A US composer dies in Germany
RIPThe much-recorded Gloria Coates died yesterday in a Munich hospice, her daughter reports. She was 89.
Her date of birth was adjusted five years backwards by the family. She had moved to Munich in 1969.
Coates was an avid abstract painter who applied art techniques to her music and engaged frequently with microtones. She completed 16 symphonies. Much of her music appeared on the Naxos label.
Gloria Coates was a really wonderful composer, very much overlooked. I think that Coates came of age at a time when very few women composers, particularly based in Europe, and particularly orchestra-focused, got much attention. I hope that her music will be discovered in the US and across the world, in ways perhaps similar to how Julius Eastman’s music is being programmed by so many ensembles.