Dorothy James was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 music educator and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Biography

Dorothy James was born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, and graduated from the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory, where she studied with Louis Gruenberg

Louis Gruenberg

-Life and career:He was born near Brest-Litovsk , to Abe Gruenberg and Klara Kantarovitch. His family emigrated to the United States when he was a few months old. His father worked as a violinist in New York City...

 for composition and Adolph Weidig for counterpoint. She continued her studies with Howard Hanson

Howard Hanson

Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...

 at Eastman School of Music, Healey Willan

Healey Willan

Healey Willan, was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano...

 at the Toronto Conservatory, and Ernst Krenek

Ernst Krenek

Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...

 at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. After completing her studies, she took a position in 1927 teaching music at Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...

, then Michigan State Normal College, where she worked until retiring in 1968. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the school in 1971.

Works

James composed works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo instrument and voice. She also composed an opera and a number of song. Selected works include:

• Three Symphonic Fragments (1931) for orchestra
• Mutability (Text: Percy Bysshe Shelley)
• Paola and Francesca (1930–34) opera
• The Jumblies (Text: Edward Lear) 1935)
• Paul Bunyan (1938)
• Motif (1970)
• Patterns (1971)