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Wendy Durrwachter
is a composer residing along the North Shore of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota. In 2000, Durrwachter received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota with concentrations in piano performance and composition, studying with composer Judith Lang Zaimont and pianist Duncan McNab. In 2021, she received a Master of Music in Film Composition from the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program of the Seattle Film Institute.

The Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra commissioned and premiered in November of 2023 her large-scale symphony in three movements LAURENTIA. In January 2024, Jennifer Lien premiered Durrwachter's song cycle based on a collection of poems by Sheila Packa SURFACE DISPLACEMENTS, (funded by an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council grant).  On June 29, 2024, Durrwachter will premiere a comedic pocket opera (funded by a Minnesota State Arts Board grant) set in a restaurant that explores relationship dynamics, 86 DESSERT, in Duluth, MN at the Depot Theater.

In January 2018, a Career Development Grant by the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council supported a concert and recording at Duluth’s Sacred Heart Music Center. The concert included the premiere of her violin concerto ULTRA VIRES with soloist Erin Aldridge, concertmaster of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. The concert also featured ELEGY FOR THE ERASED, her work for cello and bass.

In 2019 she received a second Career Development grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to compose the wind quintet EL CONTRAPUNTO DE ARENA, for the UMD Faculty Wind Quintet. Also in July 2019, she recorded her song cycle THE TWO TREES: A YEATS SONG CYCLE, with tenor Adam Sippola and herself as pianist. In the same year, Durrwachter’s first symphony was commissioned by the Chequamegon Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by the landscape of the Chequamegon Bay region of Lake Superior, its premiere was delayed by COVID.

Durrwachter’s body of work includes a piano toccata, the violin concerto Ultra Vires, a collection of tone poems for solo piano Meditations on Lake Superior, a wind quintet, a duet for cello and bass Elegy for the Erased, a song cycle, art songs, SATB choral works, and pieces for various chamber combinations, including a piece for saxophone choir entitled Sax-Zim Bog.
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​In November 2020, Opera-Oriented Project Sponsorships in Minnesota (OOPS MN) commissioned Durrwachter to compose an aria to a chocolate chip cookie recipe with libretto developed by Pulitzer-Prize winning librettist Mark Campbell. It was performed by MN Opera soprano Tracey Engleman and pianist Jared Miller and recorded to video by HotDishAV. 
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​I wrote this to the words of the ever beloved poet Sheila Packa and it was sung by the outstanding talent of Siena Forest, performed at the Minneapolis Song Slam 2022. It was thoroughly an experience to be imprinted.