Bernadette Speach is an American avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 composer.

Biography

was a nun at St Joseph of Corondelet from 1966 to 1977, teaching music in parochial school

Parochial school

A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...

s during that time. She studied with Nicholas Roussakis at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and with Franco Donatoni

Franco Donatoni

Franco Donatoni was an Italian composer.Born in Verona, he started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local Music Academy...

 at Siena

Siena

Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...

 in 1976. After 1977 she left the sisterhood and acquired a Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo, studying under Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...

 and Lejaren Hiller

Lejaren Hiller

Lejaren Arthur Hiller was an American composer. In 1957 he collaborated on the first significant computer music composition, Illiac Suite, with Leonard Issacson. It was his fourth string quartet. In 1958 he founded the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...

. She moved to New York in 1984 and married musician Jeffrey Schanzer. She served as director of Composers Forum from 1988 to 1990 and president of their board from 1990 to 1994; in 1995 she became director of The Kitchen

The Kitchen

The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary art and performance space located at at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...

. She is the president of the Buffalo New Music Ensemble.

Her music reflects a strong influence from Morton Feldman, but also is significantly influenced by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, including liberal use of improvisation

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

.

Vocal works

• Telepathy Suite (1988)
• A Set of Five (1989)
• It Came to me in a Dream (1990)
• Baobab 4 (1994)
• Woman Without Adornment (1994)
• Embrace the Universe for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano soli, with mixed chorus and orchestra (2001); words from The Divine Milieu by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
  
  

Works for piano and guitar

• Two in the Morning (1986)
• Phill’s Phault (1988)
• Blue (1989)
• 3½ (1990)
• It’s Your Turn (1990)
• Sound Crowds (1990)
• at the same time (1993)

Other instrumental works

• Shattered Glass (1986)
• Spero, gui (1986)
• Les ondes pour quatre (1988)
• Boppin’ Again (1989, rev. 1991)
• Bone, Burned, Abandon/Creak (dance score) (1990)
• Within (1990)
• 9/8/89 (1990)
• Almost Tadzio/Overbite Alarm (dance score) (1991)
• Chosen Voices (1991)
• Trio des trois I for violin, piano and percussion (1991)
• Trio des trois II for flute, viola and harp (1991)
• Trio des trois III for viola, cello and piano (1992)
• Avanzando (1993)
• Complaints (1993)
• Walking Again (1993)
• Parallel Windows – Unframed (1995)
• Viola for viola and piano (1999)

Solo piano

• Inside Out (1987)
• a page upon which … (1989)
• and so it is … (1990)
• Resoundings (4 hands, 1990)
• Walking Again (1992)
• Angels in the Snow (1993)
• When it Rains, Llueve (1995)