How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr

Elena Ruehr has been called a “composer to watch” by Opera News, and her music has been described as “stunning…beautifully lighted by [a] canny instinct for knowing when and how to vary key, timbre, and harmony” by The Boston Globe. Dr. Ruehr grew up in Michigan’s isolated Upper Peninsula, where her musical training began at home with her mother, who sang and played the guitar. Her father, a mathematician, played jazz piano. She began playing piano and composing at age four, and later studied