Betsy Jolas
Betsy Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a French composer.
Biography
Betsy Jolas is the daughter of translator Maria Jolas and poet and journalist Eugène Jolas. Her father founded the literary magazine transition, in which James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" was published under the heading "work in progress". She remembers childhood visits from writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway.
After graduating from Bennington College (where she became acquainted with 16th century polyphonists including Lassus and Palestrina), Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris.
From 1971 to 1974 Jolas replaced Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris and was appointed to the faculty in 1975. She has also taught at Tanglewood, Dartington International Summer School, Yale, Harvard, Mills College (as a holder of the Darius Milhaud Chair), Berkeley, USC and San Diego University. Her works, written for a great variety of combinations, have been widely performed throughout the world.
