Hilary Tann (*1947)
From her childhood in the coal-mining valleys of South Wales, Hilary Tann developed the deep love of nature which has inspired all her music. A deep interest in the music of Japan has led to works like "Of erthe and air” und “From afar” (for symphony orchestra).
The work “Llef” is originally made for the ancient Japanese vertical bamboo flute (the shakuhachi) which Tann had studied from 1985 to 1991. Form 1982 to 1995 she was active in the International League of Women Composers. Hilary Tann lives south of the Adirondacks in upstate New York where she chairs the Department of Performing Arts at Union College in Schenectady
Her music, whose stimulus often derives from environmental phenomena, is spare in textsmallure, meticulous in its sensitivity to timbre, and frequently rich in growth patterns; though generally marked by a strong lyrical impulse, there are also moments of vehement expression. A.J.Heward Rees, The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers
For the Meininger-Trio she wrote the work 2004 Gardens of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, in 2005 (the CD was published in 2005 under the same title).
Regarding this composition, the composer explains: “It is a friendly and introvert piece. Contemplative. It does not argue and tells no story. It is about what gardens could give us.”
In a letter to theMeininger-Trio she wrote: „Your performances are so winning -- not only professional, but warm in a human way.“ Hilary Tann in Oktober 2002