Wendy Griffiths

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Wendy Griffiths

BIOGRAPHY
COMPOSITIONS
CDs
VIDEOS
NEWS POST

Wendy Griffiths has composed chamber works, art songs, rock songs, orchestral works and dance scores. Her concert music has appeared on the Composers Concordance series, at the Merce Cunningham studio, the Manhattan School of Music, the Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Storm King Music Festival, Music Under Construction (of which she is a founding member) and in Stockholm performed by the Acidophilus Ensemble. Her opera “The Quiet American,” was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. More recently she composed a chamber opera “The Crimson Sand,” based on the Gilgo Beach murders. Recently she was commissioned by the Double Entendre Double Reed ensemble to compose a work for six double reeds. She has also received grants from Meet the Composer, NYSCA and the American Music Center. Ms. Griffiths also composes for and appears as a keyboard player/singer/bassist with her band Changing Modes (www.changingmodes.com) with whom she has recorded 2 EPs and 10 full-length CDs. Her band performs regularly in lower Manhattan and on regional tours in the U.S. In addition, Ms. Griffiths works also as a ballet accompanist and currently plays for The Joffrey Ballet School and the School at Mark Morris. She has collaborated with numerous dance companies including Beth Soll, Carolyn Lord and Alison Cook Beatty. Ms. Griffiths holds a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.M. from the Mannes College of Music. She received her D.M.A. in music composition from the CUNY Grad Center where she studied with Thea Musgrave, Bruce Saylor and David Olan. She she has taught Songwriting and Music Theory in the Extension Division of the Mannes College of Music and currently teaches techniques of music in its College and Preparatory Divisions.

A Part Of/Apart From

Year: 2021

Duration (in minutes): 8

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Instruments: piano, satb chorus

Rogue Taxidermny

Year: 2017

Duration (in minutes): 17 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: !. Consider the Hortle
2. Tortitude
3. Meowl
4. Lone Wolf
5. Zebra Prawn Blues

Crimson Sand

Year: 2016

Duration (in minutes): 35 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: opera

Description: A one-act Opera Noir set in an East Coast seaside community. Through the course of the opera, a lone detective seeks the man responsible for killing prostitutes he has picked up through the internet. He works against all odds, given the systemic corruption of the local police officials who may have been complicit in the cover-up or perhaps even the crime itself. The opera asks the question “just how much can money buy” in 21st century suburban America?

Walden Songs

Year: 2016

Duration (in minutes): 12 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Description: !. O Cool is the Valley (Text by James Joyce)
2. Forgetfulness (Hart Crane)
3. North Labrador (Hart Crane)
4. Monet as a Verb (Matt Rasmussen)

Four Strong Winds

Year: 2015

Duration (in minutes): 15 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Written for Myungsook Wang

Violin Concerto

Year: 2014

Duration (in minutes): 9 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Yeats Songs

Year: 2013

Duration (in minutes): 15

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: 1) Adeh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, 2) Oil and Blood, 3) That Crazed Girl

String Quartet #2

Year: 2011

Duration (in minutes): 15

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: 5 Movements Total

Dangerous Routines

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Dangerous Routines (arr)

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: High (professional)

Four Character Pieces for Violin and Piano

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Winter and after Winter

Year: 2003

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Plains Indians

Year: 2002

Duration (in minutes): 13

Difficulty: High (professional)

Two Songs without Words

Year: 2002

Duration (in minutes): 9

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Sextet

Year: 2001

Duration (in minutes): 13

Difficulty: High (professional)

Minima, Memoy and Mirage

Year: 2001

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Portraits in Transit

Year: 2000

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Portraits in Transit (arr)

Year: 2000

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Seven Places in America

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 12 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Three Movements: The Magician, The Accordion Man, The Evangelist

Latest Dance Craze

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 9 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Written for Marija Ilich

Three Cabaret Songs

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 10

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of three Paul Auster poema

Quiet American

Year: 1998

Duration (in minutes): 1 hour 15 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: opera

Description: Based on the Graham Greene novel

Hive

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the Hart Crane poem

On the Beach at Fontana

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

Noise of Waters

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

Lights of Amethyst

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

String Quartet #1

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Blue Texture in a White Light

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

For Piano Trio (Aspen Trio)

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Dark Fidddler

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 9 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Description: !. Treeman (Text by Jay Johnson)
2. Requiem
3. The Dark Fiddler (Text by W.H.Auden)

Poeme for Orchestra

Year: 1992

Duration (in minutes): 9

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: orchestra and chamber orchestra

Welcome to Wonderland

Year: 2024

Composers: Wendy Griffiths and Yuzuru Sadashige

Label: Arabesque

Buy URL: https://music.apple.com/us/album/welcome-to-wonderland/1747900688

What September Brings

Year: 2019

Composers: Wendy Griffiths and Yuzuru Sadashige

Buy URL: https://music.apple.com/us/album/what-september-brings/1478783952

Views from the Keyboard

Year: 2022

Composers: Wendy Griffiths

Label: Arabesque

Product ID: https://open.spotify.com/album/3pQKUQU1BfMiN4T4yumZ78

Buy URL: https://open.spotify.com/album/3pQKUQU1BfMiN4T4yumZ78

BIOGRAPHY
Wendy Griffiths has composed chamber works, art songs, rock songs, orchestral works and dance scores. Her concert music has appeared on the Composers Concordance series, at the Merce Cunningham studio, the Manhattan School of Music, the Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Storm King Music Festival, Music Under Construction (of which she is a founding member) and in Stockholm performed by the Acidophilus Ensemble. Her opera “The Quiet American,” was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. More recently she composed a chamber opera “The Crimson Sand,” based on the Gilgo Beach murders. Recently she was commissioned by the Double Entendre Double Reed ensemble to compose a work for six double reeds. She has also received grants from Meet the Composer, NYSCA and the American Music Center. Ms. Griffiths also composes for and appears as a keyboard player/singer/bassist with her band Changing Modes (www.changingmodes.com) with whom she has recorded 2 EPs and 10 full-length CDs. Her band performs regularly in lower Manhattan and on regional tours in the U.S. In addition, Ms. Griffiths works also as a ballet accompanist and currently plays for The Joffrey Ballet School and the School at Mark Morris. She has collaborated with numerous dance companies including Beth Soll, Carolyn Lord and Alison Cook Beatty. Ms. Griffiths holds a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.M. from the Mannes College of Music. She received her D.M.A. in music composition from the CUNY Grad Center where she studied with Thea Musgrave, Bruce Saylor and David Olan. She she has taught Songwriting and Music Theory in the Extension Division of the Mannes College of Music and currently teaches techniques of music in its College and Preparatory Divisions.
COMPOSITIONS

A Part Of/Apart From

Year: 2021

Duration (in minutes): 8

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Instruments: piano, satb chorus

Rogue Taxidermny

Year: 2017

Duration (in minutes): 17 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: !. Consider the Hortle
2. Tortitude
3. Meowl
4. Lone Wolf
5. Zebra Prawn Blues

Crimson Sand

Year: 2016

Duration (in minutes): 35 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: opera

Description: A one-act Opera Noir set in an East Coast seaside community. Through the course of the opera, a lone detective seeks the man responsible for killing prostitutes he has picked up through the internet. He works against all odds, given the systemic corruption of the local police officials who may have been complicit in the cover-up or perhaps even the crime itself. The opera asks the question “just how much can money buy” in 21st century suburban America?

Walden Songs

Year: 2016

Duration (in minutes): 12 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Description: !. O Cool is the Valley (Text by James Joyce)
2. Forgetfulness (Hart Crane)
3. North Labrador (Hart Crane)
4. Monet as a Verb (Matt Rasmussen)

Four Strong Winds

Year: 2015

Duration (in minutes): 15 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Written for Myungsook Wang

Violin Concerto

Year: 2014

Duration (in minutes): 9 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Yeats Songs

Year: 2013

Duration (in minutes): 15

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: 1) Adeh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, 2) Oil and Blood, 3) That Crazed Girl

String Quartet #2

Year: 2011

Duration (in minutes): 15

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: 5 Movements Total

Dangerous Routines

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Dangerous Routines (arr)

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: High (professional)

Four Character Pieces for Violin and Piano

Year: 2005

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Winter and after Winter

Year: 2003

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Plains Indians

Year: 2002

Duration (in minutes): 13

Difficulty: High (professional)

Two Songs without Words

Year: 2002

Duration (in minutes): 9

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Sextet

Year: 2001

Duration (in minutes): 13

Difficulty: High (professional)

Minima, Memoy and Mirage

Year: 2001

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Portraits in Transit

Year: 2000

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Portraits in Transit (arr)

Year: 2000

Duration (in minutes): 11

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Seven Places in America

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 12 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Three Movements: The Magician, The Accordion Man, The Evangelist

Latest Dance Craze

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 9 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Written for Marija Ilich

Three Cabaret Songs

Year: 1999

Duration (in minutes): 10

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of three Paul Auster poema

Quiet American

Year: 1998

Duration (in minutes): 1 hour 15 min

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: opera

Description: Based on the Graham Greene novel

Hive

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the Hart Crane poem

On the Beach at Fontana

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

Noise of Waters

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

Lights of Amethyst

Year: 1995

Duration (in minutes): 2

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Description: Setting of the James Joyce poem

String Quartet #1

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Blue Texture in a White Light

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

For Piano Trio (Aspen Trio)

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 12

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Dark Fidddler

Year: 1993

Duration (in minutes): 9 minutes

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: choral

Description: !. Treeman (Text by Jay Johnson)
2. Requiem
3. The Dark Fiddler (Text by W.H.Auden)

Poeme for Orchestra

Year: 1992

Duration (in minutes): 9

Difficulty: Medium (college/community)

Category: orchestra and chamber orchestra

CDs

Wax World

Year: 2021

Welcome to Wonderland

Year: 2024

Composers: Wendy Griffiths and Yuzuru Sadashige

Label: Arabesque

What September Brings

Year: 2019

Composers: Wendy Griffiths and Yuzuru Sadashige

Views from the Keyboard

Year: 2022

Composers: Wendy Griffiths

Label: Arabesque

Product ID: https://open.spotify.com/album/3pQKUQU1BfMiN4T4yumZ78

VIDEOS
NEWS POST