Born in Colorado Springs, CO, July 22, 1914
Died in Boulder, CO, Dec 22, 19901
Biography from the American Music Research Center at the University of Colorado
Categories
Nationality: American
Categories
ELIE, Justin
Born in Cap-Haïtien, 1883
Died in New York, Dec 3, 1931
- Elie was a composer and pianist who studied at the Paris Conservatory and concertized throughout Latin America before relocating to New York in 1921.
- In addition to composing concert works, Elie also hosted a radio show called The Lure of the Tropics (in which he occasionally conducted his own compositions. He also composed music for silent films and the theater.2
Categories
ELLINGTON, Duke
Born in Washington, DC, April 29, 1899
Died in New York, NY, May 24, 1974
Born Edward Kennedy Ellington
- Ellington picked up his nickname as a child because his friend felt he had an “elegant demeanor.”
- Ellington studied piano as a child, but lost interest until he discovered ragtime as a teenager.
- Ellington began working as a bandleader in the late 1920s, and achieved international fame by the 1940s, touring the United States and Europe.
- Starting in 1942, Carnegie Hall booked Ellington for one concert per year.
- Ellington’s long-form and concert works include operas, ballets, musicals, incidental music, film scores, tone poems, and orchestral suites.3
Categories
ESMAIL, Reena
Born in Chicago, IL, Feb. 11, 1983
- Esmail is a contemporary Indian-American composer based in Los Angeles.
- Esmail was educated at the Julliard School and Yale University. She also studied Hindustani music in India on a Fulbright-Nehru grant.
- Esmail is an Artistic Director of Shastra, an organization that fosters cross-cultural dialogue between Western music and the music of India.4
Categories
EWAZEN, Eric
Born in Cleveland, OH, March 1, 1954
Ewazen pronunciation: ih-WAY-zen
- Eric Ewazen received a B.M. at the Eastman School of Music, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from The Juilliard School. His teachers include Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner and Gunther Schuller.
- As a composer, Ewazen’s oeuvre is wide-ranging, from orchestral and chamber music to solo and choral works. He is particularly recognized for his contributions to wind and percussion repertoire.
- Ewazen’s music is “unabashedly” tonal, and some of his greatest musical influences are Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber. He also credits early exposure to Ukrainian folksongs and dances from his parents as major musical influences.
- As an educator, Ewazen has been on faculty at The Julliard School since 1980.5
Learn More
Composer’s website
Categories
FERRIS, William
(1937–2000)
- William Ferris was a liturgical musician and choral conductor. He served at several American cathedrals and was the first American to teach music at the Vatican.6
- He founded the William Ferris Chorale, which specialized in new music and premiered more that 150 works by contemporary composers.7
Categories
FINE, Michael
Categories
FOOTE, Arthur
Born in Salem, MA, March 5, 1853
Died in Boston, MA, April 8, 1937
- Fun fact: According to his Oxford Music Online article, “Arthur Foote was the first noted American composer of art music to receive his musical education entirely in the United States.” He earned a Master of Arts in Music from Harvard – the first music MA program offered in the United States.
- Foote was a liturgical musician based in Boston, where he taught music privately, directed choirs, and played the organ at a number of churches. He was a co-founder of the American Guild of Organists.
- Foote served as guest faculty at Harvard, UC Berkeley, and the New England Conservatory during the course of his career.8
Categories
FOSS, Lukas
Born in Berlin, Germany, Aug 15, 1922
Died in New York, NY, Feb 1, 2009
- Foss was a German-born American conductor, pianist and composer who had a distinguished career conducting several major American orchestras.9
- Foss began composing at the age of 7, and throughout his career he was honored with a New York Music Critics’ Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship (he was the youngest composer ever to win one), a Fullbright grant and a Library of Congress Gold Medal for Music (2000)10
- Foss’s teachers included Randall Thompson, Paul Hindemith, and Serge Koussevitsky.11
Categories
FUCHS, Kenneth
Born in 1965
Composer website
- Fuchs is a Julliard-educated composer whose teachers included Milton Babbitt, David Del Tredici, David Diamond and Vincent Persichetti.
- Fuchs teaches composition at the University of Connecticut.11
Categories
GALLAGHER, Jack
Born in 1947
Composer website
- Gallagher is an Ohio-based composer who was educated at Cornell and whose composition studies also included masterclasses with Aaron Copland, Willilam Bolcom and Geogre Crumb.
- Gallagher is a Professor of Music at the College of Wooster in Ohio.12
Categories
GERSHWIN, George
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Sept 26, 1898
Died in Hollywood, CA, July 11, 1937
Categories
GETER, Damien
- Biography from RII’s Elevate album:
- Damien Geter is a diverse musical artist known for his work as a composer, actor, and bass-baritone. As a leading voice both in his role as a performer and in creating meaningful classical music, Geter uplifts, challenges, reflects, and inspires his audiences on and off the stage. Geter focuses on issues around social justice in his compositions. He thoughtfully infuses classical music with styles from the Black diaspora, such as jazz, gospel, and rhythm and blues. Geter’s works have premiered with some of the nation’s most respected institutions, such as The Kennedy Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony. As a classical singer, Geter has performed with the Metropolitan Opera in the Grammy award-winning production of Porgy and Bess, as well as with Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater.
Learn More
Composer’s website
Categories
GETTY, Gordon
Born in Los Angeles, Dec 20, 1933
Composer website
- Getty was educated at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
- As heir to the Getty oil fortune, he is also a patron of the arts through the Gordon and Anne Getty Foundation.13
Categories
GIANNINI, Vittorio
Categories
GILBERTSON, Michael
Born in Dubuque, IA, 1987
- Michael Gilbertson is an American composer who currently serves as BMI Composer in Residence with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. He is also a professor at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
- In 2018, Gilbertson was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his piece, Quartet.15
Categories
GLASS, Philip
Born in Baltimore, MD, Jan 31, 1937
Composer website
Categories
GOLIJOV, Osvaldo
Born in New Orleans, May 8, 1829
Died in Tijuca, Brazil, Dec 18, 1869
- Born in New Orleans to a mother of French-Haitian ancestry and a father of German-Jewish ancestry, Gottschalk was a virtuoso pianist and one of the first American composers lauded in Europe.
- Gottschalk’s music draws on the rhythms of Haitian and Cuban, music which he learned from his grandmother’s enslaved maid Sally. Sally was brought from Haiti along with Gottschalk’s mother’s family in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. The “creole” syncopations in Gottschalk’s music were new and appealing to his European audiences. For the same reason, his music is also considered a precursor of ragtime.16
Categories
GRAINGER, Percy
Born in Brighton, Victoria, July 8, 1882
Died in White Plains, NY, Feb 20, 1961
Categories
GROFÉ, Ferde
Born in New York, NY, March 27, 1892
Died in Santa Monica, CA, April 3, 197217
Categories
HAGAN, Helen Eugenia
Born in Portsmouth, NH, Jan 10, 1893
Died in New York, March 6, 1964
- Helen Hagan was an African-American composer and pianist.18
- Hagan was educated at Yale University and at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where her teachers included Vincent D’Indy.19
- During WWI, Hagan played for African American troops in Europe.20
- Hagan turned to teaching after struggling to find performing opportunities due to her race. She spent much of her as a college educator. She taught at Bishop College, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College (now Tennessee State University).21 She was also head of the music department at the George Peabody College for Teachers.22
Categories
HAILSTORK, Adolphus
Born in Rochester, NY, April 17, 1941
- Hailstork was educated at the Manhattan School and Michigan State University; he also studied with Nadia Boulanger.
- He has taught at Michigan State, Youngstown State University, Norfolk (Virginia) State College, and Old Dominion University.21
- His Grove’s article describes his music as “postmodern and pluralistic.”23
Categories
HANSON, Howard
Born in Wahoo, NE, Oct 28, 1896
Died in Rochester, NY, February 26, 1981
- Hanson was a composer, conductor and educator.
- Hanson was the first24 director of the Eastman School of Music, serving from 1924-1964. He was also highly involved with American music educator organizations, including the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and Music Educators National Conference (MENC).
- Hanson’s composition honors include a Pulitzer Prize for his 4th Symphony.25
Categories
HERBERT, Victor
Born in Dublin, Feb 1, 1859
Died in New York, May 26, 1924
- Victor Herbert composed operetta, and he was one of the first advocates for copyright and performance-rights legislation for composers.
- Herbert testified before Congress in support of providing recording royalties to composers during proceedings surrounding a copyright law enacted in 1919. He was also one of the founders of ASCAP.26
Categories
HERRMANN, Bernard
Born in New York, NY, 29 June 1911
Died in Los Angeles, CA, 24 Dec 197527
Biography from the Bernard Herrmann Society
Pieces
Categories
HIGDON, Jennifer
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. 28
Categories
HOLT, Nora
Born in Kansas City, KS, 1885
Died in Los Angeles, CA, Jan 24, 1974
- Nora Holt was an American composer, singer, pianist, and music critic.
- Holt was the first African American to earn a Master of Music degree (Chicago Musical College, 1918).
- Holt studied with Nadia Boulanger in the 1920s.
- Holt served as music critic for The Amsterdam News in New York from 1943–64.
- Holt was a founding member of the National Associated of Negro Musicians (Betty Jackson King became the association’s president in the 1980s).
- Though Holt composed over 200 works, at this point, one or two of her works is known to have survived.2930
Categories
HORNER, James
Born in Los Angeles, Aug 14, 1953
Died in Santa Barbara, CA, June 22, 2015
- Horner was a film composer and conductor who studied with Ligeti and composed many scores for film and TV, including Star Trek II and III (1980s), Willow (1988), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), Titanic (1997), A Beautiful Mind (2001), the theme for CBS Evening News, and many more.
- Horner won Grammys for the song Somewhere Out There (An American Tail, 1986), and Academy Awards for best song and score for Titanic.31
Categories
HOVHANESS, Alan
Born in Somerville, MA, March 8, 1911
Died in Seattle, June 21, 2000
Categories
IVES, Charles
Born in Danbury, CT, Oct 20, 1874
Died in New York, NY, May 19, 1954
- Ives was a professional organist and received a rigorous training in composition. Thus, though he spent 30 years in the insurance industry, the image of Ives as an amateur composer is a misconception.
- Though Ives’ experimental and avant-garde works are more familiar, he also composed tonal, Romantic works, sometimes combining styles within one piece.
- Ives’ music began to draw attention when a younger generation of composers (including Henry Cowell, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein) discovered and promoted Ives’ self-published works in the 1920s and 30s.34
Biography from the Charles Ives Society
Categories
JACOBSON, Joshua
- 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.35
Categories
JOHNSON, J. Rosamond
Born in Jacksonville, FL, Aug 11, 1873
Died in New York, NY, Nov 11, 1954
- J. (John) Rosamond Johnson was a versatile composer who wrote concert music, church music, opera and musicals.
- Johnson studied music with his mother, a singer and teacher, and at the New England Conservatory.
- Johnson wrote and acted in musicals co-authored with his brother, lyricist, writer, and actor James Weldon Johnson. Their shows were remarkable for their caricature-free depictions of African-American and Native American characters. The Johnson Brothers also wrote Tin Pan Alley songs and appeared in a duo vaudeville act.
- J. Rosamond Johnson is the composer of the African-American anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing.36
Categories
JONES, Samuel
Categories
JOPLIN, Scott
Born in northeast TX, between July 19, 1867 and mid-Jan 1868
Died in New York, NY, April 1, 191738
- Scott Joplin was known as the “king of ragtime” at the turn of the 20th Century. In fact, today, the composer’s name is practically synonymous with the term, “ragtime.”
- Despite the composer’s success in publishing ragtime, Joplin aspired to write theatrical works. He wrote a ballet called The Ragtime Dance and two operas – A Guest of Honor and Treemonisha. Sadly, A Guess of Honor was never published, and the manuscript has since been lost.40
- In 1907, Joplin published an instructional book outlining his musical technique called The School of Ragtime.41
Categories
KERN, Jerome
Born in New York, NY, January 27, 1885
Died in New York, NY, November 11, 1945
- Jerome Kern was one of the leading musical theater composers of the 20th century. His most famous musical contribution was Show Boat, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein.
Learn More
Biography via the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Biography via Encyclopedia Britannica
Categories
KERNIS, Aaron Jay
Categories
KING, Betty Jackson
Born in Chicago, February 17, 1928
Died in Wildwood, New Jersey, June 1, 1994
- Betty Jackson King was an American composer, choral conductor, and music educator.
- King received her BA (piano) and MA (composition) from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.
- King worked as a public school music teacher in Chicago and New Jersey, and directed many Chicago choirs, including the liturgical choirs and the Betty Jackson King Singers.
- As a composer, King specialized in sacred and choral music.43
- King’s many honors included serving as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.44
Categories
KROLL, William
Born in New York, Jan 30, 1901
Died in Boston, Mar 10, 1980
Learn More
Short obituary in the NY Times
Categories
KURKA, Robert
Born in Cicero, IL, Dec 22, 1921
Died in New York, Dec 12, 195745
- Robert Kurka was an American composer best known for his orchestral suite, The Good Soldier Schweik. This suite was later expanded into a two-act opera.
- Kurka briefly studied under Otto Leuning and Darius Milhaud, though he was largely self-taught.46
- Kurka taught at City University of New York and Queens College. He also briefly served as composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College.47
- The composer died of Leukemia at just 35 years old. In a tragic moment of irony, just months before his death, Kurka received a Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University with the following declaration: “To Robert Kurka, a composer at the threshold of a career of real distinction.”48