John Corigliano

John Corigliano (born February 16, 1938, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American composer who drew from eclectic influences to create music that was generally tonal, accessible, and often highly expressive. Corigliano, who composed works for orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber groups, as well as operas, choral works, and film scores, won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra.

Corigliano’s father was concertmaster (1943–66) of the New York Philharmonic, and his mother was a piano teacher. In his teens he began analyzing the scores of compositions while listening to recordings, and he demonstrated an ability to transpose and harmonize. Corigliano graduated (1959) from Columbia University in New York City and also studied at the Manhattan School of Music. He then worked for radio stations, assisted composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein in the production of his Young People’s Concerts, produced recordings, and did orchestrations for pop albums.

In 1964 Corigliano’s first major work, Sonata for Violin and Piano, won the chamber music competition at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. It received its premiere two years later at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Among his other compositions are Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1977); Pied Piper Fantasy (1982), a concerto commissioned by flutist James Galway; Symphony No. 1, completed while Corigliano was composer in residence (1987–90) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the opera The Ghosts of Versailles, which was commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and premiered there in 1991; String Quartet (1995); A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (1999); and Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000). Circus Maximus, a symphony for three wind bands, had its premiere at the University of Texas in 2005. The Red Violin, his third film score, won an Academy Award in 2000; a piece based in part on the score, The Red Violin Concerto, was recorded by violinist Joshua Bell and the Baltimore Sympony Orchestra in 2007.

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Corigliano’s later works included STOMP, a piece for solo violin that he wrote for the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition; One Sweet Morning (2011), jointly commissioned by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks; and Rhymes for the Irreverent and no comet ever scratched the sky (both 2017), scores for baritone and piano. He also set to music And the People Stayed Home (2020), writer Kitty O’Meara’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Corigliano taught at institutions in New York City, including the Juilliard School (from 1991). In 1991 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.