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.
Alfred Friedman was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor, performing in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
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.
The Michigan State University Children's Choir (MSUCC) is a Grammy Award-winning children's choir located in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2009, Kristin Zaryski was named director, succeeding the founder of the choir, Mary Alice Stollak. Following Ms. Zaryski, Kyle Zeuch was named Director. After 5 years, Kyle Zeuch departed for Lebanon Valley College. He was succeeded by current director Alison Geesey-Lagan. Most choristers in the choir come from the two other children's choirs in the program, the CMS Singers, and Preparatory Choir. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Symphony Center in Chicago, and the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. In 2006, the choir won two Grammy Awards for their contributions to William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Album.
Donald Henry Kay AM is an Australian classical composer.
Sarah Kirkland Snider is an American composer. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral, song cycle, choral, and ballet works.
Quickening is a cantata for countertenor, two tenors, two baritones, children's choir, chorus, and orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was co-commissioned by The Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra and was completed in 1998. Its world premiere was performed by the Hilliard Ensemble, the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, and the Westminster Cathedral Boys' Choir under the direction of Andrew Davis at Royal Albert Hall, London, on 5 September 1999. The journalist Damian Thompson of The Spectator described it as "one of MacMillan's masterpieces."
The Symphony No. 3, Op. 21, in C major is a large-scale orchestral-vocal composition by the Romanian composer George Enescu. While it was first written in 1916–18. the composer revised it numerous times over the following decades.
The Symphony No. 2, or 'Cello Symphony is a composition for orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was composed in 1985 on a commission from the San Francisco Symphony. It was first performed on November 13, 1985, by the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Edo de Waart, to whom the piece is dedicated.
The Symphony No. 3 is a symphony for orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to commemorate their sesquicentennial anniversary. It was first performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Jahja Ling on February 25, 1993. The symphony is dedicated "with love and admiration" to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic.
The Symphony No. 5 or Concerto for Orchestra is a composition for orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by the Juilliard School in honor of Bruce Kovner and Suzie Kovner with support of the Trust of Francis Goelet. It was first performed by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by James Conlon at Carnegie Hall on October 27, 2008.
The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is a composition for solo cello and orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was written on a commission from the South Florida Symphony Orchestra. Zwilich composed the piece over a six-month period, completing the work in early 2020. It was given its world premiere by the cellist Zuill Bailey the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina María Alfonso on March 5, 2020, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The concerto is dedicated to Zuill Bailey and Sebrina María Alfonso and written in memory of the cellists Leonard Rose and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a composition for solo piano and orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was written on a commission from Carnegie Hall, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the League of American Orchestras. It was the first composition ever commissioned by either Carnegie Hall or the League of American Orchestras. The world premiere was performed by the pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Günther Herbig at the Meadow Brook Music Festival in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on June 26, 1986. The piece is dedicated to Günther Herbig.
The Clarinet Concerto is a composition for solo clarinet and orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. It was commissioned by the Arlene and Dr. Milton D. Berkman Philanthropic Fund for the clarinetist David Shifrin, to whom the piece is dedicated. The concerto was first performed by Shifrin and twelve members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in Alice Tully Hall on September 12, 2003.
The Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra is a bassoon concerto written by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for their principal bassoonist Nancy Goeres. It was given its world premiere by Goeres and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel in Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, on May 13, 1993. The piece is dedicated to Maazel, Goeres, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
The American Concerto is a trumpet concerto written by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, the San Diego Symphony, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the trumpeter Doc Severinsen, to whom it is dedicated. The piece was completed in New York on June 12, 1994, and was given its world premiere by Doc Severinsen and the San Diego Symphony under the direction of JoAnn Falletta in Escondido, California, on September 24, 1994.
Symbolon is a composition for orchestra written by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The piece was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for their 1988 tour of the Soviet Union and was completed on January 8, 1988. It is dedicated to Zubin Mehta, who conducted the work's premiere by the New York Philharmonic in Leningrad on June 1, 1988. It was the first piece of American orchestral music to be premiered in the Soviet Union.
Peanuts Gallery is a piano concerto by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, inspired by the characters of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, who was a friend of Zwilich. It was commissioned for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra by the Carnegie Hall Corporation, and first performed by the pianist Albert Kim and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on March 22, 1997.
