Composer of the Week

Ah, high noon approaches on the east coast and I find myself ready to face a worthy adversary:  the concert hall.  It is a truly strange place, the concert hall.  For all its glory and the millions of patrons whose musical palettes have been satisfactorily expanded, it is a discriminating structure when it comes to [...]

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A master of both music and the written word, Ned Rorem has become one of America’s most honored composers.
Known primarily for his art songs (which number over 500), he has been the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his Air Music for orchestra, as well both a Fulbright (1951) and Guggenhiem (1957) Fellowship. He [...]

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Composer of the Week, Vol. I, Issue V – February 18, 2008
Name:  Elliot Carter
Born:  1908, New York
Current post:  Full-time composer
Previous post:  N/A
Publisher:  Boosey & Hawkes | G. Schirmer
Suggested listening:  Eight Pieces for Four Timpani
Quote:
Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.
-Elliot Carter

Elliot Carter’s “Canaries” [...]

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Composer of the Week, Vol. I, Issue III – January 28, 2008
Name:  Christopher Rouse
Born:  1949, Baltimore, MD
Current post:  Professor of Composition, The Juilliard School
Previous post:  Professor of Music, Eastman School of Music
Publisher:  Boosey & Hawkes | Schott-Helicon
Suggested listening:  Flute Concerto
Quote:
I got the opportunity to know Mr. Bernstein only in the summer of 1989, although I [...]

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Composer of the Week, Vol. I, Issue I – January 14, 2008
Name:  Augusta Read Thomas
Born:  1964, New York
Current post:  Full-time composer
Previous post:  Composer-In-Residence, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Publisher:  G. Schirmer
Suggested listening:  Silhouettes
Quote: 

Don’t assume that someone else has the only “authentic” understanding of a work and that you “don’t know enough about it” to be engaged [...]

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