List of Jewish American composers

This is a list of Jewish American composers. For listings of Jewish American songwriters, musicals writers, and film composers, see List of Jewish American musicians, which shares some names with this list. For other famous Jewish Americans, see List of Jewish Americans.

• Larry Adler (1914–2001), composer ^[1]
• Samuel Adler (b. 1928), composer, conductor, educator ^[2]
• Lera Auerbach (b. 1973), naturalized American, Russian-born composer
• Milton Babbitt (1916–2011), composer ^{[3] [4]}
• Irving Berlin (1888–1989), composer and lyricist ^[5]
• Lauren Bernofsky (b. 1967), composer ^[6]
• Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), composer and conductor ^{[4] [5]}
• José Antonio Bowen (b. 1952), jazz musician and president of Goucher College
• Herbert Brün (1918–2000), naturalized American, German-born composer, pioneer of electronic and computer music.
• David Burger composer of choral music, including Tefliah Lishlom Medinat Yisrael ^[7]
• Aaron Copland (1900–1990), composer and conductor ^[5]
• Morton Feldman (1926–1987), composer ^{[4] [5] [8]}
• George Gershwin (1898–1937), composer and songwriter ^{[8] [9]}
• Philip Glass (b. 1937) composer, often associated with Minimalism ^{[8] [9]}
• Yossi Green (b. 1955), Hasidic Jewish composer of contemporary Jewish religious music ^[10]
• Judd Greenstein (b. 1979) composer, often associated with the Indie Classical movement.
• Michael Isaacson (b. 1946) composer of Jewish synagogue music.
• Bronisław Kaper (1902–1983), naturalized American film score composer of Polish-Jewish origin.
• Jerome Kern (1885–1945), composer and songwriter ^[9]
• Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962), violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his day ^[11]
• Ezra Laderman (1924–2015) composer, former Dean at the Yale School of Music.
• David Lang (b. 1957) composer, founder of Bang on a Can.
• Leo Ornstein (1893–2002), modernist composer and pianist, Russian-born ^[5]
• Tobias Picker (b. 1954), American composer, artistic director, and pianist ^{[12] [13] [14] [15]}
• Lou Reed (1942–2013), songwriter, composer and guitarist, a member of the Velvet Underground ^[9]
• Steve Reich (b. 1936) composer, often associated with Minimalism. ^[9]
• Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), composer, songwriter, lyricist
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), naturalized American, Austrian-born composer ^[5]
• Michael Jeffrey Shapiro (b. 1951), composer and conductor ^[9]
• Nicolas Slonimsky (1894–1995), naturalized American, Russian-born composer, conductor and author ^{[4] [9]}
• Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021), composer and lyricist ^[9]
• Morton Subotnick (b. 1933), composer of electronic and other music, husband to Joan LaBarbara ^{[5] [8]}
• Kurt Weill (1900–1950), naturalized American, German-born composer and songwriter, who wrote orchestral music and "show music" ^{[9] [16]}
• John Zorn (b. 1953), composer and saxophonist ^[9]

References

1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music Editor Don Michael Randel, Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, 1996 p. 6 ISBN   0-674-37299-9
3. JINFO (1994-11-04). "Jewish Songwriters and Composers". Jinfo.org. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
4. Alan Rich, American Pioneers: Ives to Cage and Beyond (1995)
5. Nicolas Slonismky, Music Since 1900, 5th edition, Schirmer Books (1994)
6. "Lauren Bernofsky". Jewish Music WebCenter. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
7. "David Burger". Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018.
8. Kyle Gann, American Music in the 20th Century (1997)
9. Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century
10. Bleich, Chananya. "A Time to Sing: Well-known Chasidic musicians share some of the high points of their careers". Ami , November 27, 2013, p. 138.
11. Archived October 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
12. "Biography". Tobiaspicker.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
13. Matthew Gurewitsch (October 25, 2001). "A Soap Opera in Song". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved September 21, 2020. "Which has also attracted the notice of Tobias Picker, our finest composer for the lyric stage."
14. Andrew Porter (November 13, 1978). "Musical Events". The New Yorker . Retrieved September 21, 2020. A genuine creator with a fertile, unforced vein of invention.
15. Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne Kennedy (2007). Picker, Tobias. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-920383-3 . Retrieved September 21, 2020.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
16. Ronald Sanders, The Days Grow Short: The Life and Music of Kurt Weill (1980)