Olga Gorelli, (June 14, 1920 Bologna, Italy, died February 18, 2006) was well known for her musical talents as a composer and pianist.[1][2][3]
Life and career
Olga Gorelli, maiden name Gratch, immigrated to the United States in 1937 with her family and settled in New Jersey. She married a physician, and had two children. She was a resident of Pennington, New Jersey.[4][5][6]
Gorelli began composing as a child in Italy and her first little piano pieces were published in Italy when she was ten years old.[7] She pursued her music studies in the U.S., graduating from Immaculata College, the Curtis Institute of Music, Smith College, and the Yale University School of Music, and pursued graduate work at the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers included Rosario Scalero, Gian Carlo Menotti, Quincy Porter, Paul Hindemith, and Darius Milhaud.[8][9]
Gorelli taught music theory at Hollins College, and piano at Trenton State College. She also taught privately at her home and composed each morning up until the last weeks of her life.
She has written orchestral and choral pieces, many songs for voice with various instruments, a mass, two operas, two dance dramas, and several works for different combinations of strings, brass, and woodwinds.[10][11][12][13][14]
