Born in Reno, Nevada, January 2, 1970
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WHITACRE, Eric
Nationality: American
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WHITE, Clarence Cameron
Born in Clarksville, TN, Aug 10, 1880
New York, June 30, 1960
- White was an African-American composer and violinist.
- White studied at Oberlin and in Europe, where his teachers included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
- White toured frequently as a violinist, with his wife, collaborative pianist Beatrice Warrick White.
- White taught at West Virginia State College and was the Director of Music at the the Hampton Institute in Virginia.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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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.4
- 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.5
- 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. 6
Learn More
Composer’s website
Short biography from the Library of Congress