Alba Rosa Viëtor

Alba Rosa Viëtor (July 18, 1889 – April 15, 1979) was an Italian-born violinist and composer who settled in the United States in 1919.

Biography
Alba Rosa grew up in Milan, where she was admitted to the Milan Conservatory at the age of 8. She was the youngest student ever to be admitted. At the age of 14 she continued her studies in Brussels, after a short stay in Uruguay. Here she studied under the famed violinist César Thomson and later she studied under the creator of the Sevcik violin method, Otakar Ševčík. One of his notable students was Jan Kubelík, who would become her mentor and to whose memory she dedicated her Elegie. In 1919 she settled permanently in the United States, and married Jan Fresemann Viëtor, a Dutch businessman who was a skilled amateur violinist.

After a successful career as a violinist, in 1916 she played alongside Camille Saint-Saëns on piano during a tour in Argentina, she decided to end this and dedicated herself completely to composing.

After her divorce (the marriage was dissolved in 1940; Jan died in 1953 in Panama) she became a member of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors. She composed prolifically for orchestra, voice and various solo instruments. Several American orchestras and soloists including the National Gallery of Art Symphony Orchestra and the Frost Symphony Orchestra, have performed her works. Her compositions were performed in the same program as Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and John Philip Sousa by the National Gallery Orchestra in 1950.

The most important element that dominates all of Alba Rosa Vietor's work is not the form but rather the mood she wishes to convey. Lawrence A. Johnson calls one of her best known works, Primavera Lombarda (Springtime in Lombardy), "an intriguing moody Mediterranean tone poem".

After her death in 1979 her compositions fell into oblivion. Due to the initiative of her son Hendrik Viëtor to digitize the works of his mother, her works have been performed more frequently since 2003.

Her works have been archived by the Marta & Austin Weeks Music Library of the University of Miami.

The Alba Rosa Viëtor Foundation and Alba Rosa Viva! chamber music festival
The Alba Rosa Viëtor Foundation was founded by Mary van Veen-Viëtor, Hermance Viëtor and Maarten van Veen in 2009 to promote knowledge of Rosa Viëtor's music and to encourage improvisation and composition, particularly by female composers. The Foundation has published a book, The Story of Alba Rosa Viëtor: Violinist and Composer 1889–1979 (2009), which includes essays about her works by Paul Janssen and Peter Fraser MacDonald, as well as a list of compositions. The Foundation have also released a CD with a recording of her Piano Trio Op. 8 by the Storioni Trio.

In 2014, the Foundation started a biannual chamber music festival, Alba Rosa Viva! This festival is not only intended to make the works of Alba Rosa heard, but also to draw attention to other female composers, whose works are rarely heard in the classical music halls. Some recent compositions are always part of the festival program. The Festival is an idea of artistic director Reinild Mees, who had already put Alba Rosa Viëtor’s music in the spotlight during the Women's Music Marathon in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

The Foundation also organizes the biennial Alba Rosa Viëtor Composition Competition for composers up to 35 years old, with a jury headed by composer Willem Jeths. The compositions of the finalists are performed during the festival.

Compositions
Source:

Works for piano solo

 * Capriccio				1914
 * Piccolo Danza				1914
 * Gavotte Rococo			       1916
 * Tema Fugato				1916
 * Valse Lente				1916
 * Studio (Etude)				1917
 * Allegro Appassionato			1918
 * Barcarola (A Jan)			1918
 * Eileen’s Refrain			1935
 * Indian Dance				1935
 * Calma					1936
 * Nocturne				1936
 * Tin Soldiers				1936
 * Truitje Danst op Klompies		1936
 * Scherzo				       1937
 * Incertezza				1939
 * Danse Grotesque			       1946
 * Sonata					1948
 * Variations On London Bridge		1950
 * Plainte Chromatique I+II		1951
 * Playground				1951
 * Preludio				1951
 * Five Sketches				1953
 * Children Singing			1965
 * Making Money				1965
 * Dreams					1965
 * Billy’s Prayer				1966
 * Frolics					1966
 * Richiamo [Remembrance]		       1972
 * Pezzi					1973
 * Dialogue				1977

Works for violin and piano

 * Giuochi					1916
 * Valse Romantique			1939
 * Canzonetta				1939
 * Elegie [in memory of Jan Kubelik] 	1941
 * Rhapsody				1952

Chamber music works
•	Popolino				1979	clarinet, piano
 * Canzonetta		1939	piano, violin, cello
 * Quintetto in La Minore			1940	piano, string quartet
 * Duetto Fugato all’ Antica		1950	2 pianos
 * Piano Trio in A minor		1951	piano, violin, cello
 * Intermezzo				1952	violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, double bass
 * Little Suite				1952	piano, violin I, violin II
 * Evening Bells				1956	carillon
 * Chimes at Dusk				1956	violin, viola
 * Four [Humoristic] Sketches 		1957	piano, violin I, violin II
 * Little Poem				1958	violin I, violin II, viola
 * Recitativo				1959	violin I, violin II, viola
 * Serenade In Pre-Modern Style		1961	timpani, harp, violin I, violin II
 * Duet					1962	flute, clarinet
 * Toddler at Play				1966	flute, violin, piano, percussion
 * Billy’s Prayer				1967	flute, clarinet Bb, bassoon
 * Four Pieces				1968	[2 instr.]
 * Suite					1969	piano, flute, violin, violoncello
 * Ritornello				1976	oboe, piano
 * Tarantella				1976	oboe, piano

Works for orchestra

 * Primavera Lombarda 			1949
 * Mediolanum				1950
 * The Blue Bird Suite 			1951
 * Symphonietta [Sinfonietta]		1959
 * Ballet Suite (Tabloid) 			1960
 * Five Symphonic Sketches		       1962

Vocal works

 * To A Violinist				1940
 * Wall Street [Text by Burton]		1940
 * High Flight [Text by Magee]		1941
 * Virgilian Spring [Text from Virgil]	1941
 * Invocation				1945
 * Forget Me Not (Text by Emily Bruce Roelofson)1945
 * Dedication [Text by Roche]		1945
 * Chiusa (Longing)			1947
 * Rimpianto				1947
 * Malia					1955
 * To My Darling				1957
 * The Meadow Lark			       1958
 * Nostalgia				1959
 * Little Refrain				1960
 * Two Choral Songs			1961
 * My Birthday Song			1962
 * L’orgoglio				1963
 * Rhythm Song				1963
 * Goodbye To Naples			1967
 * Two Poems				1973

Popular works for piano

 * Valse De Salon				1936
 * Tango Habernera			       1949
 * Noche De Verano (Tango)		       1949
 * Paraphrase On “South Pacific”		1949