ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH
Name: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Born: 30 April 1939 Miami, Florida
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (born April 30, 1939, in Miami, Florida) 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
matured to a post-modernist, neo-romantic style. She has been called "one of
America’s most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers."
Zwilich began her studies as a violinist, earning a B.M. from Florida State
University in 1960. She moved to New York to play with the American Symphony
Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. She later enrolled at Juilliard, eventually (in
1975) becoming the first woman to earn the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in
composition. Her teachers included John Boda, Elliott Carter, and Roger
Sessions. She first came to prominence when Pierre Boulez programmed her
Symposium for Orchestra with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra in 1975.
Some of her work during this period was written for her husband, violinist
Joseph Zwilich. He died in 1979, after which point Taaffe Zwilich refocused her
compositional efforts on "communicating more directly with performers and
listeners," softening her somewhat harsh, jagged style.
Her Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1) was premiered by the American
Symphony Orchestra in 1982, and it won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, after which
point her popularity and income from commissions ensured that she could devote
herself to composing full-time. From 1995-99 she was the first occupant of
the Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall; while there, she created the "Making
Music" concert series, which focuses on performances and lectures by living
composers, a series which is still in existence.
She has received a number of other honors, including the Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the
Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and four Grammy nominations.
She has been named to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1999 she was designated Musical America’s
Composer of the Year. She is currently a professor at Florida State University,
and has served for many years on the Advisory Panel of the BMI Foundation, Inc.
To date she has received five honorary doctorates.
Name: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Born: 30 April 1939 Miami, Florida
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (born April 30, 1939, in Miami, Florida) 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
matured to a post-modernist, neo-romantic style. She has been called "one of
America’s most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers."
Zwilich began her studies as a violinist, earning a B.M. from Florida State
University in 1960. She moved to New York to play with the American Symphony
Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. She later enrolled at Juilliard, eventually (in
1975) becoming the first woman to earn the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in
composition. Her teachers included John Boda, Elliott Carter, and Roger
Sessions. She first came to prominence when Pierre Boulez programmed her
Symposium for Orchestra with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra in 1975.
Some of her work during this period was written for her husband, violinist
Joseph Zwilich. He died in 1979, after which point Taaffe Zwilich refocused her
compositional efforts on "communicating more directly with performers and
listeners," softening her somewhat harsh, jagged style.
Her Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1) was premiered by the American
Symphony Orchestra in 1982, and it won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, after which
point her popularity and income from commissions ensured that she could devote
herself to composing full-time. From 1995-99 she was the first occupant of
the Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall; while there, she created the "Making
Music" concert series, which focuses on performances and lectures by living
composers, a series which is still in existence.
She has received a number of other honors, including the Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the
Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and four Grammy nominations.
She has been named to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1999 she was designated Musical America’s
Composer of the Year. She is currently a professor at Florida State University,
and has served for many years on the Advisory Panel of the BMI Foundation, Inc.
To date she has received five honorary doctorates.