‘Composer Gladys Nordenstrom Krenek. Her life and work with focus on selected vocal pieces’

Inspired by a scholarship from the Ernst Krenek Institute Private Foundation, the first academic thesis on Gladys Nordenstrom Krenek was written this year. Scholarship holder Sara Stevanovic wrote her master thesis entitled ‘Composer Gladys Nordenstrom Krenek. Her life and work with focus on selected vocal pieces’ at the end of her composition studies at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz.

Even though Stevanovic was only able to deal with a few works within the limited framework of her thesis, the initial results of her analyses are interesting. In particular, the relative independence from Ernst Krenek's compositional style in Gladys' earlier works, which were written during or shortly after her studies with Ernst Krenek, shows once again how much Krenek's teaching equipped the students with the technical skills to develop their own style.

It was only in Gladys' later creative phase from 1964 onwards that her proximity and intensive collaboration with Ernst Krenek became apparent, particularly in her adoption of serialist techniques. Regardless of a technical approximation to her composing husband, her later works still display an independent tonal temperament.

As Stevanovic states at the end of her work, this is only the beginning. Gladys' works (and especially her work as manager and estate administrator) certainly have the potential for further academic works.