Borders-leaping composer Gabriela Lena Frank champions change: 'I'm a woman of color who is partially deaf' (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

By George Varga

Acclaimed widely for her striking fusion of contemporary classical and Latin American music styles, Gabriela Lena Frank didn’t know of any other composers or piano soloists who looked like her before she launched her career in the 1990s. That is still the case today.

“I am a disabled woman of color who is middle-aged,” said Frank, 48, a Berkeley native of Peruvian, Chinese and Lithuanian heritage. She will be featured over three days at the 2021 edition of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, which opens Friday and runs through Aug. 20.

“There should be many more middle-aged women of color writing music. The last few years have given me the opportunity to hang in there and not let the many doors that were closed to me be daunting — and to see the many more doors that are now open.”

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