John Corigliano
1938
Present
American composer John Corigliano’s style has deep roots from the post-war European avant garde as well as from his American forebears.
Corigliano’s catalogue includes three symphonies and eight concerti along with over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works and have been performed and recorded by musicians around the world. Recent scores include Conjurer (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 the 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) Other scores include String Quartet (1995); Symphony No. 1 (1991); the opera The Ghosts of Versailles (Metropolitan Opera commission, 1991); and the Clarinet Concerto (1977).
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. Born in 1938 to John Corigliano Sr., a former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Rose Buzen, an accomplished pianist and educator, Corigliano has lived in New York City all his life: for the past fourteen years he and his partner, the composer-librettist Mark Adamo, have divided their time between Manhattan and Kent Cliffs, New York.