Bio

Molly Bishop Luther (1927 – 1980)
20th Century Female Composer
Composer of Variants for Orchestra

Molly Luther was born Mary Richards Bishop on September 15th, 1927 in Cleveland Ohio. She grew up in New Canaan Connecticut and graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in bible history in 1949. Although she pursued her love of music from a young age by studying piano, her evolution as a composer came later. In 1955 she acquired a masters degree from Columbia University in musicology. By the end of that decade, however, she began to focus on her first and most challenging love – composition.

In 1958, during a year spent studying at the Royal College of Music in London, she wrote a piano sonata that won second place in a national competition. That first taste of success led to further studies in composition at the University of Michigan in 1960, where she was the first female composition student in the graduate music program. It is there that her dream of becoming a twentieth century symphonic composer may have begun to take shape.

In 1965, at the age of 38, Molly applied to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Despite her degrees from Wellesley and Columbia, she was required to enter the Manhattan School as a BA candidate. Attending part-time, she earned her bachelor’s degree in composition in 1971.

Variants for Orchestra was Molly’s bachelor’s thesis. It was performed, prior to graduation, by the Manhattan School of Music orchestra. Although Variants is her greatest work, she wrote another symphony, the Magnificat, for her Masters thesis from the Manhattan School of Music in 1974. She also wrote several other works for chamber ensembles, voice and piano.

Luther’s life and work exemplify many problems faced by women artists generally and female composers, still a rare breed, specifically. Most painful for Molly was the rejection by many who she felt didn’t recognize or couldn’t appreciate her talent. There were also pressures from the other demands of her life – the need to earn a living, raising a child as a single mother and searching for a way to continue composing. The struggle proved exceedingly difficult. Over the years her creative inspiration turned into frustration then despair as she struggled unsuccessfully to live up to her goals. Sadly, Molly committed suicide in 1980.

Several years later, in the effort to preserve her recorded works, Luther’s daughter Meg rediscovered the Variants and brought the work to the attention of the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco. The orchestra performed the work during its mother’s day concert in May of 2001. The goal now is to see the Variants for Orchestra performed and included in the symphonic repertoire.