Elizabeth Vercoe has been hailed by the Washington Post as “one of the most inventive composers working in America today.” Active as a composer in the United States and abroad, she has been a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, the St. Petersburg Spring Music Festival in Russia, the Cité International des Arts in Paris, and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. She has written works on commission for Wellesley College, Austin Peay State University, the Pro Arte Orchestra, and the First National Congress on Women in Music. Her music has been performed by the Memphis Chamber Symphony, the Women’s Philharmonic, the Boston Musica Viva, Alea III, the Great Noise Ensemble, and counter)induction. Awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the Artists Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council.

Lauded by Gardner Read as “an exceptionally gifted composer with a fine technical command and a keen sensitivity to sound materials,” she has attended concerts of her music in London, Paris, Bangkok, San Francisco, and at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood as well as at international festivals in Russia and Alaska and collaborative programs of music and dance with the Beth Soll Dance Company. Since receiving her doctoral degree at Boston University, she has promoted women’s music as Director of the Women’s Music Festival/85 and in articles and talks. She has taught at Westminster Choir College and Regis College and held the Acuff Chair of Excellence at Austin Peay State University in 2003.

Recorded on Navona, Owl, Capstone, Leonarda and Centaur, and published principally by Arsis Press, Noteworthy Sheet Music, and Certosa Verlag (Germany), her music includes the Herstory series of vocal works on texts by women, staged monodramas on John Brown and Joan of Arc, Changes for orchestra, a violin concerto, and music for various chamber combinations. A dissertation (J. Capaldo, Elizabeth Vercoe: Composing Her Story) about her vocal music is available online. (Photo credit: Caroline Alden)