Composer Margaret Garwood dies at 88

Though successful female composers are now in the majority in Philadelphia, Margaret Garwood, 88, who died Sunday, May 3, from acute heart failure at her Wyncote home, composed numerous operas at a time when few women did so, and continued on an individualistic path with the 2010 premiere of

The Scarlet Letter

.

Ms. Garwood came to composing relatively late in life, at age 35, after the breakup of her marriage to the composer Romeo Cascariono and five years of psychoanalysis.

"It was the most wonderful thing that happened to me," she once recalled. "I had found my life. I had found my fulfillment."

However fortunate that discovery, she was hesitant in later years to put herself on what can turn into a commissioning treadmill.

Though her Rappacini's Daughter (1983), commissioned by the now-defunct Pennsylvania Opera Theater, was a success, she spent 10 years on her final opera, The Scarlet Letter, before its premiere by the Academy of Vocal Arts at the Merriam Theater.

With commissions, "composers always have to stop before it's finished," she told the Philadelphia Daily News. "The trouble with music today is too many premature births, works not given their proper time. Composing is a slow process and can't be rushed."

Over the last five years, she was looking into the life of the Italian courtesan Veronica Franco (1546-91), who became one of the most educated women in Venice.

"Peg [as she was known to all] had always been interested in the plight of unrecognized women in all societies and all periods. That would've been her next opera," said her husband, longtime University of the Arts music professor Donald Chittum.

Her feminist bent was part of her upbringing, a legacy from mother Miriam Edith Garwood, a district representative for Planned Parenthood.

Ms. Garwood held a master's degree in composition from the University of the Arts, and served on the faculties of the Philadelphia Musical Academy and Muhlenberg College.

Other important works of hers included The Nightingale and the Rose for the Delaware Opera Company and A Choral Trilogy.

She received awards from ASCAP and the National Federation of Music Clubs, and also served on influential panels for the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by a stepson, Paul Oberman.

Funeral services are private. A memorial celebration will be held in the near future.

Contributions may be sent to the Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce St., Philadelphia 19103.