Bloom: Millefleurs
Floral Portraits
July 9, 2026 | 6–7 PM | free and open to the public
This program will be presented at Katonah Village Library on July 9 at 6 pm. Future performances of this program and related events to be announced.
Bloom explores the rich symbolism of flowers through two piano cycles by Amy Beach and Dora Pejačević. Join Wild Muse Founder Kathryn Felt for a lecture-recital exploring these two fascinating works.
Program
Edward MacDowell, Woodland Sketches, Op. 51 (1896)
To A Wild Rose
Amy Beach, From Grandmother’s Garden, Op. 97 (1922)
Morning Glories
Heartsease
Mignonette
Rosemary and Rue
Honeysuckle
Dora Pejačević, Blumenleben (Life of Flowers), Op. 19 No. 2 (1904/5)
Snowdrop
Violet
Lily of the Valley
Forget-me-not
Rose
Red Gillyflower/Carnation
Lilies
Chrysanthemums
Mel Bonis
Ophélie (1909)
Écho & Narcisse, Op. 89/90 (1910)
Featured Composers
Amy Beach
1867-1944Amy Beach (1867–1944) was an American composer and member of the Second New England School of classical composers. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, her intensive training led to a brilliant debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age seventeen. Following her marriage to Dr. H.H.A. Beach in 1885, she limited her public concertizing and redirected her focus toward composition. Her subsequent catalog heavily favored the piano, yielding technically demanding works like the Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, and character suites such as From Grandmother's Garden, Op. 97. She found vital artistic refuge at the MacDowell Colony, where she composed numerous nature-inspired keyboard works that integrated late-Romantic virtuosity with impressionistic color.
1885-1923Dora Pejačević
Dora Pejačević was a Croatian composer whose catalog of 106 compositions bridges late-Romanticism and early 20th-century modernism. Educated primarily through private instruction in Dresden and Munich, she introduced the orchestral song to Croatian music and composed the nation's first modern symphony (Symphony in F# minor, Op. 41) and piano concerto. Her music, which includes a vast body of lieder, piano miniatures, and chamber works, is characterized by highly expressive harmonies that shifted toward expressionism and distinct philosophical themes following her service as a wartime paramedic.
