Vera Nicolaevna Preobrajenska (27 Apr 1926 - 25 Jun 2011) was a Russian American arranger, composer, music educator, and writer. She composed in many genres, including ballet and opera.
Preobrajenska was born in San Francisco, California, to Tatiana N. Kasperovich and Nicholas A. Preobrajenska. She studied composition with Ernest Bloch, Ernest von Dohnanyi, Frederick Jacobi, Darius Milhaud, Dmitri Shostakovich, Roger Sessions, and Alexander Tcherepnin. Her educational background and job history included:
[no date] AA from University of California, Berkeley
1950 piano debut
1953 BA San Francisco State University
1956-61 concert manager for Musical Artists of America
1964 musical stenographer at Berkeley Music Center Record Company
1964 arranged songs at Skye Music Services (Oakland, California)
1965-68 classroom pianist for ballet and modern dance at University of California Berkeley
1972 MA Bernadean University (a mail order/online school in Las Vegas, Nevada)
1972-74 chaired the music department at Bernadean University
1973 PHD Bernadean University
1974-75 honorary director of music at Santa Cruz Academy of Music
The National League of American Pen Women awarded Preobrajenska two composition prizes. Her papers are archived at the University of Wyoming. Her music was published by the American Music Center and Belwin (today part of Alfred Music).
Works Her works include:
Ballets
Clara Militch (piano)
Hebraic Rhapsody (string orchestra)
Band music
Mazurka
Patriotic March: Spirit of 1976
Chamber music
Clarinet Quintet
Piano Quintet
Rondino (guitar)
Sonata in Three Movements (flute)
String Quartets (three)
Operas
The Money Lender
Orchestral music
Blue Symphony
Third Symphony
Organ music
Fugue in a minor
Preludium
Piano music
Etudes I, II, and III
Sonata
Prose
poems in Ram Magazine
Song Writers Course, Parts I and II
Vocal music
Cycle of English Art Songs
Cycle of Russian Art Songs
Easter Prayer (mixed chorus)
Hebraic Cantata (mixed chorus and chamber orchestra)
Ode to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
References