Lisa Bielawa

Bielawa was born in San Francisco. Her father was composer and San Francisco State University music professor Herbert Bielawa.San Francisco Classical Voice, Feb 10, 2009{{Cite web

| title = Lisa Bielawa's Excellent Adventure

| author =

| work = San Francisco Classical Voice

| date = 2013-03-19

| access-date = 2015-03-01

| url = https://www.sfcv.org/article/lisa-bielawas-excellent-adventure

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}} Having been raised in a musical environment, she has been musically active since early childhood, learning piano, voice, and violin in addition to writing music. She continued to perform and write music, but studied English at Yale for her undergraduate degree, and afterwards resumed her career in music.

She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in literature in 1990 from Yale University, and became an active participant in New York musical life. She began touring with the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992. In 1997 she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers.{{Cite web

| title = CD Reviews - Lisa Bielawa - In Media Res / Roam / Double Violin Concerto / Synopses 1-15

| author = Phil Muse

| work = Sequenza 21

| date = 2010-08-08

| access-date = 2015-03-01

| url = http://www.sequenza21.com/cdreviews/2010/08/lisa-bielawa/

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| quote = In 1997, she founded the MATA Festival to promote the work of new composers, and began concentrating on her own compositions.

}} For five years, she was the artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus.{{Cite web

| title = SFGC Announces Artistic Director Departure and Appointment

| work = San Francisco Classical Voice

| date = 2017-08-17

| url = https://www.sfgirlschorus.org/blog/sfgcartisticdirectordepartureandappointment

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She is the recipient of the 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters' Music Award {{cite web|title=2017 MUSIC AWARD WINNERS Sixteen Composers Receive Awards Totaling $195,000|url=https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2017-music-award-winners/|access-date=1 March 2017|website=American Academy of Arts & Letters}} and a 2020 Discovery Grant from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers.{{Cite web|date=2020-03-27|title=Opera America Announces Winners of 2020 Discovery Grants|url=https://operawire.com/opera-america-announces-winners-of-2020-discovery-grants/|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Opera Wire|language=en-US}} She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018 and is Artist-in-Residence.{{Cite web|title=fellows18-19 {{!}} American Antiquarian Society|url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/fellows18-19|access-date=2021-01-19|website=www.americanantiquarian.org}}

Bielawa's music has been performed at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL,{{Cite web|title=Press Release|url=https://nyphil.org/about-us/general-information/newsroom/press-releases/press-release?item=1516/biennial-release|access-date=2021-01-21|website=nyphil.org|language=en}} Lincoln Center,{{Cite web|title=The Lay of the Love {{!}} Innova Recordings|url=https://www.innova.mu/albums/lisa-bielawa/lay-love|access-date=2021-01-21|website=www.innova.mu}} Carnegie Hall,{{Cite web|title=The Lay of the Love {{!}} Innova Recordings|url=https://www.innova.mu/albums/lisa-bielawa/lay-love|access-date=2021-01-21|website=www.innova.mu}} The Kennedy Center,{{Cite web|title=Past concerts|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/past-concerts|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}} SHIFT Festival,{{Cite web|title=Past concerts|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/past-concerts|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}} and [https://naumburgconcerts.org/ Naumburg Orchestral Concerts].{{Cite web|title=The Knights|url=https://naumburgconcerts.org/concert/opening-concert/|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Naumburg Orchestral Concerts|language=en-US}} Orchestras that have performed her music include The Knights,{{Cite web|title=Lisa Bielawa: Chance Encounter|url=https://theknightsnyc.com/albums-all/2019/2/8/lisa-bielawa-chance-encounter|access-date=2021-01-21|website=The Knights|language=en-US}} Boston Modern Orchestra Project,{{Cite web|title=Lisa Bielawa {{!}} BMOP|url=https://www.bmop.org/explore-bmop/musicians/lisa-bielawa-0|access-date=2021-01-21|website=www.bmop.org}} American Composers Orchestra,{{Cite web|title=Lisa Bielawa – American Composers Orchestra|url=https://americancomposers.org/composers/lisa-bielawa/|access-date=2021-01-21|language=en-US}} and the Orlando Philharmonic.{{Cite web|title=Lisa Bielawa|url=https://orlandophil.org/people/lisa-bielawa/|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Orlando Philharmonic|language=en-US}} Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,{{Cite web|title=Past concerts|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/past-concerts|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}} Brooklyn Rider,{{Cite web|title=Chance Encounter|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/chance-encounter|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}} Seattle Chamber Music Society,{{Cite web|date=2017-07-05|title=Lisa Bielawa's Fictional Migrations|url=https://www.seattlechambermusic.org/lisa-bielawas-fictional-migrations/|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Seattle Chamber Music Society|language=en-US}} and American Guild of Organists.

A complete list of compositions is available on her official website.{{Cite web|author=|date=|title=Works|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/works|access-date=2015-03-01|work=Lisa Bielawa|quote=}}

Major compositions include:

Bielawa received a 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination {{cite web|title=70th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards Nominations Announced|url=https://www.emmys.com/news/awards-news/70th-los-angeles-area-emmy-awards-nominations-announced|access-date=12 June 2018|website=Emmys}} for her made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, created with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. Vireo won ASCAP's 47th Annual Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Multimedia Award in 2015.{{cite web|last1=Steinblatt|first1=Jim|title=47th Annual Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award Winners Announced|url=http://www.ascap.com/press/2015/10-06-deems-taylor.aspx|access-date=16 November 2015|website=ASCAP}}

For almost a decade, Lisa Bielawa has been creating a series of Broadcasts—works for performance in public spaces. Bielawa's Broadcasts are broadly participatory musical asynchronous performances for any combination of voices and instruments.

Airfield Broadcasts

Bielawa's Airfield Broadcasts is a massive 60-minute work for hundreds of musicians that premiered on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin (May 2013) and at Crissy Field in San Francisco (October 2013).{{Cite web|title=Airfield Broadcasts|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/airfield-broadcasts|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}}

Mauer Broadcast

Mauer Broadcast is a 16-minute composition in which the public has the opportunity to come together and sing memories of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It was premiered in November 2019 for the 30th anniversary of the Fall.{{Cite web|title=Mauer Broadcast|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/mauer-broadcast|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}}

Broadcast from Home

Broadcast from Home has been realized online throughout the period of the coronavirus lockdown, featuring over 500 submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents.{{Cite web|last=pbrown59|date=2021-01-15|title=Art students create animations for award-winning composer's work|url=https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2021-01-15/art-students-create-animations-award-winning-composer’s-work|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Inside UNC Charlotte|language=en}}

Voters' Broadcast

Bielawa completed Voters’ Broadcast in October 2020. Its mission was to stimulate voter engagement, political awareness, and community participation in challenging lockdown conditions, through the act of giving voice to the concerns of fellow citizens, during the lead-up to the 2020 Presidential election.{{Cite web|title=Voters Broadcast|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/voters-broadcast|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}}

Brickyard Broadcast

Brickyard Broadcast is a spatialized work for hundreds of musicians commissioned by North Carolina State University that had its world premiere in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment designed by the digital media teams at the NC State University Libraries in November 2020.{{Cite web|title=Brickyard Broadcast|url=http://www.lisabielawa.net/brickyard-broadcast|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Lisa Bielawa|language=en-US}}

Bielawa's Chance Encounter is a 35-minute piece in, and about, transient public space with texts overheard in transient public space. Chance Encounter has been recorded by The Knights and Susan Narucki for Orange Mountain Music (December 2010), and has been performed in Venice with Lisa Bielawa as the soprano soloist as part of the 12th International Venice Biennale of Architecture, in partnership with urban placemaker Robert Hammond, known for championing New York's High Line.{{cite web|last1=Jensen|first1=Christina|title=Lisa Bielawa, composer & vocalist|url=http://www.jensenartists.com/#!lisa-bielawa/c10yg|website=Jensen Artists|access-date=16 November 2015}}

Writing for The Boston Globe, David Weininger notes that her Hypermelodia (for chamber orchestra, big band, and jazz quartet) is structured like a hypertext novel: during the piece two of the performers choose which section to play next.{{Cite web|last=Weininger|first=David|date=2015-04-09|title=Composer Bielawa welcomes performers' input in her music|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2015/04/09/composer-bielawa-welcomes-performers-input-her-music/dPENYA2imyHhEzyyJ1xLsN/story.html|access-date=2015-04-15|work=The Boston Globe|quote=Hypermelodia, for chamber orchestra, big band, and jazz quartet of piano, bass, and two percussionists, will have its world premiere on Sunday. ...structuring the piece like a hypertext novel. It alternates sections for the chamber orchestra and those for the big band, with the jazz group functioning as the glue. The bassist and one percussionist act as the “clickers,” who choose which section to go to next.}} It was commissioned for and premiered at the 37th Annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young on April 12, 2015, at the Rivers School Conservatory.{{Cite web|author=Lisa Bielawa|date=2015-04-12|title=Hypermelodia (World Premiere)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7tEYrL0dyk |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/p7tEYrL0dyk |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|access-date=2015-04-29|work=The Rivers School Conservatory|quote=}}{{cbignore}} - Bielawa comes on stage to congratulate the performers during applause at the end.

Recordings include "Hildegurls: Electric Ordo Virtutum" (innova recordings, 2009); "A Handful of World" (Tzadik 8039, 2007); "First Takes" (Albany Records TROY941, 2007); "In medias res" (BMOP/sound, 2010); "Chance Encounter" (Orange Mountain Music, 2010); "The Lay of the Love" (innova recordings, 2015); "My Outstretched Hand" (Supertrain Records, 2019); "Vireo: The Spiritual Biography Of A Witch's Accuser" (Orange Mountain Music, 2019).{{Cite web|title=Lisa Bielawa, Charles Otte, Erik Ehn - Vireo: The Spiritual Biography Of A Witch's Accuser|url=https://www.discogs.com/Lisa-Bielawa-Charles-Otte-Erik-Ehn-Vireo-The-Spiritual-Biography-Of-A-Witchs-Accuser/release/13959210|access-date=2021-01-21|website=Discogs|language=en}}{{Cite web

| title = Discography

| author =

| work = Lisa Bielawa

| date =

| access-date = 2015-03-01

| url = http://www.lisabielawa.net/discography/

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{{Reflist}}

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• [http://www.lisabielawa.com Official web site]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3d85xOcYW4 'Ep. 123: Lisa Bielawa, composer and vocalist.'] Interview by Tigran Arakelyan

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Category:Living people

Category:Composers from San Francisco

Category:Yale College alumni

Category:Singers from San Francisco

Category:1968 births

Category:20th-century American composers

Category:21st-century American composers

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:21st-century American women singers

Category:21st-century American singers

Category:20th-century American women singers

Category:20th-century American women composers

Category:21st-century American women composers

Category:Classical musicians from California