Marjorie Ann Hess a.k.a. Maura Bosch (born 1958) is an American composer. She was born in Reading

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, and studied at the Hartt College of Music where she received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1978, and at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 2008, after studying with Alexander Lepak, Edward T. Cone

Edward T. Cone

Edward Toner Cone was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist.Cone studied composition under Roger Sessions at Princeton University, receiving his bachelor's in 1939...

, Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...

 and Peter Westergaard

Peter Westergaard

Peter Talbot Westergaard is an American composer and music theorist. He is Professor Emeritus of music at Princeton University.-Biography:...

.

Career

She married composer Jeffrey Brooks and lived for a while in Bath, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, where Brooks was composer-in-residence at Bath College. After returning to the United States, the couple settled in Minneapolis. Besides working as a performance artist and composer, Hess is a technical writer. She co-founded Corn Palace Productions, a Minneapolis music theatre company. She also founded and plays with the ensemble Blackstone Bosch.

In 2007 Maura Bosch was in residence with the Tubman Family Alliance, a network of shelters for abused women, to compose a work based on their experiences.

Works

Bosch has composed works in a variety of genres including choral, vocal and instrumental works and opera. Selected compositions include:

• The Disappearance of Luisa Porto, opera (1989)
• Mirabell’s Book of Numbers, opera (1991)
• The Damnation of Felicity, opera (1994)
• 3 Hymns (1995)
• My Purity (1995)
• Zelda Songs (1997)
• Bronte Songs (1996)
• The Oxen (1993)
• Santuario (1992) for orchestra
• About the Night (1993) for string quartet
• The Turning, cantata (2007)

Bosch has published a text:

• Everyone can compose music (2008) Princeton University