Obituary: Composer Gloria Coates, 89

In Tuesday’s (9/5) New York Times, Neil Genzlinger writes, “Gloria Coates, an adventurous composer who wrote symphonies … as well as other works, pieces that were seldom performed in her home country, the United States, but found audiences in Europe, where she lived much of her professional life, died on Aug. 19 in Munich. She was 89. Her daughter, Alexandra Coates, said the cause was pancreatic cancer. Ms. Coates composed 17 symphonies, along with numerous works for small ensembles and voice…. Ms. Coates first came to wide attention when her ‘Music on Open Strings’ was performed by the Polish Chamber Orchestra at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music in 1978. Her work has since received only occasional bursts of attention in the United States—as in 1989, when her ‘Music on Abstract Lines’ was given its world premiere at the New Music America festival in Brooklyn; and in 2002, when New World Records released the first recording of her works on an American label; and in 2019, when ‘Music on Open Strings’ was performed at Zankel Hall in Manhattan by the American Composers Orchestra…. Her own compositional output covered a wide range…. In addition to her daughter, Ms. Coates is survived by a brother, Philip Kannenberg; a sister, Natalie Tackett; and a grandson.”