Mona Lyn Reese

Mona Lyn Reese at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. Mona Lyn Reese (born August 24, 1951) is an American composer, best known for her operas and choral music. Her work is melodic and accessible with an emphasis on driving or complex rhythms, movement, and contrasting textures. Her music communicates and expresses emotions traditionally or experimentally without allowing a prevailing fashion to dictate style, form, or harmony. In 2014, the San José Chamber Orchestra and Chorus performed a suite from Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim in the San José City Hall Rotunda.

Reese received a Continental Harmony commission in 2000, created by the American Composers Forum and the National Endowment for the Arts to enable small to mid-size communities in each state to commission new pieces for the millennium.

Reese's opera The Three Fat Women of Antibes received its premier performance with orchestra in May 2009 by the San José State University Opera Workshop (Michel Singher, Music Director, Daniel Helfgot, Director). The opera, written with her husband and librettist Thomas Hassing, is a humorous chamber opera for four singers based on the W. Somerset Maugham short story of the same name. The opera premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1998. Other performances include the University of Kansas Opera Studio (2002), Goat Hall Productions (San Francisco, California, 2003, selections), and Gregory Weist (Munich, Germany, 2005, selections).

In 2003, Reese was selected as a Studium Scholar-in-Residence at Saint Benedict's Monastery (St. Joseph, MN). During her time there, Reese planned the chamber orchestra composition Little Pieces from My Heart, commissioned by the San José Chamber Orchestra.

Reese’s orchestral works have been performed by orchestras throughout the United States including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Livingston Symphony Orchestra (Livingston, New Jersey), the Atlanta Symphony, the Minnesota Sinfonia, and the San José Chamber Orchestra. She had her first European performance with the Czech Radio Symphony in 1997.

Selected works Stevens County Fair for symphony orchestra (1983) The Mitten for orchestra ensemble and narrator (1986) Tombeau for Michael Collins by Mona Lyn Reese, performed by Barbara Day Turner. Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim dramatic oratorio (1994) From My Heart Springs A Song for SSA choir (1994) Prince for symphony orchestra (1994) Suite Carrol County for SATB choir and chamber orchestra (2000) Winter Melodies for string orchestra (2001) Little Pieces From My Heart for string orchestra, flute, piano and percussion (2004) Arise and Shine for SATB choir, organ and brass ensemble (2005) Toboggan for SATB choir and flute (2005) Land of Rest arranged for SSAA choir (2013)