12 Facts About Vivian Fine

Vivian Fine made her professional debut as a composer at age sixteen with performances in Chicago, New York and Dessau.

In 1931, the 18-year-old Vivian Fine moved to New York to further her studies.

Vivian Fine was a member of Aaron Copland's Young Composers Group, and a participant at the first Yaddo Festival in 1932.

Vivian Fine premiered works of Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Brant, Henry Cowell, Rudhyar, and others, and studied piano with Abby Whiteside from 1937 to 1945.

Vivian Fine employed diverse techniques corresponding to a wide range of musical subjects.

Notable in Vivian Fine's work is a sense of fun, either as a major element in the piece or as a humorous section or reference inserted into a more serious piece.

Vivian Fine wrote extensively for voice, employing the poetry of Shakespeare, Racine, Dryden, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Kafka, Neruda, and others in a wide variety of settings.

Vivian Fine composed two chamber operas, The Women in the Garden and Memoirs of Uliana Rooney.

Memoirs of Uliana Rooney, Vivian Fine's last major composition, is a contemporary opera buffa, with libretto and videography by Sonya Friedman.

For many years, Vivian Fine was a beloved member of the faculty of Bennington College in Vermont, where her students included composer Patsy Rogers.

Vivian Fine's 1982 orchestral suite Drama for Orchestra was a finalist for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Vivian Fine died in Bennington, at the age of 86, following an automobile accident.