Tui St. George Tucker @ 100
A Symposium featuring Research, Original Compositions, and Performances of Tucker’s Music
Hayes School of Music and Special Collections Research Center
Appalachian State University
September 15-16, 2024
Coordinating Committee--Gary Boye, Ph.D., Nicholas Cline, D.M.A., and Reeves Shulstad, Ph.D.
Program Schedule, Participant Bios, and Program Notes
About Tui
Tui St. George Tucker journeyed through life as a bohemian, creative force. Born on November 25, 1924, in Fullerton, CA, to parents who had recently immigrated from New Zealand. Lorraine St. George Tucker was nicknamed Tui after a songbird from her mother’s native country. After a progressive education in Eagle Rock, CA, Tui migrated to New York City as WWII ended to actualize her artistic self. She quickly became part of the early music scene as a recorder player and channeled her creativity into composition. During those early years, she met Vera Lachmann, a German Jewish emigrée who was a poet, a teacher of Classics, and the director of a summer camp for boys in North Carolina: Camp Catawba. Tui eventually took on the role of the camp's music director, and she and Vera became life partners. Through composition, performing, and teaching, Tui operated in various musical circles during her lifetime: experimental and microtonal composer circles and professional recorder players in New York City; campers who performed Machaut, Bach, Mozart, and Fauré during the summer under her tutelage; and various professional and amateur musicians who inspired her and performed her music. Her compositional output includes solo and ensemble music for recorder; solo piano and organ works; microtonal pieces for recorder, keyboard, and voice; chamber music; and choral music. After she died in 2004, Tucker’s music, papers, and recordings, along with the papers of Camp Catawba and Vera Lachmann, became part of Appalachian State University’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sunday, Sept. 15
2:00-3:30 Papers/Performances (Schaffel Hall)
- Joseph Bathanti, Poetry Reading
- Lindsay Jacob, Reflection for alto saxophone (2008)
- Dinah Bianchi, …Please repeat that for horn and fixed-media (2020)
- Drora Bruck, "The Recorder as an Unassimilated Minority in the USA"
3:45-4:45 Paper/Performances (Schaffel Hall)
- Nicholas Cline, "Microtonal Works of Tui St. George Tucker"
- Jon Snead, Untune the Sky for viola da gamba and electronics (2020)
- Dmitri Volkov, Xenexhibition for solo microtonal keyboard (2022)
5:00-5:50 Keynote Event (Schaffel Hall)
Conferring with Tui: Music, Art, Letters, and Conversations
Robert Jurgrau, Liz Rose, and Reeves Shulstad
8:00 Concert (Rosen Hall)
- Springhouse Farm Choir - Tui St. George Tucker, Tantum Ergo, Ave Verum
- Thomas Feng, Tui St. George Tucker, Ave Verum Vol. 1-3 for solo piano, premiere performance
Monday, Sept. 16
8:30-10:00 Tui St. George Tucker Collection - archival material in Erneston Music Library
10:00-11:00 Performances (Schaffel)
- Tui St. George Tucker, Summer Alleluia, Open participation (HSOM community, symposium participants, guests)
- Roger Zare, Entanglement for clarinet trio (2023), performed by Chaos Incarné
- Heather Savage, Eidolons (2023), performed by Nancy Schneeloch-Bingham, flute and Soo Goh, clarinet
- Hunter Cox, Tui St. George Tucker, “On a Mountain Road at Summer’s End” from The Notes from the Blue Mountains
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Call for Papers
In her chapter “Rethinking Women’s Music-making through the Lens of Human Flourishing” from Music and Human Flourishing (2023), Annegret Fauser encourages scholars to consider the female-identified musician as a creative and “unique person within a network of others . . . . [who should be considered] on their own terms.” Investigations of women in their actual networks “. . . offer a pathway to taking seriously their joy and creativity in sound, whatever pressures and constraints they might have faced in their times.” (163)
Exploring how American female-identified musicians flourished from the mid to late 20th century provides a way to cultivate our understanding of their creative lives. What were their networks of support? From where did they find inspiration? Who were their collaborators? In what ways did their lifestyle lead to their flourishing?
Composer and professional recorder player Tui St. George Tucker is an example of a creative 20th-century female musician who flourished due to various personal and professional connections. In her obituary in the Journal of the American Recorder Society, friends and colleagues referenced her talent for bringing people together and her insistence on speaking her mind--”risking all for a tractor-beam-like contact of personal communication.”
To celebrate her life and career in her 100th year, the paper sessions of this conference seek to broaden and explore the networks in which Tui St. George Tucker flourished.
The committee encourages papers themed around artistic connections and collaborations that inspired her as well as propelled her career:
- Female-centered musical networks and events in the second half of the 20th century
- Women in the Early Music scene in New York City after World War II
- The American Recorder Society
- Contemporary Recorder Repertoire
- Interdisciplinary collaborations in New York City in the second half of the 20th century
- (Collaboration of poets, composers, and dancers)
- Judson Memorial Church Concert Series
- Female-identified experimental and microtonal composers
- American Microtonal Festivals
- Camp Catawba, Blowing Rock, NC
- Other topics considered
Submit proposals of 250 words for individual or co-authored papers to shulstader@appstate.edu by March 29, 2024.
Decision date May 15, 2024
Call for Scores
In a letter to John Cage, Tui described his work, The Perilous Night, as “modal, microtonal, and magical,” all qualities that she valued in her music.
The committee encourages performances that respond to the conference themes above or resonate with the attributes of “modal, microtonal, and magical.”
Criteria for consideration:
- The composer must provide performers.
- Works under 10 minutes will receive preference. Longer works will be considered.
- Works including improvisation, electronics (up to 8 channels), and video are welcome.
- Works by female-identifying composers are especially encouraged.
Please submit a score (or other documentation) and a recording to clineng1@appstate.edu by March 29, 2024. For works with electronics or video, please include a technical rider with performance requirements as part of your submission.
Decision Date: May 15, 2024
Call for Performances
The committee encourages proposals for performances of works by Tui St. George Tucker.
See works list and available scores.
Submit recordings or proposals to clineng1@appstate.edu by March 29, 2024.
Decision Date: May 15, 2024