Featured Composer: Elaine Erickson

Elaine Erickson has a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from Drake University. She has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the Ford Foundation (when she composed music for the public schools of Broward County, Florida), the National League of American Pen Women (including the national Music Composition Award) and the Pyle Commission Award from the Iowa Composers Forum. She studied composition at the University of Iowa and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She has composed five operas, three of which were performed at Peabody. She taught Music Composition at Central College in Pella, Iowa, and taught piano in her home for many years. She travels to Iowa schools giving workshops involving her compositions as an artist for VSA Iowa. She is a published poet. Elaine’s music was featured on the ICF’s October concert in Cedar Rapids and will be performed again as part of the upcoming Winter Festival of New Music in Iowa City.