Era: Contemporary

Composer profile from Columbia Artists Music

Nigel Hess is a television, theater and film composer who studied at Cambridge University.
He was Company Music Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1981-5, writing music for twenty Shakespeare productions there.
Some of Hess’s many TV credits include music for the BBC series Maigret and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates.¹

Pieces

Ladies in Lavender: Main Theme

Contemporary American

HIGDON, Jennifer

Photograph of Jennifer Higdon by J. Henry Fair, courtesy of the composer's website.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Dec 31, 1962

Higdon is a composer and flutist who studied at the Curtis Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. Her composition teachers included George Crumb.¹⁴⁹
Higdon holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition Studies at the Curtis Institute.
Higdon won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto. ²

Composer’s biography

Pieces

Contemporary Japanese

HISAISHI, Joe

Photograph of Joe Hisaishi by Omar Cruz, courtesy of Columbia Artists

Born in Nagano, Japan, December 6, 1950

Pronunciation example 1
Pronunciation example 2
(“hih-SIGH-ee-shee”)

Joe Hisaishi is a conductor, pianist, and film composer, best known for scoring ten films for Studio Ghibli.
Hisaishi teaches at the Kunitachi College of Music.
Hisaishi is Composer in Residence and Music Partner with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor with the Japan Century Orchestra.

The composer’s Facebook page

Pieces

Spirited Away

Contemporary German Russian

IGUDESMAN, Aleksey

Born in 1973

Aleksey Igudesman is a multifacted artist: violinist, composer, comedian, actor, writer. His website features a charming biography which includes the following:

“He has never won any competitions, mainly because he never entered any.”
Igudesman’s website biography

“Igudesman writes a lot of music. He has [been] known to start and finish works before breakfast. Which may be less impressive in light of the fact that he sometimes eats breakfast in the evening.”
Igudesman’s website biography

Igudesman is part of the violin and piano comedy duo, Igudesman & Joo.

Pieces

Lento

Contemporary American

JACOBSON, Joshua

Photograph of Joshua Jacobson courtesy of The Yiddish Book Center

Dr. Jacobson is a contemporary Jewish composer and conductor who specializes in sacred music.
Jacobson holds degrees from Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Cincinnati.
Jacobson taught for 45 years at Northwestern University, and he is the founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, an ensemble that specializes in Hebrew music.³

Short biography from ChinaCulture.org

Pieces

Mi Zeh Y’maleil

Contemporary Chinese

JIPING, Zhao

Image courtesy of The Violin Channel

Born in Pingliang, Gansu, Aug, 1945

Zhao Jiping is a folk-inspired composer and educator most well-known for his film scores, including Raise the Red Lantern (1991), To Live (1994), and Farewell My Concubine (1993).
- Zhao first gained notoriety for his score for Yellow Earth (1984).
- He is considered to be one of the foremost composers in China.⁴

Learn More

Pieces

Contemporary Argentinian

JOFRE, Juan Pablo (“J. P.”)

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in San Juan, Argentina in 1983

Juan Pablo Jofre is a Grammy-nominated composer and bandoneonist.
Jofre studied drums, guitar, piano, voice, and composition at the Escuela de Musica de la Universidad Nacional de San Juan before deciding to dedicate his performing to the bandoneon.
- Jofre also studied privately under composer, bandoneonist, and educator Julio Pane, the former bandoneónista for the “Astor Piazzolla Sextet.”
Jofre is a recipient of the National Prize of the Arts grant in Argentina.⁵

Learn More

“15 Questions” with JP Jofre
Composer’s website

Pieces

Double Concerto for Clarinet, Bandoneon, and Orchestra

Contemporary American

JONES, Samuel

Born in Inverness, Mississippi, June 2, 1935⁶

Pieces

Contemporary Korean

KANG, Jung Sun

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in South Korea, 1983

Jung Sun Kang is a South Korean composer, pianist, and educator who lives in the United States.
Kang began composing at 17. She was particularly curious about Bach and included harpsichord and continuo techniques in her studies.
Kang earned her doctorate from Eastman School of Music and an Artist Diploma degree from McGill University.

Learn More:

Biography from Opera Australia

Pieces

Star-Crossed

Contemporary Australian

KATS-CHERNIN, Elena

Image courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes

Born in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Nov 4, 1957

Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer of Uzbek origin. In 1975, she emigrated with her family to Australia.
Kats-Chernin spent over a decade living and composing in Germany before returning to Sydney in 1994, where she still currently resides.
The composer’s catalog includes works for stage, orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, and solo instruments. Her music often involves a single, simple idea which is then manipulated in distinctive ways.
- “Important aspects of her works are concerned with an exploration of timbres and textures and a sense of the ridiculous.”⁷

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Pieces

Contemporary American

KERNIS, Aaron Jay

Born in Philadelphia, Jan 15, 1960⁸

Pieces

Contemporary English

LANE, Philip

Born in Cheltenham, 1950

Philip Lane studied music at Birmingham University.
Lane composes music for BBC plays and for TV animation as well as concert music, and has often been called upon to reconstruct vintage film scores from minimal resources, including transcribing by ear from video recordings.⁹

Biography

Pieces

Pantomime

Contemporary American

LARSEN, Libby

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Dec. 24, 1950

Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. As of 2022, Larsen has written over 500 works spanning every classical genre, from large-scale orchestral works and opera to art songs and chamber music.
In 1973, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composer’s Forum, which became the American Composers Forum in 1996. ACF’s mission is “to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art.”

Pieces

Deep Summer Music

Contemporary American

LAURIDSEN, Morten

Born in Colfax, WA, Feb 27, 1943

Lauridsen was born in Washington State to a family of Danish descent.
According to Willamette Week, he grew up in Beaverton and was a member of the first graduating class of Sunset High School in 1961.
Lauridsen studied at USC and subsequently taught composition there.
His honors include being named an American Choral Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006 and receiving the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

Pieces

Contemporary American

LESHNOFF, Jonathan

Born in 1973

Leshnoff is a frequently performed American composer who has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many other American orchestras.
One of his recent works was commissioned by the Oklahoma City Philharmonic to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Leshnoff is a professor at Towson University.¹⁰

Pieces

Contemporary English

LEWIS, Paul

Born in 1943 in Brighton, England

Lewis was inspired to enter the world of TV music when he saw Lawrence Olivier’s films with music by William Walton when he was 12.
Lewis chose to avoid professional music training, instead opting to leave school at 15 to work in music publishing.
Lewis wrote his first TV score at age 19 and has been working busily for British TV ever since.
Fun fact: among other shows, Lewis’s production library music can be heard on Antiques Roadshow and SpongeBob SquarePants.¹¹

Pieces

Suite Navarraise: “Berceau d’un prince” (Cradle of a Prince)

Contemporary American Taiwanese

LIN, Wei-Chieh

Photograph of Wei-Chieh Lin courtesy of YellowBarn.

Lin is a contemporary American composer who was born in Taiwan. Lin is currently based in New York City.
Lin studied composition under Milton Babbitt at the Julliard School.¹²

Pieces

Taiwanese Folk Songs

Contemporary English

LYON, David

Born in Walsall in 1938

Composer’s Website

Pieces

Contemporary Scottish

MACMILLAN, James

James MacMillan, photographed by Philip Gatward

MacMillan studied composition at the Universites of Edinburgh and of Durham.
MacMillan’s music is influenced by an unusual mix of atonal 20^th-C. modernism and minimalist religious mysticism.¹³

Pieces

From Ayrshire

Contemporary Mexican

MÁRQUEZ, Arturo

Márquez studied at the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico, privately in Paris, and at California Institute of the Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Márquez has served as leader of the Navojoa Municipal Band and a composition teacher at the Escuela Nacional de Música.
Márquez has written many mixed-media works (theater, dance, film) as well as concert music incorporating popular styles.¹⁴

Pieces

Contemporary American

McGHEE, Joshua

b. 1986

Joshua McGhee is a contemporary American composer who has written concert and symphonic works, film music, and popular music.
McGhee has received commissions from the African American Composer Initiative and he has collaborated many times with the Picasso Ensemble.¹⁵

Composer profile from record label Erased Tapes

Pieces

Variations on an African-American Spiritual

Contemporary Canadian Ukrainian

MELNYK, Lubomyr

Photo of Lubomyr Melnyk by Hreinn Gudlaugsson, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Born in Ukraine in 1948

This composer lives and works in Canada.¹⁶ His family emigrated there when he was a child.
Melnyk studied piano as a child, and majored in Latin and Philosophy at St Paul’s College in Winnipeg.¹⁷
Melnyk specializes in piano and utilizes a compositional style he calls “continuous music,” which is improvisational and minimalist. His influences include Ravi Shankar, Steve Reich, and Ukrainian folk music.¹⁸

Pieces

Le Miroir D’amour

Contemporary Italian

MORRICONE, Ennio

Ennio Morricone, photographed in 2007

Born in Rome, Italy, Nov. 10, 1928.

In addition to his film and popular music, Morricone has also written a number of concert works, many of which utilize his own style of adapted serialism.¹⁹

Pieces

Contemporary English

NYMAN, Michael

Born in London, March 23, 1944

Nyman’s music often employs experimental techniques, like aleatoric procedures and postmodern quotation or sampling from historic compositions.
Later in his career Nyman’s music became lyrical and more influenced by folk music.
Fun fact: As writer on music, Nyman was one of the first people to use the term “minimal” for the music we now describe as “minimalist.”
Nyman has composed scores for a number of films, including Gattaca (1997) and The Libertine (2004). ²⁰

Pieces

Drowning by Numbers: “Trysting Fields”

Contemporary American

O’CONNOR, Mark

Mark O'Connor on stage at the Cambridge Folk Festival, July 1985. Photograph by Tony Rees.

Biography from the Arvo Pärt Centre

Born in Seattle, Washington, August 5, 1961

Mark O’Connor was born in Seattle and now resides in North Carolina.
O’Connor has won 3 Grammy awards and 7 CMA awards.
O’Connor performs regularly with the Mark O’Connor Band, in which he is joined by his wife, son and daughter-in-law, all musicians.
Works by O’Connor include his Fiddle Concerto (the most-performed violin concerto among those composed in the last 50 years) and his Americana Symphony.²¹

Pieces

Appalachia Waltz

Contemporary Japanese

ŌE, Hikari

Born June 13, 1963

Name pronunciation: hee-KAH-ree oh-EH

Hikari Ōe is a contemporary Japanese composer. He is the son of Nobel laureate novelist Kenzaburo Ōe.
Hikari Ōe has autism, and a developmental disability which impedes his language and physical coordination skills, due to a severe brain hernia. However, around the age of 6 he displayed a strong recall of music and sound, starting with the ability to memorize birdsong. He has been composing original music since the age of 13.
Hikari Ōe’s first album of compositions was released in 1992, and his second in 1994. His albums have been proven very popular both in Japan and abroad.
Ōe’s compositions are influenced by the music of Mozart, Chopin, and Brahms.²²

Pieces

Contemporary Estonian

PÄRT, Arvo

Born in Paide, Sept 11, 1935

Pärt’s music is known for the influence of early music, expressions of faith, and a gently dissonant style he calls tintinnabuli, in which a melody is built around repeating tonal triads, creating a diatonic dissonance that resembles the ringing of bells.
Pärt and his family relocated to Berlin after 1980, because the overtly religious and seeming archaic/simplistic style of his music met with disapproval from Soviet authorities and academics.²³

Pieces

Contemporary

PICKER, Tobias

Born in New York, July 18, 1954

Picker studied composition with Milton Babbit and Elliot Carter.
According to Picker himself, his music is influenced by both Brahms and Stravinsky, and a desire to meld the styles of both.
Fun Fact: When he was 18, Picker began working as an improvisatory accompanist for the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.²⁴

Pieces

Old and Lost Rivers

Contemporary American

PINE, Rachel Barton

Rachel Barton Pine, performing at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. in 2011.

Born in Chicago, IL, Oct 11, 1974

Pine is an American violinist. She was the first American (and youngest person) to win the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig.
Pine creates her own cadenzas when playing classical violin concertos.²⁵

Pieces

Medley of Scots Tunes

Contemporary Italian

PIOVANI, Nicola

Born in Rome, May 26, 1946

Piovani is a film composer who has written several scores for Fellini.
Piovani has also composed chamber music, a musical and a ballet.²⁶

Short biography

Pieces

Buongiorno principessa (for cello and strings)

Contemporary Argentinian

PUJOL, Máximo Diego

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in Buenos Aires, Dec 7, 1957

Argentinian composer and guitarist Máximo Diego Pujol received his formal training at the Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music. The composer supported his training by playing tango and milongas at local nightclubs.
As a composer, Pujol strives for “an ever-closer fusion of traditional Argentine Tango and formal academic concepts.²⁷

Pieces

Suite mágica

20th Century Contemporary Finnish

RAUTAVAARA, Einojuhani

Born in Helsinki, 9 Oct, 1928
Died in Helsinki, 27 July, 2016

[PRONUNCIATION / AY-no-yu-hah-ni ROW-ta-vah-ra]

Einojuhani Rautavaara began studying music in his teens, earning a place Helsinki University for musicology and the Sibelius Academy for composition.
- In 1955, Jean Sibelius selected Rautavaara for a scholarship to study in the United States. Rautavaara spent two years studying with Vincent Persichetti at Juilliard. He also took part in the summer courses at Tanglewood given by Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland.²⁸
As a composer, Rautavaara cycled through several styles throughout his long career. In the 1950s, his music is most often characterized by neoclassical elements, while the 60s brought a shift toward the avant-garde and experiments in 12-tone techniques. In the 70s, the composer embraced Romanticism, ultimately reaching his final “mystical” phase with music featuring angels.²⁹
Rautavaara was quite prolific, writing eight symphonies, nine operas, 12 instrumental (and one choral) concertos, chamber music, choral music, and vocal works.³⁰

Learn More
Short biography

Pieces

Contemporary British

RICHTER, Max

Max Richter, photographed in 2015.

Born in 1966

Richter was born in Germany but raised in England. He was classically trained at the RAM and studied with Luciano Berio. Richter has also collaborated with artists in the genre of electronic music.
Richter’s musical style contains elements of the classical tradition (drawing from many periods) and electronic, experimental, minimalist and rock influences.³¹
Richter has released 11 solo albums for Deutsche Grammophon and has composed the scores for many films, including Ad Astra, Mary, Queen of Scots and Sarah’s Key. He has also composed several ballets, an opera, and worked on multimedia artistic collaborations.³²

Pieces

On the Nature of Daylight

Contemporary English

RUTTER, John

John Rutter, photograph by VocalEssence

Born in London, Sept 24, 1945

Biography (in Spanish) from the Orquesta Filarmónica di Bogotá

In addition to his remarkably successful career as a composer of choral music, Rutter has also served as director of music at Clare College, Cambridge, founder-director of The Cambridge Singers, and an editor of choral music.³³

Pieces

Contemporary Colombian

SABOYA, Lucas

Photograph of Lucas Saboya courtesy of the Orquesta Filarmónica di Bogotá

Born in 1980 in Tunja, Boyacá

Saboya studied music at the Escuela Superior de Música in Tunja, Boyacá.
Saboya teaches at the Colombian University of Pedagogy and Technology.³⁴

Short biography from Naxos

Composer’s YouTube channel

Pieces

Suite Ernestina

Contemporary Chilean

SALINAS, Horacio

Image courtesy of the composer's Facebook page

Born in Lautaro, Chile, July 8, 1951

Short biography

Pieces

Contemporary American Chinese

SHENG, Bright

Biography from ECM Records

Born in Shanghai, Dec 6, 1955

Sheng was educated at the Shanghai Conservatory, Queens College CUNY, and and Columbia University. Leonard Bernstein was one of his teachers.
Sheng has served as Composer in Residence for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle SO, and he teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
China’s Cultural Revolution took place before Sheng had the chance to attend conservatory. During that time, from the age of 15, he was assigned to work in a traditional Chinese orchestra in a province bordering Tibet. He also spent this time studying Chinese folk music.³⁵

Pieces

Black Swan (after Brahms’s Intermezzo No. 2)

Contemporary Ukrainian

SILVESTROV, Valentin

Photo by Roberto Massotti, courtesy of ECM Records

Full name, alternate transliteration: Valentyn Vasil′yovych Sil′vestrov

Born in Kiev, Sept 30, 1937

Silvestrov studied at the Kiev Institute of Construction Engineering before enrolling at the Kiev Conservatory (1958–64) to study harmony and counterpoint.
In his article for Grove on Silvestrov, Virko Baley discusses the conflict between avant-garde and tradition as a major theme in Silvestrov’s work. Some compositions integrate these two impulses; at other times, he explores one or the other in a single work or period. Thus, he music can range in style from neoclassicism to minimalism to atonality.³⁶

March 30, 2022 NYT article about Silvestrov’s status as a refugee from the current war in Ukraine

Biography from Schott Music

Pieces

Contemporary Ukrainian

STANKOVYCH, Yevhen Fedorovych

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in Svaliava, Zakarpattya region, Ukraine, Sept 19, 1942

“Stankovych’s music, marked by a strikingly dramatic temperament and unfettered emotion, is supported by a full command of modernist techniques without allowing any one of these to predominate; and while the style is definably one of the late 20th century, folk themes of Ukraine’s various cultural groups have paramount importance in the substance of his language.”
Oxford Music Online³⁷

Stankovych studied at the Kyiv Conservatory under Borys Lyatoshynsky and Myroslav Skoryk, graduating in 1970.
His compositional output consists primarily of music for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and stage (ballet and opera).³⁸
The recipient of many awards and accolades, Stankovych was recognized by UNESCO’s World Tribune as one of 10 best works of 1985 for his Chamber Symphony No. 3, and he won the Taras Shevchenko State Award in 1986.³⁹
Many of the composer’s larger works were written in response to tragic events in Ukraine’s history. For example, Dictum (1987) is a massive symphony commemorating the Chernobyl disaster.⁴⁰

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