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About Ellen BenderEllen Bender began her musical studies at age six with piano lessons followed by flute lessons at age 12. Her principal teachers were pianist Mollie Cohen and Jon Sakata, and flutists Neal Zaslaw {musicology faculty, Cornell University}, Harold Bennett {former principal flute at the New York Metropolitan Opera}, and James Pappoutsakis {former second flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra}. Ms. Bender earned a BA at Boston University and a MM at New England Conservatory while completing a ten-year private study of music theory and composition with flutist and composer, Robert DiDomenica {who Bender later married} which included an in-depth written examination of 18th- and 19th-century harmonic practices, 16th- and 18th-century counterpoint, fugue, musical forms, and twelve-tone composition. {This duplicated DiDomenica's compositional study with Josef Schmid, a pupil of Alban Berg, famous student of Arnold Schoenberg. Ms. Bender regards this as a most prestigious and important heritage.}
Ms. Bender began teaching music from age twelve and has since taught music privately for over 50 years. She has been on the faculties of Merrywood Summer Music School, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and New England Conservatory. She has performed on flute in and around the Boston area and many of her compositions have been performed at New England Conservatory and in the Boston area.. She has composed over 50 works including two operas, a double piano concerto, a flute concerto, works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, voice, and piano. Her publisher is Margun Music and her complete oeuvre to date is housed as the Ellen Bender Collection at The Library of Congress. |