Anne Lauber

Lauber, Anne

Anne Lauber. Composer, teacher, b Zurich, Switzerland, 28 Jul 1943, naturalized Canadian 1972; M MUS composition (Montreal) 1982, D MUS composition (Montreal) 1986. Following violin and piano studies, Anne Lauber attended (1964-7) the Lausanne Conservatory (thanks to a scholarship from the Association des musiciens suisses), where, among other subjects, she studied compositional techniques under Andras Kovach, a student of Kodály. Concurrently, she took composition lessons with Jean Perrin, and later with Darius Milhaud. In 1967, she moved to Montreal where she studied composition privately (1973-7) with André Prévost. She subsequently studied at the University of Montreal, where Serge Garant and Prévost were among her teachers.

Anne Lauber has received numerous commissions from performers, orchestras and concert societies through the Canada Council or the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec. In 1980, the Canadian Music Competitions commissioned a series of works for various instruments from Lauber. Her symphonic tale, Beyond the Sound Barrier / Au-delà du mur du son, a joint commission from the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, received its French premiere in Quebec City, and its English premiere in Toronto in November 1983. The work was presented elsewhere in Canada and the USA afterwards. In 1985, Lauber won a prize at the International Guitar Competition in Marl, Germany, for her Arabesque. The following year, her oratorio, Jesus Christus, was premiered at Notre-Dame Church by the Donovan Chorale and the Orchestre métropolitain, with Mario Bernardi conducting.

Throughout the 1980s, Lauber worked on a number of pieces for double-bass, including her Mouvement pour contrabasse et piano (1980) and Gary Karr's commissioned Three Moods for Double-Bass (1988), a concerto for double-bass and orchestra, premiered with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 1988. Her works have also been performed by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Rivka Golani, and the Denver Philharmonic. In 2001, her son Tristan Lauber premiered her second piano concerto with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra. In 2007, Lauber was a featured composer at the Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Lauber's music is characterized by a desire for expressive clarity rooted in traditional materials and methods of Western classical music. It was from this aesthetic perspective that, in 1995, she founded (with Raymond Daveluy, Rachel Laurin, and Alain Payette) the Mélodistes indépendants, a group of Montreal-area composers that reacted against what they described as a lack of clear melody, rhythm, and resolution of dissonance in contemporary music.

Conducting; Teaching

Anne Lauber has also been active as a conductor. Following private instruction from Jacques Clément (1980), one of her conducting engagements was the recording of L'Affaire Coffin, and the premiere performance (1982) of Colin-Maillard with the youth orchestras of Montreal, Anjou and Sherbrooke.

She has taught at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Concordia University and the University of Montreal. She is a member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre. She was vice-president of the Quebec region of the CMC in 1987 and its president 1988-92.

Selected Compositions

Stage
Beyond the Sound Barrier / Au-delà du mur du son, symphonic tale (P. Tardif-Delorme. 1983. 2 narrator, 5 mimes, orch. Ms. SNE 527 and SNE 568 (OJQ).

Orchestra

Divertimento. 1970. Str orch. Ms.

Concerto for string orchestra. 1976. Ms

Poème pour une métamorphose. 1978. Ms

Osmose. 1980. Ms

Colin-Maillard. 1982. Ms

Ouverture canadienne. 1989. Ms

Circus. 1999. Full orchestra

Soloist(s) with Orchestra

L'Affaire Coffin, film. 1979. Pf, orch. 1980. SNE 503 (F. Gélinas, piano, O civique des jeunes de Montreal, Lauber conductor)

Fantaisie sur un thème connu. 1980. Pf, orch. SNE 527 and SNE 568 (OJQ)

Valse concertante. 1981 (rev 1983). Pf, orch. Ms

Concerto. 1983. Str Quar, orch. Ms

Concerto. 1986. Vn, orch. Ms

Concerto. 1988. Pf, orch. Ms

Concerto 'Three Moods for Double Bass'. 1988. Db, orch. Ms

Concerto pour piano et orchestre. 2001. Premiered 27 Sep 2001

Serenata España: Concerto pour guitar et orchestre. 2002

Chamber

Cinq éléments. 1972. Fl, bassoon, saxophone, tuba, violin. Ms

Sonata No. 1. 1975. Vla, piano. Ms

Woodwind Quintet. 1977. Ms

Mollésiennes. 1978. Fl, piano. Ms

Divertissement. 1979. Fl, guitar. Dob-Yppan 1981

Sonata No. 2. 1979. Vla, piano. Ms

7 Mouvements. 1980. Vla, piano; double-bass, piano; clarinet, piano; horn, piano; violoncello, piano. Mss. Dob-Yppan 1983 (fl, piano)

Arabesque. 1983. Guit. Dob-Yppan 1984

Piano Quintet. 1983. Ms

Le Songe (A. Grandbois). 1985. Fl, narrator, string quartet. Ms

3 Intermezzi. 1987. Db, piano. Ms

Piano Quartet. 1989. Ms

Keyboard

Cinq pièces pour orgue. 1978. Ms

Le Petit prince. 1979. Pf. Ms. 1980. SNE 503 (F. Gélinas piano, T. Lauber narrator)

Monologue. 1980. Pf. Ms

Scherzo. 1989. Pf. Ms

Choir or Voice

Trois poèmes de Monika (M. Mérinat). 1976. Mezzo (bar), piano. Ms

Quatre mélodies (Saint-Denys Garneau). 1979. Tén (soprano), piano. Ms

Contrastes (Lauber). 1940. V, piano. Ms

La Joue de la poupée (M. Mérinat). 1982. 6 voice, violoncello, speaker. Ms

Jesus Christus, oratorio (B. Lacroix). 1984. 5 voice, chorus, orch. Ms

Requiem. 1989. 4 solos, chorus, orch. Ms

Cantata III. 1996. Chorus, soloists, chamber orchestra. Premiered 11 Nov 1996

Tout le passé, tout l'avenir (text Victor Hugo). 2000. 3 soloists, choir, instrumental ensemble

Also soundtrack for the film Marie Uguay (1981)

Writings

"Au-delà des diplômes," Pour l'amour de la musique: Les Mélodistes indépendants (Montreal 1996)

With Daveluy, Raymond; Laurin, Rachel; and Payette, Alain. "Réplique en sol majeur," Le Devoir, 15 Jun 1995