Carlos Simon (born 1986) is an African-American composer of Western classical music. He is the Composer in Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, inaugural Composer Chair for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Professor at Georgetown University. [1]
Born in Washington, D.C., [2] and raised in Atlanta, Simon is the son of a preacher [3] and grew up in a household where he was forbidden to listen to anything other than gospel music; [4] he has described gospel's improvisatory nature as a critical influence in the development of his own compositional style, [3] [4] alongside the more formal elements of the work of such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. [3] Beginning at the age of ten he played piano for Sunday services at his father's church, at which point he began formal piano lessons as well. [4] Later in life he spent time as keyboardist and musical director for R&B artists Angie Stone and Jennifer Holliday. [5] He completed degrees at Morehouse College and Georgia State University before attending the University of Michigan for doctoral studies with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. Formerly on the music faculty of Spelman College and Morehouse College, in 2019 he became an professor in the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University. [6] [7]
In 2024, the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced as its inaugural Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair, a position lasting three-seasons in which he will lead educational and outreach concerts, collaborate with Andris Nelsons to curate programs, and compose several new works for the Boston Symphony to perform. [8] In 2021, Simon received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence from the Sphinx Organization, becoming only the second composer to receive the award; [9] that same year he joined the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as composer-in-residence. [10] In 2018 he was named as a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow by the Sundance Institute. Among the organizations from which he has received commissions and performances are the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra. [6] [7] [10]
Simon's music is informed by his interest in social justice issues, and frequently incorporates activist themes in his work; such pieces include Elegy for string quartet, honoring the memories of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, [6] [7] and Requiem for the Enslaved, in which African-American spirituals are combined with the Latin mass and elements of hip hop to tell the story of the 1838 sale of slaves to discharge the debts of Georgetown University. [11] [12] Other compositions are inspired by the work of visual artists, such as Bill Traylor and Romare Bearden. [13]
In 2023, Simon received a Grammy Award nomination for his album, Requiem for the Enslaved in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. [14]
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.
The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten, composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, in the English county of Warwickshire, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer and academic.
Tania León is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist. His compositions are inspired by North American Indian history, culture and ethos.
Lera Auerbach is a Soviet-born Austrian-American classical composer, conductor and concert pianist.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
Bright Sheng is a Chinese-born American composer, pianist and conductor. Sheng has earned many honors for his music and compositions, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001; he also was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. His music has been commissioned and performed by virtually every major American symphony orchestra, in addition to the Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra among numerous others. His music has been performed by such musicians as the conductors Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, David Robertson, David Zinman, Neeme Järvi, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff; the cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, and Alisa Weilerstein; the pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, and Peter Serkin; the violinists Gil Shaham and Cho-Liang Lin; and the percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.
Alexandra Fol is a Bulgarian-Canadian composer who resides in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
David Liptak is an American composer and music educator who is a professor of composition and the current chair of the Composition Department at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.
Raymond Torres-Santos is a Classical and film music composer and conductor, pianist, arranger, and producer of both classical, film and popular music. Malena Kuss described him as the most versatile Puerto Rican composer active in the 21st century in her book, Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: an Encyclopedic History.
Julia Amanda Perry was an American classical composer and teacher who combined European classical and neo-classical training with her African-American heritage.
Michael James Gandolfi is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He chairs the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC).
Gabriela Lena Frank is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.
Andris Nelsons is a Latvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He was previously music director of the Latvian National Opera, chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Tison C. Street aka Curry Tison Street is a graduate of Harvard College ‘65 and an American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist.
W. Claude Baker Jr. is an American composer of contemporary classical music.
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