 301 at the 2010 census. Geography Burns is located at (41.191962, -104.358163), approximately ...

. She married

Allan Arthur Willman Allan Arthur Willman ''(variant spellings'' Alan & Wilman; ''né'' Allan Arthur Simpkins; 11 May 1909 Hinckley, Illinois 7 May 1989 Cheyenne, Wyoming) was an American classical pianist, composer, music pedagog at the collegiate level, and longt ...

in 1942; they divorced in 1956, but remained close throughout her life. Willman received a B.M. from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

in 1945, and a M.M. from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

in 1961. She studied with

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

Roy Harris Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3. Life Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestry ...

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

, and pursued further studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, the Sorbonne, and the

Lausanne Conservatory The Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU, known as Institute of Advanced Musical Studies prior to 2010, founded in 1861 as Conservatoire de Lausanne) is a Swiss music school located in Romandy, the French-speaking western part of Switzerland ...

. Willman was the resident composer of the

Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico is an artist residency program in the artists' colony of Taos, New Mexico. The Foundation, which offers prize fellowships to painters, poets, sculptors, writers, playwrights, composers, photographers an ...

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...

, from 1956–57 and 1960-61. Her papers are archived at the University of Wyoming.

Works

Regina Willman's compositions include:

Ballet

*Doves (piano) *Legend of the Willow Plate (1949; chamber orchestra)

Orchestra

*Anchorage Symphony *Design for Orchestra 1 (1948) *Design for Orchestra 2 (1953)

Piano

*Little Tailor Suite *Steel Mill (1941; two pianos) *Three Compositions for Piano

Theatre

*Music for Medea (text by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

)

Vocal

*Ante Vero Longam (1961; tenor solo, men's chorus, oboe, and piano; text by Lambertus) *Apres le Deluge (1961; high voice and piano; text by

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he s ...

) *First Holy Sonnet (voice and string trio; text by

John Donne John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...

) *O Sleep Now (1956; medium voice and piano) *Vocalise (voices and low strings)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willman, Regina Hansen American women composers 1914 births 1965 deaths University of Wyoming alumni University of New Mexico alumni Lausanne Conservatory alumni People from Wyoming