Joseph Schwantner was born in Chicago and received his musical and academic training at the Chicago Conservatory and Northwestern University, completing a doctorate in 1968. He previously served on the faculties of the School of Music at Yale University, the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In May 2002 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Schwantner was composer-in-residence with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra as part of the Meet The Composer/orchestra Residencies Program funded by the Exxon Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been the subject of a television documentary entitled, Soundings, produced by WGBH in Boston for national broadcast. His work, Magabunda “four poems of Agueda Pizarro,” recorded on Nonesuch Records by the Saint Louis Symphony, was nominated for a 1985 Grammy Award in the category, Best New Classical Composition and his A Sudden Rainbow, also recorded on Nonesuch by the Saint Louis Symphony, received a 1987 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Composition. World-wide performances of Schwantner’s music have occurred at major music festivals including: the Holland, Ravinia, Adelaide, Bydgoszcz, Bracknell and TideWater Music Festivals, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the 1978 ISCM World Music Days held in Helsinki, the 1981 World Music Days in Brussels and the Horizons 83 Festival of Contemporary Music sponsored by the New York Philharmonic Festival, the First New York International Festival of the Arts in 1988, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and was composer-in-residence at the 1992 Cabrillo Music Festival and the 1993 Sonoklect New Music Festival.
Schwantner’s commissions include those from the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, International Horn Society, Dallas Symphony, Pacific-Northwest Ballet, the Howard Hanson Memorial Institute, the Barlow Endowment, First New York International Festival of the Arts, San Diego Symphony, Fromm Music Foundation, Naumburg Foundation, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Composers Concerts Inc., American Heritage Foundation, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Canton Symphony, Solisti New York Chamber Orchestra and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. World-wide orchestral performances by the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Orchestra de Liege, NHK Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Radio Chamber Orchestra of the Netherlands, Orchestra de Paris, Winnipeg Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Nuremberg Philharmonic, Utrecht Radio Orchestra and the Orchestra de Liege. Performances by other orchestras include the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Utah Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Fortworth Symphony, California Symphony, New Orleans Philharmonic, American Composer’s Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Portland Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Florida Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Long Island Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Canton Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Flint Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Spokane Symphony Savannah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Saint Joseph Symphony, Gulf-Coast Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Albany Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Louisana Philharmonic, Syracuse
Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Colorado Springs Symphony, Victoria Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Tuscalossa Symphony, New York City Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, American-Soviet Youth Orchestra, and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic.
Performances by chamber ensembles and chamber orchestras include the London Sinfonietta, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Solisti New York Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble 21, Y Chamber Symphony, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Electra Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, 20th Century Consort, Boston Musica Viva, Golliard Chorale, Da Capo Chamber Players, Collage, Voices of Change, New York New Music Ensemble, Society for New Music, Jubal Trio, Contemporary Music Forum, Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, New and Unusual Music Series, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, New Performance Group, New Music Group, Virtuosi Della Rosa, Summit Brass, Thamyris Ensemble, Music Here and Now Series, New Band, New Music Group, Music of Our Time, Array Ensemble, Orchestra 2001, as well as performances by many university-based orchestras and ensembles in the United States and Europe.His works have been conducted by Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Gunther Herbig, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, David Zinman, James DePriest, Marin Alsop, Hugh Wolff, JoAnn Falletta, Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Lepard, Gunther Schuller, Mark Elder, John Williams, Lukas Foss, Joseph Silverstein, Victoria Bond, Chrstopher Wilkins, Stephen Gunzenhauser, Catherine Comet, James Freeman, Richard Pittman, Christopher Keene, and Gerhardt Zimmermann among others.
Artists that have performed his music include Evelyn Glennie, Christopher Lamb, Emanuel Ax, Lucy Shelton, Dawn Upshaw, Pinchas Zukerman, Ursula Oppens, Sharon Isbin, Linda Hohenfeld, William Warfield, Raymond Bazemore, Jane Manning, Coretta Scott King, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, actors James Earl Jones, Danny Glover, Robert Guillaume, Yolanda King, Alfre Woodard, and Ed Bradley.
His orchestral work, Aftertones of Inifinity received the Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Other awards include: an honorary doctorate from Baldwin Wallace College, the Franklin & Marshall College 2000 Mueller Fellow Residency, The Alfred I. DuPont Award for Outstanding Composers and Conductors- 1995, First Prize-Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards- 1981, for Music of Amber; Third Prize-Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards-1986 for, A Sudden Rainbow; Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship-1978; Consortium Commissioning Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts-1982, 1985; Composers Fellowship Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts-1974, 1977, 1979 and 1988; Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation Grant-1978; ISCM Composers Competition-1978 and 1980; New York State CAPS Grants-1975 and 1977; Fairchild Award-1985; the first recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters-1970; the Bearns Prize-1967; and the BMI Student Composers Awards-1965, 1966, and 1968. Schwantner’s recent work, September Canticle (In Memoriam) for organ, brass, percussion and strings, was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and premiered on February 21, 2002 in Meyerson Hall in Dallas under the direction of conductor Jesus Lopez-Cobos and organist, James Diaz. Schwantner’s music is published by Helicon Music Corporation and the CF Peters Corporation and is recorded on Koch International Classics, EMI/Virgin Records, New World Records, Klavier Records, Nonesuch, Mercury, CRI, GM Recordings, Delos, Laurel, Crest, the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings and Sony Classical CD.
Published by Helicon Music Corporation
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