The U.S. composer who forced Germans to face their past

Gloria Coates’ dark, avantgarde symphonies were rarely performed in the U.S., but in her adopted home of Germany, they stoked controversy. A resident of Munich for many years, she frequently acted as tour guide to U.S. Army personnel visiting the Dachau death camp, and that experience permeated her music. In 1972, she wrote Voices of Women in Wartime, a chamber piece with songs taken from the writings of German and American women during World War II. The first singer chosen for the work refused to perform it, calling the songs anti-German, and critics called for the piece to be banned. “Some said it would be my last concert in Germany,” Coates said, “for I would never be accepted after bringing this subject into the concert hall.” Born Gloria Kannenberg in Wausau, Wis., Coates “was creating her own unconventional music” by age 12, said The New York Times. Instructors often urged her away from experimentation, but a teenage encounter with Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin—a future mentor— inspired her to follow her instincts. She studied at multiple colleges before earning a master’s in composition from Louisiana State University. When her marriage ended in 1969, she decamped to Munich. After Voices of Women flopped, the piece wasn’t heard again for nearly a decade, “when it was adopted by the peace movement,” said The Times (U.K.). Coates finally received widespread attention in 1978, after the Polish Chamber Orchestra performed her discordant Music on Open Strings, and she eventually composed 17 symphonies and dozens of works for smaller ensembles. She accepted that her music would sometimes be met with a mix of bravos and boos. “That means it was controversial,” she said in 2000. “Sometimes you’re way ahead of your time.”