Jennifer Higdon born in Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962 "The American composer Jennifer Higdon... has an authentic creative voice of her own. Higdon's work is striking... The music seems to work more in terms of variety of richly imagined motions... from a fiercely assertive opening the music plunges, soars, hovers, and finally glides through a wondrous trajectory to its blissful ending." -- Critic Cecil Isaac, The Bellinghan Herald She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the International League of Women Composers, Composers Inc. (the Lee Ettelson Prize), the University of Delaware New Music Competition, the Louisville Orchestra New Music Search, the Cincinnati Symphony's Young Composer's Competition, NACUSA, and ASCAP. In addition she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Music From Angel Fire Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Walden School, the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, and the Prism Saxophone Quartet. Most recently she was named Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Singers. Her work, Shine, was named Best Contemporary Piece of 1996 by USA Today in their year-end classical picks. Upcoming commissions include works for the Cypress String Quartet, the Ying Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Gilmore Piano Festival, the Philadelphia Singers, the Vail Music Festival, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and National Symphony. Recent commissions come from groups that are as diverse as the The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Oregon Symphony, The Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Women's Philharmonic, St. Lukes' Chamber Ensemble, pianist Gary Graffman and the Lark String Quartet, the Verdehr Trio, The American Guild of Organists, The Network for New Music, The National Flute Association, the DaVinci String Quartet, ZAWA! and flutist Carol Wincenc. Ms. Higdon's works have been performed extensively around the country, including performances at the White House, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall, and by such performers as Carol Wincenc, Jeffrey Khaner, Marc-Andre Hamelin, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, The Pacifica String Quartet, The Prism Sax Quartet, Synchronia, Earplay, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, and the Knoxville Symphony Her works have been recorded on two dozen CDs. During 2003, Telarc will release her work blue cathedral on a recording with the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Spano, conducting. The year will also see the release of half a dozen other works on various labels. As a flutist, she is recorded on the Access and I Virtuosi labels and as a conductor on CRI. She holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.M. in flute performance from Bowling Green State University, and an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teachers have included George Crumb, Wallace DePue, James Primosch, Jay Reise, Ned Rorem, and Marilyn Shrude (composition), Judith Bentley and Jan Vinci (flute), and Robert Spano (conducting). Ms. Higdon is currently on the composition faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She formerly served as conductor of the University of Pennsylvania orchestra and wind ensemble and has served as Visiting Assistant Professor in music composition at Bard College. She is published by Lawdon Press. http://jenniferhigdon.com/

- the new voice in contemporary music -

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