Dika Newlin (1923-2006) was an American composer, musicologist, pianist and writer. A prodigy, she studied with Arnold Schoenberg and later became an energetic and unconventional musical personality.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears in A Very Pristine Christmas, a release whose miscellany gives room to unexpected recorded presences.

Newlin’s importance lies in the intersection of scholarship, composition, performance and musical advocacy. She was never a tidy filing-cabinet figure, which is part of the charm.

Her page is justified by her wider musical life as much as by this small catalogue footprint. Newlin brings a sharp modernist sparkle to the Christmas shelf.