| Gladys Mercedes Nordenstrom | |
| Birth Date: | May 23, 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Mora, Minnesota |
| Death Date: | July 5, 2016 |
| Death Place: | Palm Springs, California |
| Occupation: | composer |
| Spouse: | Ernst Krenek |
| Nationality: | American |
| Known For: | Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria |
Gladys Mercedes Nordenstrom (May 23, 1924 - July 5, 2016) was an American composer.
Gladys Nordenstrom was born in Mora, Minnesota. She studied music at the Institute of Fine Arts at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she received bachelor's and master's degrees. She studied under Austrian composer Ernst Krenek there and then married him in 1950, becoming his third wife.[1] After completing her studies, Nordenstrom worked as an elementary school teacher until she moved with Krenek to California.
In the following years, she accompanied her husband to visiting professorships in various locations and sometimes collaborated on musical works.[2]
After his death in 1991, she was instrumental in the foundation of the Ernst Krenek Institute in 1998 and the private foundation Krems die Ernst Krenek in 2004 in Vienna, Austria.[3] She expended much effort to find ways to promote her late husband's musical performances and recordings.
In 2006 Gladys Nordenstrom was awarded the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.[4] [5]
Nordenstrom died on July 5, 2016, in Palm Springs, California, aged 92. At the time of her death, she was still hard at work on a project to record the complete cycle of Krenek piano concertos.[6] [7]
Selected works include: