We Shall Be Released: Saved on Both Sides
No need to wait for pop music to save the classical tradition.
Sep 01, 2004
From American Muse: The Life and Times of William Schuman
A reprint of a chapter from the new biography of American composer and arts administrator William Schuman (1910-1992) who juggled running Juilliard and Lincoln Center with composing a total of 10 symphonies, 2 one-act operas, 5 string quartets, concertos, choral works, and over 100 popular songs.
Mar 11, 2009
No Geniuses Among Us This Year?
By Frank J. Oteri
Although the previous music recipients form quite an illustrious list which includes composers from a wide range of stylistic proclivities (where else can you see the names Ali Akbar Khan, Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor, and Charles Wuorinen side by side?), it was rather disheartening to see that there were no people involved with music among the 24 recipients of the 2009 MacArthur Fellowships
Sep 22, 2009
American Music Center Holds First-Ever Auction
The American Music Center, in celebration of its 70th anniversary this month, is holding its first-ever online auction which is now open and will run through November 20, 2009.
Nov 05, 2009
What is a Successful Composer?
By David Smooke
Like music itself, success (and its inverse: failure) is a difficult phenomenon to pin down, and that the more I work to create a specific definition of a successful composer, the more the issue becomes slippery and difficult to grasp firmly.
Aug 10, 2010
Competitions Are For Horses
I’m thinking about composition competitions at the moment for two reasons. First, Paul Mathews’s beautifully written article for NewMusicBox, “The Cycle of Get.” Second, one of my students last week asked me for my help in learning more about appropriate competitions.
Feb 21, 2012
Chou Wen-chung: Living With History
Although the legendary musical revolutionary Edgard Varèse would be his lifelong mentor, Chou Wen-chung is a consummate traditionalist who has devoted his entire life to reconciling the disparate musical legacies of East and West.
Mar 01, 2013
Trying to Put On Those 2002 Glasses
What music most appropriately captures the zeitgeist of 2002? Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations (created in response to the shocking February 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal’s South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl) was not composed until 2006, but another Reich work, his apocalyptic Three Tales (created in collaboration with Beryl Korot) immediately stands out in my mind.
May 07, 2014
Musings on the Media
Composers and performers today look to the media (whatever they think that might be) as a conduit between their art and the general public. As digital media and social networks continue to evolve, both the proximity and the fixed boundaries between creators and the media have been affected.
Apr 08, 2015
Retaking the Stage: What Artists Can Be In Our Society
It’s not as much about attracting new audiences as it is about retaking the stage for what artists can be in our society. Music and performance is an incredibly powerful way to connect people. You can create community and discourse and new ways of understanding each other through pieces of art.
Dec 12, 2018
Truly a Wenren—Remembering Chou Wen-chung (1923-2019)
Chou Wen-chung is a music giant who mentored us in our creative lives for decades. He has made a huge contribution to the music of our time, yet he is a father-like figure to us. He will be missed by all of us tremendously, and his legacy will live with us forever.
Nov 05, 2019
Raven Chacon: Fluidity of Sound
While the idiosyncratic graphic scores of 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Raven Chacon are stunningly original in their conception and have been recognized as works of visual art in their own right (several are in this year’s Whitney Biennial), they have a larger social purpose.
Jun 29, 2022
Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano
Music from Copland House: Jesse Mills, violin; James Wilson, cello; Michael Boriskin, piano Though John Musto has had a major publisher for many years and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize nearly a decade ago, until now there have been no commercially available CDs devoted exclusively to his compositions. Music from Copland House more… Read more »
Dec 28, 2006
ACO Silver Anniversary Gala Honors Harbison
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison and new music philanthropists Joan and Irving Harris will be honored by the American Composers Orchestra at their 25th Anniversary Gala…
Oct 18, 2002
Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)
Composer Leon Kirchner, whose honors included the Pulitzer Prize, the Naumburg and Friedheim Awards, and two New York Music Critics’ Circle Awards, died today after a long illness.
Sep 17, 2009
“Which of these Aaron Jay Kernises am I?”
An orchestra sensation at age 23. Published by 30. Then a Pulitzer Prize and a Grawemeyer. Now a biography. What’s left after someone writes up the story of your life? Aaron Jay Kernis just keeps on going, continuing to balance composing, teaching, and raising a family.
Sep 01, 2014
Christopher Cerrone: Everything Comes From Language
While composer Christopher Cerrone has not written any original prose fiction or poetry, he approaches his own musical compositions in much the same way that a writer weaves a narrative. Whether it’s the site-specific multimedia adaptation of Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities (which was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music), a Tao Lin-texted song cycle, E.E. Cummings, or a Philip Larkin-inspired concerto grosso for string orchestra, literature is the primary inspiration behind almost every piece of his music.
Nov 01, 2017
Kevin Puts: Keeping Secrets
Composer Kevin Puts takes pride in keeping secrets, both by being understated in his interactions with people and by never initially giving away all the goods in his music, preferring, as he says, “to keep something in reserve so that there’s a payoff for the attentive listener.” But in this in-depth conversation he reveals some of the secrets about his Metropolitan Opera debut The Hours, his Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night, his symphony inspired by Björk’s album Vespertine, Contact (his triple concerto for Time for Three which just won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition), and much more.
Feb 15, 2023
“Which of these Aaron Jay Kernises am I?”
An orchestra sensation at age 23. Published by 30. Then a Pulitzer Prize and a Grawemeyer. Now a biography. What’s left after someone writes up the story of your life? Aaron Jay Kernis just keeps on going, continuing to balance composing, teaching, and raising a family.
