Christopher Rouse is one of America's most prominent composers of orchestral music. Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Trombone Concerto, Rouse has created a body of work perhaps unequalled in its emotional intensity. The New York Times has called it "some of the most anguished, most memorable music around." Stephen Wigler of The Baltimore Sun has written: "When the music history of the late 20th century is written, I suspect the explosive and passionate music of Rouse will loom large."
Born in Baltimore in 1949, Rouse developed an early interest in both classical and popular music. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and Cornell University, numbering among his principal teachers George Crumb and Karel Husa. Rouse has maintained a steady interest in popular music: at the Eastman School of Music, where he taught composition for two decades, he also taught a course in the history of rock. He now teaches composition at The Juilliard School.
While the Rouse catalog includes a number of acclaimed chamber and ensemble works, the composer is best known for his mastery of orchestral writing. His music has been played by nearly every major orchestra in the U.S., and numerous ensembles overseas, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies, and the Austrian Radio Orchestra. The first six months of 1997 alone brought performances in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the U.K. Conductors Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Slatkin, and David Zinman have been consistent champions of his work.
Rouse's Symphony No.1 (1986), commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, was rated by the Boston Globe as "probably the most completely successful symphonic composition yet written by an American composer of his rising generation." Symphony No.2 (1994), commissioned by Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony, has found equal success, earning praise in both its premiere and in European tour performances. Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony have recorded Symphony No.2 for Telarc, on an all-Rouse disc that also features the Celtic-inspired Flute Concerto (with Carol Wincenc as soloist) and Phaethon, one of several Rouse scores inspired by mythology. The disc earned a 'Diapason d'Or' award from the French magazine Diapason. RCA has also issued a CD devoted to Rouse's music, featuring Marin Alsop leading the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Gorgon, Iscariot, and Trombone Concerto, with New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi as soloist.
Over the past decade Rouse has gained particular notice for his concertos. Among these are Violin Concerto (1991), commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival for Cho-Liang Lin, and Violoncello Concerto, given its premiere in Spring 1994 by Yo-Yo Ma, with David Zinman leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ma has recorded the Violoncello Concerto for Sony Classics, accompanied by David Zinman and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Der gerettete Alberich, a "fantasy for percussion and orchestra on themes of Wagner," was commissioned for soloist Evelyn Glennie by a consortium of four leading orchestras: The Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Christoph von Dohnányi conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in the work's debut in January 1998; the Cleveland Plain Dealer described Rouse's transformation of Wagner's narrative as "a fresh burst of creative imagination....[a] brilliant melding of romantic and contemporary idioms."
Rouse's extraordinary series of works for soloist and orchestra continues. January 1999 brought the premiere of Kabir Padavali, an orchestral song cycle commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra for soprano Dawn Upshaw, with texts by the 15th-century Indian mystic poet Kabir. David Zinman, a staunch advocate of Rouse's music, conducted the premiere. Seeing, a piano concerto for Emmanuel Ax and the New York Philharmonic, made its debut in May 1999 under Leonard Slatkin, another champion of Rouse's work. A meditation on madness, Seeing was inspired by the tragic stories of Robert Schumann and Skip Spence, a rock guitarist/songwriter who from the late 1960s until his death in 1999 suffered from schizophrenia.
Rouse's Concert de Gaudí, a guitar concerto for soloist Sharon Isbin, was commissioned jointly by the NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg) and the Dallas Symphony. Concert de Gaudí drew inspiration from the exotic and fanciful designs of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Isbin’s 2001 recording of the work on the Teldec label earned the composer a Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition. Rapture (2000), which depicts “a state of spiritual bliss, religious or otherwise,” was commissioned and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. May 2001 brought the premiere of Rouse's Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for its principal clarinetist Larry Combs.
The composer is now at work on a full-length Requiem for baritone soloist, chorus, children’s chorus, and large orchestra, commissioned by Solo Dei Gloria.