Margaret Brouwer

Margaret Brouwer is an important composer and educator. She wrote a great deal of chamber music earlier in her career, and in later life, she has increasingly often received commissions from prominent symphony orchestras. Brouwer began her career as a violinist with positions in the Fort Worth Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, but then she switched to composition. Brouwer joined the composition faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and from 1996 to 2008, she served as its chair; she remains active there as professor emerita. The first years of her career saw her create numerous chamber works, including the Demeter Prelude for string quartet (1997). In 2011, she founded the Blue Streak Ensemble with the intention of providing performances of works by herself and others. By the early 2020s, more than 30 of Brouwer's works had been recorded.