Gladys Nordenstrom

Gladys Mercedes Nordenstrom, born in the municipality of Pokegama, Minnesota, on 23 May 1924, is an American composer whose work belongs to the atonal current of expressionist character. Her importance lies in having built a personal language that developed, in creative terms, independently of her husband, the composer Ernst Krenek, with whom she shared detailed discussion of the texts of their vocal works.

She studied singing, trumpet and piano before enrolling at Hamline University in Saint Paul, where she trained in composition with Krenek and obtained her bachelor's degree in 1946 and her master's degree in 1947. That same summer she took courses in philosophy and literature at the University of Minnesota. In 1950 she married Krenek and moved with him to Los Angeles; in 1966 they settled in Palm Springs.

Her works include El Greco phantasie (1965), a strict twelve-note piece in which the series is constantly rotated, and Elegy for Robert F. Kennedy (1968), a compact and intense texture in which the influence of Webern can be perceived. Signals from Nowhere (1973) combines electronic sounds with organ. She has received several commissions, and her works have been performed in the United States and Europe.