Jan Gilbert (born August 6, 1946) is an American composer, cellist, and professor of music.

Life and career

Janet Monteith Gilbert was born in

New York City, NY New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. She studied cello at the Naples Conservatory and was granted her bachelor of arts in music in 1969 from

Douglass College Douglass Residential College, is an undergraduate, non degree granting higher education program of Rutgers University-New Brunswick for women. It succeeded the liberal arts degree-granting Douglass College after it was merged with the other unde ...

. In 1972 she received a Master of Arts in composition from Villa Schifolianoia in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Studying under

Salvatore Martirano Salvatore Giovanni Martirano (January 12, 1927 – November 17, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Born in Yonkers, New York, he taught for many years at the University of Illinois. He also worked in electronic music ...

and Ben Johnston, she received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

in 1979, where she specialized in electronic music. Other teachers include Piergtro Grossi, Charles Dodge and John Melby. She has taught at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

St. Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the Patron Saint Ola ...

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifi ...

, and since 1987 has been an assistant professor at

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 t ...

Music

Gilbert's works include electronic music, verbal improvisation, sacred vocal music, experimental hip-hop, chamber music and multimedia pieces with tape, theatre and dance collaboration. She has been commissioned by varying groups such as Chanticleer, the St Paul Civic Orchestra and the

Dale Warland Singers The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music and c ...

. She draws material from many different cultures, including traditional stories of the

Hmong People The Hmong people ( RPA: ''Hmoob'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , ) are a sub-ethnic group of the Miao people who originated from Central China. The modern Hmongs presently reside mainly in Southwest China ( Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, C ...

, legends from the Pacific Northwest

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

tribe, and classical Indian music and dance, with collaborators veena player Nirmala Rajasekar and

bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...

dance group Ragamala. Ragamala Music and Dance Theater

References

External links

Jan Gilbert's personal websiteJan Gilbert's ACA page with list of works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Jan 1946 births American women classical composers American classical composers Living people Composers from New York City American classical cellists Rutgers University alumni University of Illinois alumni Middlebury College faculty St. Olaf College faculty University of Maine faculty Macalester College faculty Classical musicians from New York (state) American women academics 21st-century American women