Peruvian-American composer, music theorist, writer on music, and music educator, born in 1933. She was educated at Sas-Rosay Music Academy in Lima, the Juilliard School of Music (MS 1957), and the Hamburg Hochschule fur Musik (1957-61). Her composition teachers were Andres Sas, William Bergsma, and Philipp Jarnach. She has received many grants and awards, including McDowell Fellowships and Ford Foundation grants. She taught at the New England Conservatory of Music and has been on the faculty of Wheaton College since 1972. Her works have been performed by major orchestras worldwide.
(Janna MacAuslan and Kristan Aspen, Guitar Music by Women Composers, Greenwood, 1997)
Pozzi Escot was chosen one of the five outstanding women composers of the 20th century (with Bacewicz, Lily Boulanger, Ruth Crawford) in 1975 when her Fifth Symphony was premiered by the New York Philharmonic.
Distinguished critics's reviews are numerous:
“Escot's Fifth Symphony is a formidable mathematical construction where the resulting sounds expresses powerful excitement.” -Andrew Porter, The New Yorker.
“Immense excitement was created with Escot's Three Poems of Rilke.”-Theodore Strongin, The New York Times.
“American composer Escot's Piano Concerto perfectly fits in the vision of another great American, Charles Ives, the discoverer.” -Jean-Etienne Marie, Musique Actuelle-Nice.
“In the contrast between shrill dissonances and melodious harmonies,Visione97 speaks in the most modern musical language of the beauty of God's creation.”-Mainer Bistumsnachrichten.
“Aria II is an epic.” -Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe.
Recent performances: Carnegie Hall, Cube Ensemble-Chicago, Rome Oktoechoes Ensemble, Paris-Ensemble Intercontemporain members, Russia St. Petersburg Chamber Players, Cologne Cathedral Sunday noon high mass by New England Conservatory Chorus, Washington D.C. Corcoran Gallery. Escot is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, president of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies, editor-in-chief of the journal Sonus, member of the graduate theoretical studies and composition departments at New England Conservatory. Escot is co-author of the acclaimed book Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music . Her most recent book, The Poetics of Simple Mathematics in Music, has already received extraordinary reviews.
Web: http://www.newenglandconservatory.edu/faculty/escotP.html