|
|
A to Z | Calendar | Search UWRF |
|
|
Prospective Student Information Continuing Student Scholarships
|
Dr. Carolyn Britton
Professor of Music Dr. M. Carolyn BrittonProfessor of Music D.M.A., University of Minnesota Office Phone: 715-425-3389 Dr. Carolyn Britton, pianist, is well-known throughout the upper Midwest as a performer, clinician and teacher. She is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where she teaches Applied Piano, Piano Ensemble, and Music Appreciation. She was for several years, chairman and faculty member of the summer piano workshop of Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in southern California. A native of Fredonia, New York, she is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota. Among her teachers have been, Lawrence Schauffler, Orazio Frugoni, Bela Nagy, and Paul Freed. She has also studied in Holland with Else Krijgsman of the Amsterdam Conservatory. A recipient of a Woodrow Wilson Research Grant, Dr. Britton has been the biographer and compiler of the keyboard works of the eighteenth-century Italian composer, Maria Teresa Agnesi. The research, conducted in Milan, is the only extant biographical information and collected keyboard works of Agnesi. Dr. Britton was invited as guest clinician at Hsin Chu Teachers College in Hsin Chu, Taiwan for teachers and piano students throughout Taiwan. She did a series of lectures and Master Classes. In addition to numerous solo recitals, she has appeared as soloist with the St. Croix Valley Symphony, the 3M Orchestra, the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra, Century College Community Orchestra, the Capital Trio and the Minnesota Woodwind Quintet. In May, 2007, Britton was elected president of Thursday Musical, an organization in the Twin Cities which is a partnership of performers and listeners that creates and supports opportunities for the performance and enjoyment of classical music. Dating from 1892, it serves the community with three concert series, student scholarship competitions, a program called Music in Our Schools and outreach programs at long-term care facilities and other therapeutic centers. She will serve in this position for two years. Dr. Carolyn Britton, professor of music at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, was a recent guest of honor at an opera performance in Vienna, Austria. The opera, Ulisse in Campania , by the Milanese composer, Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720-1795), was produced by La Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica in Rome. It was Italy's only contribution to the Viennese celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of W. A. Mozart. Britton, a pianist, uncovered and edited all of the keyboard works of Agnesi and conducted research in Milan on her life in 1978-80 with the help of a Woodrow Wilson Research Grant. All of the prior known facts about Agnesi were taken from biographical treatises about her sister, Gaetana, a famous mathematician. Nothing was known about Teresa's life after her marriage to Pietro Pinnotini at the age of 30, a marriage not approved of by her family. Britton searched the archives of the State of Lombardy, the library holdings of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and finally found the family archives listed under another name in Cremona. The facts that emerged uncovered a fascinating story of a very successful woman composer of keyboard and vocal works including seven operas, produced in many cities in Italy. She held meetings of an Academic Academy in her home where she met Mozart and his father and may have aided him in his introduction to Milanese society and the musical community. Her husband, though he inherited a small feudo (feudal castle), had insufficient funds to sustain their upper-class life. This Britton gleaned by examining countless legal papers in the Lombardy Archives. When Britton finally gained access to the family archives in Cremona, she found many papers, including two letters written by Agnesi herself. The letters were desperate pleas for help by an old woman who had sold everything she owned and was reduced to a state of poverty after the death of her husband. Even her funeral bill was marked over-due! When Britton finished the paper on Agnesi's life and keyboard works, she donated a copy to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan where it was found by the Fondazione Donne in Musica. When Patricia Adkins Chiti examined several of Agnesi's opera scores, she was convinced that they were works of exceptional artistry. She and her husband, Gian Paolo Chiti, began the task of making a modern edition with parts, sought funding for the production, and found a professional cast including dancers. The city of Vienna invited the production to be presented in a beautiful elegantly decorated small eighteenth-century theater in the complex known as Schönbrunn where the Empress Maria Theresa and the enlightened Joseph II ruled. Britton, as the only biographer to have consulted primary sources was cited in the program and invited to the production and festivities following the performance on September 21, 2006. She also wrote a paper on her research which will be included as part of the Foundation's annual publication on Women in Music. The opera was performed in Naples, Rome and Venice in fall of 2006. Contact Carolyn Britton by e-mail at UW-River Falls (mary.c.britton@uwrf.edu) Dr. Britton may also be reached by phone at 715-425-3389, follow voice mail instructions to leave a message for her. (photo)
|
|
|
University of Wisconsin - River Falls |
