Marilyn Bliss

Iowa-born Marilyn Bliss (b. 1954) has written many widely performed orchestral, chamber, and solo works. Educated at Coe College and the University of Pennsylvania, her teachers include such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Jerry Owen, and Harvey Sollberger. Her many awards include a Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Young Composers Award, Newly Published Flute Music awards from the National Flute Association, fellowships from Tanglewood, the Composers Conference, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and commissions from the Azure Ensemble, Haydn-Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Powell Quartet, the flutists James Zellers, James Pellerite, and Nina Assimakopoulos, and the National Flute Association. About her orchestral piece Huatzu Hill, the Boston Globe said “…a series of rich landscapes – the colors sharp, the feelings powerfully concentrated, the language eloquent, the expression precise.” Records International Catalogue calls her piano work Fantasies “a virtuosic, highly varied work, fantastic and wide-ranging.” Her Rima for piccolo and piano has been used as a standard contest piece for the National Flute Association’s piccolo competition. Several of Ms. Bliss’s recent scores have featured the Native American flute, both as a solo instrument and in combination with other instruments. Ms. Bliss is currently President of New York Women Composers. Her music has been performed throughout the world; she has been a guest of the SS. Cyril and Methodius Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria, and of the Fechin Institute in Taos, New Mexico. Her works have also recently been performed in Russia, Armenia, and Italy. Ms. Bliss is published by Marimba Productions, Zalo/JP-Publications, and New Art Music Enterprises.