Ivana Marburger Themmen (born April 7, 1935) is an American composer and pianist,American Woman Composers News, Volume 1, Issues 2-3 whose Concerto for Guitar was a finalist in the 1982 Kennedy Center Friedheim Composition Competition.
Career Themmen was born on April 7, 1935, in New York City, where she began studying piano at age 7. She attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where she met and married Harold B. Themmen. They had three children, Paris, Allegra, and Tania.Fanfare Magazine, Volume 6, Issues 3-4, 1983, page 276 Tania is married to voice actress Susan Blu.
In addition to the New England Conservatory, Themmen studied in Europe, at the Eastman School of Music, and at the Tanglewood Music Center. Her teachers included Francis Judd Cooke, Nicolas Flagello, Lukas Foss, Carl McKinley, Jean Rosenblum, and Otto Schulhof. She corresponded with Eugene Ormandy.
Themmen taught at the Hampton Conservatory and also worked as an accompanist for the American Ballet Theatre. She has received grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Queens Symphony, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Themmen belongs to the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA). Her music is published by Lyra Music Company. and Cor Publishing Company/Wiltshire Music.
Discography Chamber music Circles (flute, French horn and piano) Concept V (clarinet and viola) Concepts (two violas or clarinet and viola) Duets (flute and bass clarinet) Fanfares (three trumpets) For Two Trombones Green Willow: A Japanese Fairy Tale (narrator, chamber ensemble, and optional dancers) Little Etudes (three trumpets) Montages (harp) Music for Friends, Perhaps (piano, clarinet, violin, viola and cello) Piece (flute and piano) Quintet (flute, clarinet, horn, violin and cello) Sextet Sonata (cello and piano) Ten Cantos (two French horns) Tetrachiron (piano four hands) Wind Game (saxophone quartet)
Opera Lucian (libretto by Norman Simon)
Orchestra Concerto for Guitar Concerto for Trombone Cupid & Psyche (violin and orchestra) Fasching Triptych
Vocal
Magnificat (chorus and orchestra) Mystic Trumpeter (song cycle; text by Walt Whitman) "Ode to Akhmatova" (medium voice and piano; text by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova) Requiem (chorus and orchestra) Shelter this Candle from the Wind (soprano and orchestra; text by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
References
External links Interview with Ivana Themmen, February 15, 1989