Tui St. George Tucker (1924-2004)
California native Lorraine “Tui” St. George Tucker (1924-2004) migrated to New York City in 1945. Nicknamed after a New Zealand songbird by her mother, an immigrant from there, Tui quickly established herself as a virtuoso recorder player and a composer in NYC. She and her partner, Vera Lachmann, spent their summers at Camp Catawba in Blowing Rock, NC. Vera established the camp for boys in 1944, and she and Tui infused the summer experience with Homer, Shakespeare, Bach, and Mozart along with horseback riding and swimming. After the camp’s closure in 1970, Vera and Tui continued to spend summers on the grounds, and after Vera’s death, Tui lived there full time until her death.
Throughout her career, Tui performed early music and contemporary music, including her own, and she consistently had her music performed in Western North Carolina and in New York and New England, with her keyboard and chamber works featured at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Her musical circle included John Cage, Fluxus artist Jackson Mac Low, German-born pianist Grete Sultan, who was a mentor to Cage, Johnny Reinhardt, Martha Bixler, as well as many others. Her musical style is very eclectic, as she uses tonality, microtonality, jazz idioms, folk idioms, and counterpoint in very creative ways. Her oeuvre includes music for recorders, piano, organ, solo voice, chorus, and chamber ensembles.
