Born in Reno, Nevada, January 2, 1970
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WHITACRE, Eric
Era: Contemporary
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WHITBOURN, James
Born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1963
- British composer and conductor James Whitbourn began his career in the BBC as a composer, conductor, producer and presenter. He received his formal education from Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
- As a composer, Whitbourn’s output primarily consists of vocal and choral music. His music is performed around the world, most frequently in North America and Europe.
- Whitbourn has been commissioned to compose the music to mark several national and international events, including the BBC’s title music for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and music for the national commemoration of 9/11 at Westminster Abbey.
- As of 2022, Whitbourn is Fellow and Director of Music at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Senior Research Fellow at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, Director of Music at Harris Manchester College, Oxford and a member of the Faculty of Music in the University of Oxford.1
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WILLIAMS, John
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WYERS, Giselle
- Giselle Wyers is a composer and conductor who specializes in choral music.
- Wyers is the Chair of the Voice / Choral department at the University of Washington, and holds the institution’s Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Choral Music.
- Wyers holds degrees from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Westminster Choir College and the University of Arizona.3
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YORK, Andrew
Born in Atlanta, GA in 1958.
- Andrew York is a GRAMMY Award-winning classical guitarist and composer whose music blends the styles of both ancient and modern.
- York grew up in a family of musicians, where gatherings often included American and English folk music as well as traditional Celtic songs.
- York spent 16 years as a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, from 1990-2006, writing many compositions and arrangements for the ensemble.4
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Composer’s website
Pieces
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ZHOU Long
Born in Beijing, July 8, 1953
Zhou is the composer’s surname. It is appropriate to refer to him as Zhou Long or Dr. Zhou.
Pronunciation: IPA [dʒoʊ lɔŋ]
Pronunciation: Phonetic “jo long”
A guide for pronouncing Chinese names
- Dr. Zhou is a contemporary Chinese-American composer whose music combines Chinese folk influences and modernist classical influences.
- Zhou grew during the Cultural Revolution, when Western influences (including music) were discouraged. For this reason, he spent part of his childhood working on a state farm.
- Zhou studied at the Beijing Conservatory when it was reopened after the Cultural Revolution, and he completed his doctorate at Columbia University.
- Zhou teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas Conservatory of Music.
- Zhou is married to the composer Chen Yi.5
- Biography from Oxford University Press
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ZWILICH, Ellen Taaffe
Born in Miami, April 30, 1939
- American composer and violinist Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (pronounced “tayf ZWIL-ik”) is one of the nation’s most frequently played living composers.
- Zwilich pursued her doctorate at Julliard, and in 1975, she became the first woman to earn a DMA in composition from the institution. Previously, she had been a member of the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.
- Zwilich is a prolific composer in virtually all media:
“Concise, economical and clean in texture, Zwilich’s music might be classified under the rubric ‘neo-classic’ were it not for its very ‘neo-romantic’ expressive force.”
Grove Music Online
- One interesting period of writing in particular – Beginning in the 1980s, Zwilich tasked herself with writing a series of concertos for the more neglected orchestral instruments, including the trombone, flute, oboe, and bassoon.
- Fun fact– Zwilich was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1983. She won the prestigious award for her Symphony No. 1, which helped catapult her international career.6
- The composer’s list of additional accolades is impressively long and includes the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was also the first Composer’s Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 1999. 7
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Composer’s website
Short biography from the Library of Congress