Perry, Julia (Amanda)

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Perry, Julia (Amanda)

Perry, Julia (Amanda), black American composer; b. Lexington, Ky, March 25,1924; d. Akron, Ohio, April 29,1979. After studying at the Westminster Choir Coll. in Princeton, N.J. (M.Mus., 1948), she took a course in composition with Dallapiccola at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood (summer, 1951). She then took composition lessons, intermittently, with Boulanger in Paris and again with Dallapiccola in Italy (1952–56), and also attended classes in conducting in Siena (1956–58). She received 2 Guggenheim fellowships and an award from the National Inst. of Arts and Letters.

Works

dramatic:Opera: The Bottle (n.d.); The Cask of Amontillado (N.Y., Nov. 20, 1954); The Selfish Giant, opera-ballet (1964); 3 Warnings (n.d.). orch.:Short Piece (1952); 12 syms. (1959–72), including No. 11, Soul Symphony (1972); Pastoral for Flute and Strings (1959); 2 piano concertos (1964); Violin Concerto (1964); Module (1975). chamber:Homunculus CF. for Harp and 10 Percussion (1960); Woodwind Trio; String Quartet; etc. vocal:Chicago, cantata for Baritone, Narrator, Chorus, and Orch. (1948); Ruth, cantata for Chorus and Organ (1950); Stabat Mater for Alto and Strings (1951); numerous songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire