Ruth Lomon

Ruth Margaret Lomon was born in Montreal in 1930 and later settled in the United States, where she built a career combining composition, teaching and piano performance. She trained at McGill University and at the Quebec Conservatory, and her composition teachers included Francis Judd Cooke and Lutosławski.

From 1971 to 1983 she formed a piano duo with Iris Graffman Wenglin, focusing on the standard repertoire and on music by women composers. Her work in professional associations was equally significant. She was the first president of American Women Composers Massachusetts, founded in 1984, and served as vice president of the organisation's national board from 1985 to 1989. She was also a resident fellow in the Women's Studies programme at Brandeis University.

Her output includes orchestral works, chamber music, vocal music and multimedia compositions. Terra incognita (1993), written in an atonal language, makes use of instrumental recitatives and extended performance techniques. The cycle Songs of Remembrance (1995–1996), composed during her stay at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, sets poems by Holocaust survivors and by victims of the extermination camps. The Trumpet Concerto Odyssey (1997), commissioned by the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, was inspired by the poem by Nikos Kazantzakis and by an earlier requiem by the composer.

Critics and institutions have recognised her work with fellowships from Yaddo (1977) and MacDowell (1983), and with awards from various Massachusetts bodies and from the National Federation of Music Clubs. Her legacy rests both on her catalogue and on her role in promoting the visibility of American women composers.