Collection: Semegen, Daria

Daria Semegen (b. 1946) is a composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. As a recognized authority on electronic music composition, she has been the subject of many articles and several dissertations including A. E. Hinkle-Turner's doctoral dissertation "Daria Semegen: A Study of the Composer's Life", Work and Music (University of Illinois-Urbana).

Semegen's writings on creative process, aesthetics and pedagogy have been published in the U.S. and abroad. She studied at the Eastman School of Music, in mixed-media workshops at the Rochester Institute of Technology, at Yale and Columbia Universities and in Warsaw, Poland as a Fulbright fellow. She taught at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from 1971-1975 and was a sound engineer at the Collection of World Music (Columbia University) working with field recordings of native musics from many continents.

Her awards include six National Endowment for the Arts grants, two BMI awards, two awards from Yale University, a National Chamber Music Competition prize, an ISCM International Electronic Music Competition prize; fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood and Chautauqua; a Pennsylvania Institute for the Arts & Humanistic Studies award; and the 1994 Alumni Achievement Award from Eastman School of Music.

Prof. Semegen was the first woman awarded a McKim Commission from the Library of Congress. Recordings of her music include Rhapsody (for Yamaha MIDI grand piano), Electronic Composition No. 1; Arc (electronic/dance); Spectra, Music for Violin Solo; Jeux de Quatres.. Other works include Arabesque(electronic), Vignette (piano), Elegy-Caprice (toy piano- for J.Cage) , Epicycles (electronic/dance); Triptych (orchestra), Dans la Nuit (baritone & orchestra), Lieder (soprano & ensemble); virtuoso solo works including violin, contrabass and clarinet solos.