Opera America announced that Elena Ruehr was one of seven recipients of an opera grant for female composers. Ruehr' received the grant for Crafting the Bonds a full-length opera spanning three centuries that is based on the rediscovery of The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, the first known novel by an African-American woman. The opera fuses past with present, including factual and archetypal characters, to ask larger questions about the lives and afterlives of stories. The libretto is by Gretchen Henderson.
Elena Ruehr is known for her bold lyricism, which is informed by her ability to combine musical structures from worlds as diverse as the Second Viennese School and minimalism. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow (2014) and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute (2008). Ruehr was composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, who recorded her operaToussaint Before the Spirits (BMOP Sound) and her complete orchestral works (BMOP Sound, O’Keeffe Images). In addition to her work with BMOP, her recordings include Averno (Avie Records, Trinity Choir, 2012), How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr (Cypress String Quartet, 2010), Jane Wang considers the dragonfly (Albany, various artists, 2009) and Lift (Avie Records, Irina Muresanu, Jennifer Kloetzel, Sarah Bob and Ethan Filner). Her six string quartets have been championed by the Cypress, Biava, Borromeo, Lark and Shanghai string quartets. She has taught at MIT since 1991. For more information, visit elenaruehr.org.
Made possible by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Opera Grants for Female Composers program consists of two granting components: Discovery Grants of up to $15,000 that are awarded directly to female composers to advance new works, and Commissioning Grants of up to $50,000 that are awarded to opera companies in support of commissions of female composers. READ MORE...
