Eleanor Aversa
Eleanor Aversa
Welcome! I was born in NYC and after several moves returned there for a Master’s in Composition at CUNY Queens College. I now live in the Boston area, where I’m an Associate Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music. I return to NYC regularly.
Bio: Eleanor Aversa’s music has been described as “shimmering” (New York Times) “ethereal” (Society for New Music) and “lustrous” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Many of her works feature lyrical melodies with unexpected harmonies and rhythms. Her vocal works often feature original text, especially for humorous pieces.
She has been Artist in Residence at MacDowell, the I-Park Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as a yearlong residency with San Francisco Choral Artists. Honors include the Northridge Composition Prize (Hero’s Welcome for orchestra) and the Brian M. Israel Award (Movement for String Quartet), as well as awards and grants from ASCAP, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the American Composers Forum.
Dr. Aversa’s music has been performed nationally and internationally at venues including the Disjecta Contemporary Art Center of Oregon, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, June in Buffalo, the Música Viva Festival of Portugal, and Symphony Space. Performers include the Daedalus Quartet, Juventas, the Momenta Quartet, the Rawlins Trio, and the CSUN Symphony, as well as members of the Aeolian Chamber Players, Alarm Will Sound, NM Philharmonic, US Air Force Band, and the San Francisco Symphony.
She holds degrees from Princeton, CUNY Queens College (Marvin Hamlisch Composition Award, Herbert Sukoff Memorial Award in Composition), and the University of Pennsylvania (Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, David Halstead Music Prize). She is grateful to her principal composition teachers: Bruce Saylor, James Primosch, Jay Reise, and Anna Weesner. Full catalog: www.eleanoraversa.com
Let Eternal Morning Rise
Year: 2020
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: alto, any voice, baritone voice, bass voice, mezzo soprano, soprano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: text: Mary A Lathbury (public domain) for SSATBB
Hymn setting using 6-voice imitative polyphony and contemporary, jazz-infused harmonies
Theme Among Friends
Year: 2019
Duration (in minutes): 4'39;00'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument quintet, woodwind quintet
Instruments: any saxophone, any woodwind, bass clarinet, bassoon, clarinet, oboe
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: In this reed quintet, the theme travels among all five players and is transformed in various ways. A demonstration of 5-part counterpoint.
Variation on "A Theme Among Friends"
Year: 2019
Duration (in minutes): 4'39;15'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: flute ensemble, flute quartet
Instruments: flute, piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: An energetic, contrapuntal, four-part setting of my piece "A Theme Among Friends," originally written for reed quintet.
May be performed by flute ensemble or flute quartet.
Local Forecast
Year: 2017
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;30'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned by Amuse Singers, Lee Ryder, Artistic Director.
A story told in weather metaphors, with over a dozen musical quotations from weather-related songs.
Available for SSAA and SATB.
Victory at Arnot
Year: 2016
Duration (in minutes): 40 min.
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument sextet, mixed instrument trio, small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, young audiences
Instruments: flute, narrator/speaker, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The true story of how a ragtag band of farmers, miners, and dishpan-wielding women, led by a 60-something immigrant named Mary “Mother” Jones, won out over a greedy corporation. The story happened in Arnot, PA, in 1899 and also features union president William Wilson, who later became America's first Secretary of Labor. Text is by Eleanor Aversa and and Kristen Wall including speeches by Mother Jones.
Available for these instrumentations:
flute, violin, piano
flute, clarinet, piano, perc, violin, cello
clarinet, violin, cello
Litany of Divine Mercy
Year: 2016
Duration (in minutes): 6'39;30'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella, solo voice(s) with piano
Instruments: piano, satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A "Kyrie elison" melody alternates with Biblical texts describing Divine Mercy. Text: Fr. Peter John Cameron, used with permission.
Also available for SATB, piano, cantor, and congregation (9'00").
Music in Memory
Year: 2015
Duration (in minutes): 8 min.
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo string with piano
Instruments: piano, viola
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: This stormy duet is a tribute to Hindemith’s adherence to his ideals in the face of persecution, his exile, and his eventual return to Europe.
Recording: Ayane Kozasa (viola), Eleanor Aversa (piano)
Prelude on "Alma Redemptoris Mater"
Year: 2015
Duration (in minutes): 2:30
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: solo instrument other than piano
Instruments: organ
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Organ prelude harmonizing the Gregorian chant Alma Redemptoris Mater (“Kind Mother of the Redeemer”)
Probably Helical
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 5'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director.
A tribute to biologist Rosalind Franklin, whose research provided evidence of the helical structure of DNA. The text for the piece is taken from her 1953 article in the journal Nature concluding, "the structure is probably helical."
Knock on Wood
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 1:40
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned and recorded by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director
Text: Eleanor Aversa
Gesundheit!
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 1:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned and recorded by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director
Entire text: Gesundheit!
Darkling Thrush
Year: 2012
Duration (in minutes): 5:30
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: NoteNova
Description: Commissioned by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director.
Thomas Hardy’s poem describes a joyous music from a bedraggled bird… What does it know that we don’t? This setting presents the poem as is, then revisits the text from the point of view of the bird. This latter half incorporates fragments of melody based on field recordings of the hermit thrush, the wood thrush, and the veery.
Available for SSAATTBB and SATB.
Solace
Year: 2012
Duration (in minutes): 2:00
Difficulty: Low (student/pedagogical)
Category: piano
Instruments: piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A meditative piece.
Premiered at the I-Park Foundation, East Haddam, CT
Piano Trio #2
Year: 2011
Duration (in minutes): 24:00:00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument trio, piano trio (vln, vc, pno), small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players
Instruments: cello, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Each performer in this trio has a starring movement. The first features the piano, the second the cello, and the fourth the violin. In the middle − the third movement− is a scherzo-rondo in which the instruments combine equally and gleefully. The movements can be performed alone or together.
I. Maestoso
II. Largo
III. Vivace
IV. Maestoso - Allegro
Please see my website for excerpts from each movement.
Hero's Welcome
Year: 2010
Duration (in minutes): 6:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: orchestra and chamber orchestra
Instruments: percussion
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Overture-style work for full orchestra.
Winner of the 2010 Northridge Composition Prize.
Sonora: Six Desert Songs
Year: 2009
Duration (in minutes): 11:00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: mixed instrument ensemble, small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players
Instruments: clarinet, percussion
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A suite of pieces inspired by the various moods of the desert. Each movement uses a different set of small percussion instruments:
I. Noon (large and medium cymbals, gong)
II. Saguaro and Mesquite (juju bean rattle, woodblock)
III. Mirage (bells, rainstick)
IV. Lizards (bongos)
V. The Desert at 4am (finger cymbal, tambourine)
VI. Rain (temple blocks, cowbell)
Sonora was the winner of the University of Pennsylvania's David Halstead Music Prize.
life is more true
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo voice(s) with piano, solo voice(s) with solo instruments
Instruments: mezzo soprano, piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Setting of "life is more true than reason will deceive" for low voice and piano.
Text by e.e. cummings, used with permission
Eyes Open
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Winner of the 2009 San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Competition
The piece is based on a single line of text, cut and looped in the manner of electronic music. As the piece progresses, the fragments coalesce until the entire message becomes clear.
Fortitudes
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo instrument other than piano, solo woodwind instrument
Instruments: oboe
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The title is a play on the word "etude." Oboes too often play laments, songs of resignation— this soloist fights.
Lesson
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 0:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: any male voice, baritone voice, bass voice
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A miniature for solo male voice.
Text: Eleanor Aversa
Something Gleamed Like Electrum
Year: 2007
Duration (in minutes): 7 minutes
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument quintet
Instruments: cello, clarinet, flute, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The prophet Ezekiel's vision of four cherubim.
Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver.
Premiered at Symphony Space by Second Instrumental Unit.
This recording is by Juventas at the Boston Conservatory.
Movement for String Quartet
Year: 2007
Duration (in minutes): 5'39;45'34;
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, string quartet
Instruments: cello, viola, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Winner of the 2008 Brian M. Israel Prize
Bio: Eleanor Aversa's music has been described as “shimmering” (New York Times) “ethereal” (Society for New Music) and “lustrous” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Many of her works feature lyrical melodies with unexpected harmonies and rhythms. Her vocal works often feature original text, especially for humorous pieces.
She has been Artist in Residence at MacDowell, the I-Park Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as a yearlong residency with San Francisco Choral Artists. Honors include the Northridge Composition Prize (Hero’s Welcome for orchestra) and the Brian M. Israel Award (Movement for String Quartet), as well as awards and grants from ASCAP, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the American Composers Forum.
Dr. Aversa’s music has been performed nationally and internationally at venues including the Disjecta Contemporary Art Center of Oregon, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, June in Buffalo, the Música Viva Festival of Portugal, and Symphony Space. Performers include the Daedalus Quartet, Juventas, the Momenta Quartet, the Rawlins Trio, and the CSUN Symphony, as well as members of the Aeolian Chamber Players, Alarm Will Sound, NM Philharmonic, US Air Force Band, and the San Francisco Symphony.
She holds degrees from Princeton, CUNY Queens College (Marvin Hamlisch Composition Award, Herbert Sukoff Memorial Award in Composition), and the University of Pennsylvania (Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, David Halstead Music Prize). She is grateful to her principal composition teachers: Bruce Saylor, James Primosch, Jay Reise, and Anna Weesner. Full catalog: www.eleanoraversa.com
Let Eternal Morning Rise
Year: 2020
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: alto, any voice, baritone voice, bass voice, mezzo soprano, soprano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: text: Mary A Lathbury (public domain) for SSATBB
Hymn setting using 6-voice imitative polyphony and contemporary, jazz-infused harmonies
Theme Among Friends
Year: 2019
Duration (in minutes): 4'39;00'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument quintet, woodwind quintet
Instruments: any saxophone, any woodwind, bass clarinet, bassoon, clarinet, oboe
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: In this reed quintet, the theme travels among all five players and is transformed in various ways. A demonstration of 5-part counterpoint.
Variation on "A Theme Among Friends"
Year: 2019
Duration (in minutes): 4'39;15'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: flute ensemble, flute quartet
Instruments: flute, piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: An energetic, contrapuntal, four-part setting of my piece "A Theme Among Friends," originally written for reed quintet.
May be performed by flute ensemble or flute quartet.
Local Forecast
Year: 2017
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;30'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned by Amuse Singers, Lee Ryder, Artistic Director.
A story told in weather metaphors, with over a dozen musical quotations from weather-related songs.
Available for SSAA and SATB.
Victory at Arnot
Year: 2016
Duration (in minutes): 40 min.
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument sextet, mixed instrument trio, small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, young audiences
Instruments: flute, narrator/speaker, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The true story of how a ragtag band of farmers, miners, and dishpan-wielding women, led by a 60-something immigrant named Mary “Mother” Jones, won out over a greedy corporation. The story happened in Arnot, PA, in 1899 and also features union president William Wilson, who later became America's first Secretary of Labor. Text is by Eleanor Aversa and and Kristen Wall including speeches by Mother Jones.
Available for these instrumentations:
flute, violin, piano
flute, clarinet, piano, perc, violin, cello
clarinet, violin, cello
Litany of Divine Mercy
Year: 2016
Duration (in minutes): 6'39;30'34;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella, solo voice(s) with piano
Instruments: piano, satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A "Kyrie elison" melody alternates with Biblical texts describing Divine Mercy. Text: Fr. Peter John Cameron, used with permission.
Also available for SATB, piano, cantor, and congregation (9'00").
Music in Memory
Year: 2015
Duration (in minutes): 8 min.
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo string with piano
Instruments: piano, viola
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: This stormy duet is a tribute to Hindemith’s adherence to his ideals in the face of persecution, his exile, and his eventual return to Europe.
Recording: Ayane Kozasa (viola), Eleanor Aversa (piano)
Prelude on "Alma Redemptoris Mater"
Year: 2015
Duration (in minutes): 2:30
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: solo instrument other than piano
Instruments: organ
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Organ prelude harmonizing the Gregorian chant Alma Redemptoris Mater (“Kind Mother of the Redeemer”)
Probably Helical
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 5'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director.
A tribute to biologist Rosalind Franklin, whose research provided evidence of the helical structure of DNA. The text for the piece is taken from her 1953 article in the journal Nature concluding, "the structure is probably helical."
Knock on Wood
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 1:40
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned and recorded by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director
Text: Eleanor Aversa
Gesundheit!
Year: 2013
Duration (in minutes): 1:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Commissioned and recorded by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director
Entire text: Gesundheit!
Darkling Thrush
Year: 2012
Duration (in minutes): 5:30
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: NoteNova
Description: Commissioned by San Francisco Choral Artists, Magen Solomon, Artistic Director.
Thomas Hardy’s poem describes a joyous music from a bedraggled bird… What does it know that we don’t? This setting presents the poem as is, then revisits the text from the point of view of the bird. This latter half incorporates fragments of melody based on field recordings of the hermit thrush, the wood thrush, and the veery.
Available for SSAATTBB and SATB.
Solace
Year: 2012
Duration (in minutes): 2:00
Difficulty: Low (student/pedagogical)
Category: piano
Instruments: piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A meditative piece.
Premiered at the I-Park Foundation, East Haddam, CT
Piano Trio #2
Year: 2011
Duration (in minutes): 24:00:00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument trio, piano trio (vln, vc, pno), small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players
Instruments: cello, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Each performer in this trio has a starring movement. The first features the piano, the second the cello, and the fourth the violin. In the middle − the third movement− is a scherzo-rondo in which the instruments combine equally and gleefully. The movements can be performed alone or together.
I. Maestoso
II. Largo
III. Vivace
IV. Maestoso - Allegro
Please see my website for excerpts from each movement.
Hero's Welcome
Year: 2010
Duration (in minutes): 6:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: orchestra and chamber orchestra
Instruments: percussion
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Overture-style work for full orchestra.
Winner of the 2010 Northridge Composition Prize.
Sonora: Six Desert Songs
Year: 2009
Duration (in minutes): 11:00
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: mixed instrument ensemble, small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players
Instruments: clarinet, percussion
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A suite of pieces inspired by the various moods of the desert. Each movement uses a different set of small percussion instruments:
I. Noon (large and medium cymbals, gong)
II. Saguaro and Mesquite (juju bean rattle, woodblock)
III. Mirage (bells, rainstick)
IV. Lizards (bongos)
V. The Desert at 4am (finger cymbal, tambourine)
VI. Rain (temple blocks, cowbell)
Sonora was the winner of the University of Pennsylvania's David Halstead Music Prize.
life is more true
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo voice(s) with piano, solo voice(s) with solo instruments
Instruments: mezzo soprano, piano
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Setting of "life is more true than reason will deceive" for low voice and piano.
Text by e.e. cummings, used with permission
Eyes Open
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3'39;00
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: choral, solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: satb chorus
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Winner of the 2009 San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Competition
The piece is based on a single line of text, cut and looped in the manner of electronic music. As the piece progresses, the fragments coalesce until the entire message becomes clear.
Fortitudes
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 3:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo instrument other than piano, solo woodwind instrument
Instruments: oboe
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The title is a play on the word "etude." Oboes too often play laments, songs of resignation— this soloist fights.
Lesson
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 0:30
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo voice(s) a cappella
Instruments: any male voice, baritone voice, bass voice
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: A miniature for solo male voice.
Text: Eleanor Aversa
Something Gleamed Like Electrum
Year: 2007
Duration (in minutes): 7 minutes
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players, mixed instrument ensemble, mixed instrument quintet
Instruments: cello, clarinet, flute, piano, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: The prophet Ezekiel's vision of four cherubim.
Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver.
Premiered at Symphony Space by Second Instrumental Unit.
This recording is by Juventas at the Boston Conservatory.
Movement for String Quartet
Year: 2007
Duration (in minutes): 5'39;45'34;
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, string quartet
Instruments: cello, viola, violin
Publisher: Gold Mosaic Publishing
Description: Winner of the 2008 Brian M. Israel Prize
