Bernadette Speach

"Every sound is important. Nothing is considered secondary. All tones, sounds are essential."

Bernadette Speach composes solo, chamber, and orchestral music.

Her works have been performed by Anthony de Mare, Yvar Mikhashoff, Ursula Oppens, Kathleen Supove and Nurit Tilles, Thulani Davis, the Brooklyn Philharmonic (Lukas Foss, conductor), Joan La Barbara, Thomas Buckner, Robert Previte, Jan Williams, Frances-Marie Uitti,The Arditti String Quartet, Soldier String Quartet, and Leroy Jenkins' Sting. She has performed as pianist with her husband Jeffrey Schanzer as the Schanzer/Speach Duo across the United States, in Puerto Rico, Gent and Liege, Belgium, and Cologne and Herne, Germany. Awards and commissions include National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship, American Composers Forum with funding by The Jerome Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts through MusicVistas, and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Speach has served as an arts administrator, fundraiser, presenter with Composers' Forum, Alternative Museum, Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative, MusicVistas, The Kitchen, Women Make Movies, Engine 27, and Electronic Music Foundation.

Speach lives in New York City, actively composing and performing. She is on the faculty of Brooklyn College.