Sigma Alpha Iota

6 Winter 2022 • sai-national.org Music Notes The Pittsburgh Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota is pleased to announce that Lilian Rona is the winner of the 2021 Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition. Lilian is a third-year undergraduate student in the Composition Department at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (IU). Having transferred in from the Computer Science department at IU, Lilian found the art of composition later than most, using it as an outlet for her love of music and wide spanning interest in the study of music. Also pursuing minors in Conducting and Jazz Studies, Lilian often finds herself torn between musical styles, eras, instruments, and practices, and believes composition to be the all- encompassing outlet for her wide variety of interests and abilities. In her music, there are clear influences of Jazz and popular music, on top of the contemporary concert music practice taught by the Composition Department. Her performance experience in voice and upwards of ten different orchestral and band instruments gives her a unique perspective on the compositional practice, providing a point of view that is practical, empathetic towards performers, and pursues emotional depth in those compositions. Lilian is also a songwriter and has been involved in musical theater during her time at IU. Between commissions, she has: worked in pit bands for university shows as a guitarist, bassist, and pianist; toured the state as Angelica/Lafayette in a condensed rural outreach musical theater program Hamiltunes; worked as a voice, piano, guitar, theory, and composition teacher and musical director at various schools, music camps, and summer programs. She also does work as an arranger, transcriber, and songwriter on commission. Lilian's winning composition is entitled Switch. The award is $1000. The judge for the competition was Dr. Marilyn Taft Thomas, Professor Emerita of Theory and Composition in the Carnegie Mellon School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Listen: https://bit.ly/3ofFgWS The Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition is a project of the Pittsburgh Alumnae Chapter. The competition is in honor and memory of Margaret Blackburn, composer of the SAI Chorale. She was a founding member of the Pittsburgh Alumnae Chapter and passed away in 1996. The competition is open to female composers enrolled in an accredited university or college undergraduate or graduate degree program. — Submitted by Rebecca Catelinet, Editor Pittsburgh Alumnae Chapter Winner of the 2021 Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition On Tuesday, September 21, 2021, listeners to radio station WRTI, Temple University's classical and Jazz station, Philadelphia, heard host Debra Lew Harder sign off for the last time from her several years work at the station. She is off to a new adventure as the radio host for the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday aernoon broadcasts. She is only the fih person to hold this position since the broadcasts began in 1931. Ms. Harder is leaving WRTI aer five years of creating, producing, and hosting programs for the station which included "Classical Coffeehouse" on Saturday mornings and the Wednesday Classical Request program, both popular with listeners. She is looking forward to being back on-air with the Saturday aernoon opera performances from New York, beginning in December 2021. When asked about applying for her new position, Ms. Harder said, "Announcing and hosting the Met broadcasts is a dream come true. When I heard the position was open (which has only happened a few times in 90 years) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to apply." She reports that she is really looking forward to the many opportunities she will have working with the "wonderful producers, engineers, singers, and other artists that make up the Met family." She is also excited about hosting the live performances of the Met's productions and interviewing participants for the radio audience. Opera has been a love for Ms. Harder since she was a little girl accompanying her father who was an amateur opera tenor. e operas she says that give her joy no matter how oen she sees or hears them include: Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, anything by Puccini (Turandot, Tosca and Gianni Schicchi are three of her favorites), Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Verdi's Rigoletto, Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's e Marriage of Figaro, Stravinsky's e Rake's Progress, Handel's Alcina, and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and e Ring Cycle. at is a pretty broad collection of favorites. Ms. Harder plans to continue practicing piano and performing in concert in the Philadelphia area during the "off-season." Her performances are oen a selection of pieces based on a theme and involve commentary for each piece. Debra Lew Harder became a Friend of the Arts through the Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter in July of 2019. We are delighted that she has joined the distinguished group of hosts for the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. — Submitted by Ruth A. Sheets, Editor, Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter New Radio Host For The Metropolitan Opera WRTI.org/Mark Pinto WRTI.org/Mark Pinto

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