Sigma Alpha Iota

26 Winter 2026 • sai-national.org By Adrienne Wiley P rior to my second sabbatical, I was heavily invested in playing piano music with one hand: the left hand. This became a specialty for me when I injured my right hand during my DMA program preparing for a recital. My teacher was so helpful to point me toward left-handed piano music so I could complete my DMA lecture recital. I completed the recital successfully. Post-DMA, I continued to play pieces for left hand alone. Eventually I became tired of the usual and well- known one-handed pieces: the Brahm's Chaconne, the Scriabin Nocturne, and so forth. I pondered: what if there were women composers writing in this genre? Yes! This is when I started researching piano music for one hand written by women composers. My research prior to 2011 (next sabbatical) found over one hundred piano works written for the left or right hand alone by women composers. These pieces were a combination of educational music, historical music (music that was printed/published pre-20th century), and concert-level works. I took my sabbatical in 2012 to find more music and write an article. During this time, I had a sense that I would record another CD featuring little-known works by women composers. Post-sabbatical and several years later, I realized that making a CD of this genre would be highly unique. I applied for internal funding from my university and received the go-ahead in 2020. While I had performed many of these pieces that I wanted to include on the CD, given workshops on this topic, and published an article on these women composers, I did not yet have a CD to document their works. I accomplished all of the recording during the summer of 2021, recording with Blue Griffin and working with Centaur Records. Some of the works I decided to record include Yvonne Adair's Three Preludes; Joanne Lovell's The Circus; Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee's Nocturne and Adventurous Saga; Jean Hasse's Silkwater; and SAI sister Minuetta Kessler's Evocation. These were of the easiest pieces to obtain mechanical rights. Once the recordings were completed, I worked with Centaur to obtain the mechanical licenses of the remaining pieces. While the first four were easy, and the composers either living or the publishing house still active in their music archiving, it proved to be a more complicated issue for the other works. The Australian Music Centre would not grant any mechanical licenses. Many of the remaining pieces were either out of print or, because of the time of the original publication—for example, Minnie Reese (mid-1800s)— the publishing firm closed down and there was no transfer of music to another firm. I found that some publishing firms were either absorbed into others or permanently closed. It was hard to track down where these publications went. After a year of trying to get the mechanical licenses for many of these compositions, Centaur suggested the route of streaming the album. It was a success! While quite a learning experience, it was fun! Wonderful One- Handed Piano Music by Women Composers is available on all streaming platforms. I am grateful to Blue Griffin Recording and Centaur, and also my colleague Dr. Mark Cox, photographer, who took wonderful photos. I hope you enjoy! Adrienne Wiley grew up in a house that often heard SAI Ritual Music, due to her mother being an SAI who often played for many rituals. It was not until her early college years, and in pledging SAI, that she realized what she had been hearing. Adrienne was in many leadership roles throughout her BM, MM, and DMA programs, and is currently chapter advisor for Central Michigan University. Music Notes My Journey to Making a CD of One-Handed Piano Works by Women Composers

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