Works performed by Earplay:

Drone on D
Nocturne
Through Thick and Thin

Herb Bielawa (1930-2015) wrote music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band and orchestra. His much-performed SPECTRUM for Band and Tape was composed during his CMP (Contemporary Music Project) residency in Houston from 1964 to 1966. His interest in American music and the music of women in particular led to a series of concerts in 1986 and 1987 featuring music by Amy Beach and himself. After 1991, he was a free-lance composer and pianist. He had commissions from Meet the Composer, the Minneapolis Convention Center, the San Francisco School of the Arts, the American Guild of Organists, Earplay, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Among the soloists who have performed his works are hornist Barry Tuckwell, sopranos Anna Carol Dudley, Marian Marsh and Judy Hubbell, pianists Margaret Mills and Joel Sachs, and organists Sandra Soderlund, Alex Post, Delbert Disselhorst, Pamela Decker and John Fenstermaker. His Fluxbands for Eleven Instruments was performed by North/South Consonance, Inc. He was a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo and founding director of Sounds New, a Bay Area new music ensemble. He was composer-in-residence in 2000 for the San Francisco Choral Artists, directed by Magen Solomon.