Gladys Smuckler Moskowitz began her musical career as a singer. She received B.A.
and M.A. degrees in Music from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and
under her professional name, Gladys Young toured the United States, Europe, and
Israel, as a folk singer-instrumentalist.
She has composed the music and written the libretto for “The Masque of the Red Death,”
a Renaissance-style music drama in two acts, story by Edgar Allan Poe; “The Fountain
of Youth,” a chamber opera in one act, story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel
Hawthorne; and a satirical chamber opera “Chicken Little,The Sky is Falling,” based on
the well-known children’s story. Each opera has received a workshop performance.
Individual arias and excerpts have been sung at concerts in New York and Europe.
Among the composer’s dramatic settings of Art Songs by American poets “Grass” by
Carl Sandburg has been sung in Europe by soprano with piano accompaniment and in
New York by tenor with chamber orchestra accompaniment. In May 2008 Three Love
Songs on Poems by Sara Teasdale, “Joy,” ”Advice to a Girl,” and “Gifts” were premiered
at Renee Weiler Concert Hall in NYC. Her most recent work (2009) consists of “Three
Songs of Passion” poems by Cheryl Yuzik: “Life Sentence,” composed for voice and
piano ( and tenor saxophone or violin), “Utopia” A Tango of Love, for voice and piano,
and “Manic Screaming” for voice, piano, and cello.
Ms. Moskowitz’s style is eclectic, employing classical, folk, and jazz elements to create
music that glorifies the beauty of the human voice!