Marjorie Merryman (born 1951) is an American composer, author, and music educator. She is a member of the composition faculty at the Manhattan School of Music since 2007, where she also served as Interim President, Provost and Senior Vice President at Manhattan School of Music. She previously taught at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

and

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

. While at BU, she was commissioned by many professional musical ensembles to write pieces ranging from small chamber works to a full opera. She has written and published pieces such as "Chinese Moon Poems", a women's choral piece based on Chinese poems about the moon. Merryman categorizes herself with other twentieth-century composers heavily influenced by Johannes Brahms—in particular, serialist composers such as those of the Second Viennese School. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including two prizes from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Walter Hinrichsen Award, presented annually by

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

and in 2014, the "Arts and Letters Award in Music: "This award is given in recognition of "…. outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges the composer who has arrived at his or her own voice." She has also received the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music, the WBZ Fund for the Arts, and ComposersInc (Lee Ettelson Award). Among her other awards are fellowships or grants from Tanglewood, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts - Meet the Composer program. She has been Composer-in- Residence of the New England Philharmonic and the Billings (MT) Symphony Orchestra, and has served on the boards of the New England Composers’ Orchestra, the Lily Boulanger Foundation, Alea III and many others. Her works are published by C.F. Peters, E.C. Schirmer, APNM, and G. Schirmer; and recorded on the Koch and New World labels.

Publications

*Merryman, Marjorie (1996): ''The Music Theory Handbook'' Schirmer; 1st edition 144 pp . (This is a concise and methodical introduction to both tonal and atonal music analysis. The book is taught at many American music schools, including Boston University.)

References

External links

Manhattan School of Music faculty page, accessed 8 February 2010Arts Editor (D'lynne Plummer) on Cantata Singers performing Boston Premiere of Merryman's One Blood, accessed 8 February 2010
1951 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century classical composers American women classical composers American classical composers Boston University faculty Living people Macalester College faculty Manhattan School of Music faculty 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians Women music educators 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers American women academics {{US-composer-20thC-stub