Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • SUMMER 2016 • PAN PIPES 7 N O P S T U X Y Z is past spring the American Prize Competition, which provides evaluation and recognition of works by American artists, ensembles, and composers for their recorded performances, recognized three pieces by composer and SAI member Augusta "Gussie" Cecconi-Bates. Her opera, Molly of the Mohawks, quartet, From the Tug Hill Plateau, and orchestral piece, Essences of the North Country, were all selected as semi-finalists in this year's competition. Gussie, whose Native American name is Willow Wind, was born on August 9, 1933 in Syracuse, NY, to an opera-loving, Italian family. She studied piano from the early age of 6 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in 1956 and a Master of Arts in Humanities in 1960 from Syracuse University. It was there she was initiated into the Sigma Iota Chapter of SAI. Aer winning a composition contest in 1976, she studied with Robert Palmer and Karel Husa at Cornell University. She is a member of the Syracuse Alumnae Chapter and the SAI Composers Bureau. Augusta has written three operas and some 300 other works in genres ranging from arias to band to orchestral. Pasticcio, a 7-minute movement for wind ensemble, was premiered by the Chicago Symphonic Wind Ensemble under Maestro Lloyd Vincent Byczek in 1978. War is Kind, a two movement work for band with soprano and baritone soloists, was commissioned by SUNY Oswego Band director George Cuppernull and premiered in Oswego in 1981. Since many of her compositions depict the geographic area of New York State known as the Tug Hill Plateau (a region in the western foothills of the Adirondack mountains), Augusta was commissioned to compose Essences of the North Country for chamber orchestra, a work nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Her 4-act opera Molly of the Mohawks was most recently performed in 2013; the story is a historically accurate depiction of the life of Molly Brant (1736-1796) and her husband, Sir. William Johnson (1714-1774), during the early American Revolution and the Battle at Oriskany. During a recent interview, Ms. Cecconi-Bates spoke about her creative process and where her focus lies while writing a new composition. "A lot of it is word based; the words sound like music to me. I'm also interested in the characters of a new opera and if they sound real to me. I was taken with the struggle of Molly Brant. With the opera, I was fortunate to find sponsors and funding, which is not always easy to do." Augusta spoke of how she has always known she would be a composer; even at a very young age of 8 or 9 she wrote her first pieces. What are her favorite works for inspiration? "I'm a big Verdi opera fan. And Mozart's Don Giovanni. I just keep trying and putting out pieces with my own chutzpah." When asked about her upcoming projects, she was quite enthusiastic about a new opera called "Skaters" based on the Jelinek family of Czechoslovakia/Canada, who lived through the Nazi occupation and communist terror reign before escaping to Canada in 1948. She is working with the family, including librettist Henry Jelinek, Jr., and will hold the premier of the finished piece in Canada. SAIS IN THE NEWS SAI Cecconi-Bates' Compositions Recognized Augusta Cecconi-Bates FOR MORE INFORMATION and recordings, visit: cecconibates.homestead.com M olly Of The Mohawks, an opera in four acts, is based on the life and work of Mohawk Loyalist Molly Brant. The research paper, "Konwatsiatsiaenni, Who Was She?" by Sue Bazely (1995) forms the basis of the libretto, with additional material gathered from Mohawk oral and written histories. The story follows the work of Molly as she meets with leaders in Philadelphia, her marriage to William Johnson, and the nations' power struggles that follow. The opera calls for Native drummers and dancers, particularly in the scenes dealing with the Covenance Chain and the Wedding Scene after the Proclamation of 1763. Three scenes deal with the Battle of Oriskany (August 6, 1777), when for the first time the Iroquois Nations fought on opposing sides. By late 1779, the Mohawks moved north, never again to return to the land of their beginnings. Molly of the Mohawks

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