Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, neoromantic style. She has been called "one of America's most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers." She was a 1994 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Zwilich has served as the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
EXPO is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. It was the first work commissioned by the New York Philharmonic under the conductor Alan Gilbert, and was Lindberg's first commission as the orchestra's composer-in-residence. The piece was first performed on September 16, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, during Alan Gilbert's inaugural concert with the New York Philharmonic. EXPO was the first newly commissioned work to open the New York Philharmonic's concert season since the premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations under Leonard Bernstein on September 23, 1962.
Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112, BB 117 was written in 1937–38. During the composer's life, it was known simply as his Violin Concerto. His other violin concerto, Violin Concerto No. 1, Sz. 36, BB 48a, was written in the years 1907–1908, but only published in 1956, after the composer's death, as "Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. posth."
The Symphony No. 3 by Arnold Bax was completed in 1929. It was dedicated to Sir Henry Wood and is perhaps the most performed and most immediately approachable of Bax's symphonies.
Jean Perrin was a Swiss composer and pianist. He composed in a neo-classical style, sometimes approaching polytonality, and his music shows the influence of Stravinsky and Poulenc.
Harold Shapero completed the Symphony for Classical Orchestra in B-flat major on March 10, 1947, in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. It is written for an orchestra consisting of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 2 tenor trombones and one bass, timpani and strings. Although labelled "Classical," many of the work's features point to Beethoven rather than Haydn or Mozart, such as "the way in which Shapero paces himself, alternating long passages in the tonic and the dominant, with fast, dramatic modulations often reserved for transitions and developments." Nicolas Slonimsky remarked on how the piece is "premeditatedly cast in the proclamatory key of B-flat major, the natural tonality of the bugle, and ending in a display of tonic major triads." But there are modern features as well, with "the work's orchestration, in general, ... distinctively bright and brassy, and undoubtedly derived a fair amount from Piston and Copland, as well as from the composer's experience as a dance band arranger."
The Trombone Concerto is a concerto for trombone and orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its principal trombonist Joseph Alessi. It was completed on April 5, 1991, and was first performed by Alessi and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Slatkin on December 30, 1992, in Avery Fisher Hall, New York City. The concerto is dedicated to the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who died suddenly October 14, 1990. In 1993, the work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The Oboe Concerto is a concerto for oboe and orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra and completed in 2004. The piece premiered in 2009 with oboist Basil Reeve and the Minnesota Orchestra performing under conductor Osmo Vanska.
The Second Concerto for Orchestra is a concerto for orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic while Stucky was their composer-in-residence for the inaugural season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was completed in 2003 and was first performed on March 12, 2004, with the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The piece was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra in three movements by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was jointly commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and the violinist Ole Bøhn. It was completed February 26, 1990 in Waccabuc, New York, and was premiered May 2, 1990 in San Francisco, with conductor Herbert Blomstedt leading Bøhn and the San Francisco Symphony. The piece won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
The Boston Concerto is a concerto for orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for which the piece is titled. It was first performed in Symphony Hall, Boston, on April 3, 2003 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Ingo Metzmacher. Carter dedicated the concerto to his wife Helen Jones Carter, who died on May 17, 2003.
The Cello Concerto is a composition for solo cello and orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It was first performed in Chicago, Illinois, on September 27, 2001 by Yo-Yo Ma and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Daniel Barenboim.
A Symphony of Three Orchestras is an orchestra composition by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was composed from June through December 1976 and was first performed in New York City on February 17, 1977 by the New York Philharmonic under the conductor Pierre Boulez. The composition is dedicated to Boulez and the New York Philharmonic.
The Concerto for Piano is a composition for solo piano and orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the pianist Jacob Lateiner with support from the Ford Foundation. It was composed between 1964 and 1965 and was first performed at Symphony Hall, Boston on January 6, 1967, by Lateiner and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Erich Leinsdorf. The piece was dedicated to the composer Igor Stravinsky for his 85th birthday.
The Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei is an orchestral triptych by the American composer Elliott Carter. Its three movements were composed between 1993 and 1995. The complete work was first performed on April 25, 1998 at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Oliver Knussen. The second movement "Adagio tenebroso" was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The third movement "Allegro scorrevole" won The Prince Pierre of Monaco Music Composition Prize in 1998.
The Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras is a composition by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation and is dedicated to the philanthropist Paul Fromm. It was completed in August 1961 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on September 6, 1961. The premiere was performed by the harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick and the pianist Charles Rosen under the conductor Gustav Meier.
Two Controversies and a Conversation is a composition for piano, percussion, and chamber orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. Its world premiere was given on June 8, 2012 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City by the pianist Eric Huebner and the percussionist Colin Currie with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of David Robertson. The piece is dedicated to Colin Currie and the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. It was one of the last works composed by Carter, who completed the piece at the age of 103.
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra "Eleven Eleven" is the first violin concerto written by American composer Danny Elfman. Co-commissioned by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Live at Stanford University, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the piece premiered at Smetana Hall in Prague, on June 21, 2017, with Sandy Cameron on violin and John Mauceri conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, the premiere recording of the concerto featured Cameron with Mauceri conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a piano concerto by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the pianist Kirill Gerstein and was completed in 2018. It was first performed by Gerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer at Symphony Hall, Boston, on 7 March 2019. The piece is Adès's second piano concerto following In Seven Days in 2008.
Register is an organ concerto written in 2017 by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was written on a joint commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Southbank Centre. Its world premiere was given by the organist James McVinnie and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by James Conlon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, on February 23, 2018.
