Elizabeth Vercoe

Elizabeth Vercoe has been a composer at the MacDowell Colony, the St. Petersburg Spring Music Festival in Russia, the Cité International des Arts in Paris, and the Charles Ives Center for American Music . She has written works on commission for Wellesley College, Austin Peay State University, the Pro Arte Orchestra, and the First National Congress on Women in Music. Her awards include grants from the the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the Artists Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council.

Described by Gardner Read as "a composer with a fine technical command and a keen sensitivity to sound materials," her music has been widely performed in the U.S. and abroad with concerts in London, Paris, Bangkok, New York, and San Francisco. Following her doctoral degree at Boston University, she has promoted women's music as a board member of the International League of Women Composers, Director of the Women's Music Festival/85, and author of articles on the subject. She held the Acuff Chair of Excellence at Austin Peay State University in 2003 and teaches at Regis College. Her music includes the Herstory series of vocal works on texts by women, two staged monodramas, Changes: A little music for Mozart for orchestra,and music for various chamber combinations.