Ruth Lomon (7 November 1930 – 26 September 2017) was a Canadian classical composer. A native of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, Canada, she was born in Montreal and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She attended le Conservatoire de Quebec and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. She continued her studies with

Francis Judd Cooke Francis Judd Cooke (December 28, 1910 – May 18, 1995) was an American composer, organist, cellist, pianist, conductor, choir director, and professor. Life Cooke was born December 28, 1910 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a family of New England missi ...

at the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on ...

and later with

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyma ...

at Dartington College in England. In 1998, Lomon became Composer/Resident Scholar at the

Women's Studies Research Center , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pr ...

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

. She composed an oratorio, ''Testimony of Witnesses'', for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. She was the recipient of a grant from the Hadassah International Research Center (now the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute) for this work. She was commissioned by the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Boston to compose a trumpet concerto, ''Odyssey'', for

Charles Schlueter Charles Schlueter, born in Du Quoin, Illinois, is the retired principal trumpeter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Schlueter studied with William Vacchiano at the Juilliard School. Prior to his 25 years as principal of the BSO, he also held po ...

, principal trumpet of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1 ...

. During 1995-96, Lomon was a fellow of the Bunting Institute,

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, where she composed "Songs of Remembrance," a song cycle on poems of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. This hour length work was premiered at Harvard University's

John Knowles Paine John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839 – April 25, 1906) was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music. The senior member of a group of composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Paine was one of tho ...

Concert Hall, and has since had numerous performances including the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

, Washington, D.C. in April 1998, and the IAWM Congress in London, England, in July 1999 where she received the

Miriam Gideon Miriam Gideon (October 23, 1906 – June 18, 1996) was an American composer. Life Miriam Gideon was born in Greeley, Colorado, on October 23, 1906. She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with ...

Composition award for this work. In 2001, she also received the Chicago Professional Musicians Award for the 10th song of the cycle, which is set for mezzo-soprano,

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

and piano. "Songs of Remembrance" is recorded on the CRI label. Lomon was composer-in-residence for Boston Secession, a professional choral ensemble directed by

Jane Ring Frank Jane Ring Frank (born 1960 in Los Angeles, California) is a female American Choral Conductor who leads music publisher E.C. Schirmer's Philovox Recording Chorus. She founded the Boston Secession, which is a professional chorus, in 1996, and was the ...

. Lomon composed her oratorio ''Testimony of Witnesses'' for them and they performed movements of the work from 2000-2008. A full length oratorio based on the poetry of

victims and survivors, ''Testimony of Witnesses'' is scored for chamber orchestra, vocal ensemble, and four vocal soloists. The texts — in Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Polish, English and Yiddish — represent the personal experience of sixteen survivors and victims, including ten individual women and children.

References

External links

Official websiteArsis PressI Resound Press
bruceduffie.com, 9 August 1990 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lomon, Ruth 1930 births 2017 deaths Canadian classical composers American women classical composers American classical composers Radcliffe fellows McGill University alumni New England Conservatory alumni Brandeis University faculty 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American composers 20th-century women composers Canadian women composers