Annette LeSiege

Annette LeSiege (1947 – August 26, 2012) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and teacher. She studied French horn and then composition at the San Jose State University, later receiving a composition PhD from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Samuel Adler and possibly Warren Benson. LeSiege taught composition for seven years at Wake Forest University, later teaching at New Jersey City University and the University of Maine. Her compositions number 70 published works, and often feature the French horn.

Life and career Annette LeSiege was born in 1947 in Oakland, California, US. She was raised in Sunnyvale, California by her parents Armand and Mabel LeSiege; amid her father's early death, her stepfather Raymond Phelps helped out. Although a bassoonist in her youth, LeSiege attended San Jose State University (SJSU) to study French horn, graduating in 1968. She stayed at SJSU for a Master of Arts, initially in music history; after studying composition with Higo Hugo Harada she switched to an MA in composition, graduating in 1970. After briefly studying at Cornell University for a PhD in composition, LeSiege switched to the doctorate program at the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Samuel Adler and possibly Warren Benson, graduating in 1975. For her PhD thesis she wrote the orchestral work Montage and prepared an accompanying musical analysis.

From 1975 to 1982 LeSiege taught composition at Wake Forest University (WFU) as a professor of music. She arrived at WFU was undergoing renovations in the music department; her colleague Edwin Wilson noted that "She came here at an important transition time for the music department".

After her WFU period, LeSiege's biography becomes less clear. At some point she was managing director of the Symphony for United Nations (now the UN Symphony) and a development officer for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Soprano Teresa Radomski, a fellow Eastman student, emphasized the beauty and skilled prosody of LeSiege's music, describing her as "a wonderful teacher, warm, compassionate and kind". Bautade, orchestra Shadow Dancer (1994), unaccompanied horn in F