“Marga Richter, a prolific composer whose determination to be heard in a male-dominated field once led her to rent Merkin Concert Hall to stage a program of her own works, died on June 25 at her home in Barnegat, N.J.,” writes Neil Genzlinger in Friday’s (7/10) New York Times. “She was 93…. Ms. Richter, born into a musical family, wrote almost 200 works, for orchestra, chorus, small ensembles, voice and more, in a career that began in the 1940s and continued until late in her life…. Despite her successes, Ms. Richter chafed at the inequality she and other women experienced…. And so in October 1981 she staged her own program at Merkin, with a sampling of her work performed by the Drucker Trio, the Atlantic Quartet and others…. Florence Marga Richter was born on Oct. 21, 1926, in Reedsburg, Wis. … Ms. Richter earned a master’s degree in composition at Juilliard in 1951…. Ms. Richter was never associated with a particular school and never used a definable system of composition…. Ms. Richter … lamented the developing trend of concerts ‘featuring’ women or minority composers. ‘We don’t want to be featured,’ she said. ‘We want to be absorbed.’ ”
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