Download Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer Biography

Youth Ballet Commission
In collaboration with The Tallahassee Ballet
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer
Biography
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, is widely considered to be one of America's leading
composers. She studied at the Florida State University and the Juilliard School,
where her major teachers were Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter. She also
studied violin with Richard Burgin and Ivan Galamian and was a member of the
American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.
Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983
Pulitzer Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award). She
was elected to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame and the American Academy of
Arts and Letters and, in 1995, was named to the first Composer's Chair in the
history of Carnegie Hall. Musical America designated her the 1999 Composer of
the Year. A prolific composer in all media except opera, Zwilich has produced
four symphonies and other orchestral essays, numerous concertos for a wide
variety of solo instruments, and a sizable canon of chamber and recital pieces.
Her works are commissioned and played regularly by the leading orchestras and
ensembles throughout the world.
Many of her works have been issued on recordings, and Baker's Biographical
Dictionary of Musicians (8th edition) states: "There are not many composers in
the modern world who possess the lucky combination of writing music of
substance and at the same time exercising an immediate appeal to mixed
audiences. Zwilich offers this happy combination of purely technical excellence
and a distinct power of communication."