Loretta K. Notareschi explores the passionate, irreverent, and transcendent in her many compositions for chamber ensemble, large ensemble, and chorus. Born in Canton, Ohio and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, she has received awards from the IronWorks Percussion Duo, the Colorado State Music Teachers Association, the American Composers Forum, Ensemble Eleven, and the GALA Choruses. Her music has been performed in Italy and England; in New York City at Symphony Space and the Paul Recital Hall in Lincoln Center; and in other cities across the U.S., including Denver, where she makes her home. Her music is published by Disegni Music (ASCAP), Friedrich Hofmeister of Leipzig, and Bachovich.

Recent commissions include new works for the First Universalist Singers (Denver), the Regis University Collegium Musicum (Denver), Mountain Music Duo (Denver), the Colorado State Music Teachers Association, Melody of China (San Francisco), the Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus (Berkeley), the Napa Valley Youth Symphony, the Sacramento Youth Symphony Chamber Music Workshop, and the San Francisco Community Music Center. She has also written music for the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the Rivers Music School Brass Ensemble, clarinetist Peter Josheff, the Calliope Duo, Clogs, Nathan Davis of the ensemble Non Sequitur, the yesaroun’ DUO, Ensemble Eleven, percussionists Yousif Sheronick and Joseph Gramley, and former sopranist Zachary Gordin.

Notareschi is an assistant professor of music at Regis University and a faculty member of The Walden School. She is also a member of ASCAP and the Amercian Composers Forum. She holds a Masters and PhD in composition from the University of California at Berkeley, a Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of Southern California, and the General Diploma from the Zoltàn Kodàly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemèt, Hungary, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Her primary teachers in composition have been Morten Lauridsen, Erica Muhl, Rick Lesemann, Cindy Cox, and Jorge Liderman.

About the Music:
Two About Two gets its tile from the fact that it is two instruments expressing two main different ideas: A and B. The A idea is lyrical and chorale-like, and the B idea is jazzier and more angular. A is presented ultimately in two different keys. In the second key (D minor, at the end), it is presented in two different ways: backwards and upside down. B is presented in two ways also: with blues-scale-influenced materials and with more atonal materials. A and B influence one another throughout the piece. -LKN