John Corigliano

From Wind Repertory Project
John Corigliano

Biography

John Corigiliano (b. 16 February 1938, New York City) is an American composer.

Corigliano's father was concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic and his mother was an accomplished piano soloist. He studied composition with Otto Luening at Columbia University, Vittorio Giannini at the Manhattan School of Music, and independently with Paul Creston. The first notoriety he gained was from winning the 1964 Spoleto Festival chamber music prize.

Mr. Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual, and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. Corigliano's numerous scores - including three symphonies and eight concerti among over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works - have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. Recent scores include onjurer (2008), for percussion and string orchestra, commissioned for and introduced by Dame Evelyn Glennie; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: The Red Violin (2005), developed from the themes of the score to François Girard’s film of the same name, which won Corigliano the Oscar in 1999; Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) for orchestra and amplified soprano, the recording which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition in 2008; Symphony No. 3, "Circus Maximus" (2004), scored simultaneously for wind orchestra and a multitude of wind ensembles; and Symphony No. 2 (2001: Pulitzer Prize in Music).

One of the few living composers to have a string quartet named for him, Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name.

Mr. Corigliano is married to composer Mark Adamo. Many of his former students have become well known composers, including Eric Whitacre and John Mackey.

John Corigliano is only the second composer, Aaron Copland being the first, to win the Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar.


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