Introduction
Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Alba Rosa revealed an unusual musical talent early in life. At the age of eight she was admitted under scholarship to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where she studied violin, piano, music theory, and harmony. After finishing her studies her mother took her to Montevideo, Uruguay, in search of a better life than appeared possible in Italy. Subsequently she went for advanced studies to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium, for two years, where she received her diploma with honors. Thereafter she pursued private studies in Vienna (with Otokar Sevcik). After her marriage to Jan Fresemann Viëtor, a Dutchman, she took composition lessons in Neuchatel, Switserland, with Paul Benner. Throughout her career she was active as a distinguished concert violinist (in South America, but also in Holland) and a teacher of the violin, piano and other aspects of music. She held teaching positions in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and later in New York and Washington. In the nineteen thirties she was first violinist of the Viëtor String Quartet in Montclair NJ. The last fourty years of her life she was active as a composer of a number of works in all kinds of genres, which have been performed, reviewed and recorded, mostly in Washington. During her career as a soloist she was able to play a Guadagnini violin of 1775 which she had been given on loan by Olga Valerio, a Milanese mecenas.
The Story of Alba Rosa Viëtorhas been published september 2009.
Resurgence
For 25 years after her death Alba Rosa Viëtor’s compositions have laid dormant and inaccessable. In 2004 Hendrik Vietor, her son, commissioned the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, FL, to engrave the complete collection of his mother ’s manuscripts. This work has been completed in 2010.
Since then a couple of recordingshave been made.
Recently found 78 rpm records of her compositions (some of which played by herself) have been transferred to CD.
To support activities, the Alba Rosa Viëtor Foundationhas been established april 2009.
You can help!
In the fyfties Alba Rosa Viëtor was a teacher at the Ecole Champlain (all girls) Summercamp in Burlington, VT, where she supervised the performance of her ballet composition The Blue Bird Suite.
If you recognize anyone in this photograph, taken in August 1956, please contact us.
Contributing to the Alba Rosa Viëtor project:
Hendrik Vietor †, Walter Winkler-Ederveen, Hermance Viëtor, Robijn Tilanus, Peter Fraser MacDonald DMA, Laurence Herklots-Jeanningros, Joost Kist, Maarten van Veen, Mary van Veen-Viëtor, Marijke Harberts, Barbara Ederveen-Winkler, Bard Jansen, Paul Janssen, Lodewijk Collette, Tom Collingridge, Winny Westerdijk, Heleen van Ketwich Verschuur, Loes Visser, Cynthia Millar, Susie E. Dantzig, Monica Waalwijk, Joost Roselaars, Alexander Drozdov, Kim Spierenburg, Leenke de Lege, Linda Groen and others.
In music, melody is the expression; harmony is the dress; rhythm is the discipline. (Alba Rosa Viëtor)