Weigl, Valery (Vally)

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Weigl, Valery (Vally)

Weigl, Valery (Vally) , Austrian-born American composer and music therapist; b. Vienna, Sept. 11,1894; d. N.Y., Dec. 25,1982. She studied music in Vienna with her husband, Karl Weigl. She taught music in Vienna and Salzburg (1921-38). After the Anschluss in 1938, she and her husband went to the U.S., where she obtained employment as music adviser with the American Theater Wing in N.Y. (1947-58); from 1954 to 1964 she gave courses in music therapy at the N.Y. Medical Coll. and wrote therapy programs for UNESCO. She was an energetic peace activist, and served as a co-founder of the Friends’ Arts for World Unity Committee. With equal energy, she promoted her husband’s compositions, which were little appreciated and seldom played.

Works

New England Suite for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano (1955); Nature Moods for Soprano, Clarinet, and Violin (1960); Mood Sketches for Wind Quintet (1964); Peace Is a Shelter for Chorus, Soloist, and Piano (1970); The People Yes, cantata (1976).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire