Composition Matters

Jun 23 2006
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Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) maintains a full schedule of commissions, writing on average 6-12 works a year, and is now considered a major figure in contemporary American music.

Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and include The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The National Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Indianapolis Symphony, The Dallas Symphony, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, St. Lukes Chamber Ensemble, pianist Gary Graffman, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Ying Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Gilmore Piano Festival, and the Philadelphia Singers.

She has been honored with awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ASCAP. She is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Singers. Her orchestral work Shine was named Best Contemporary Piece of 1996 by USA Today in their year-end classical picks. In the summer of 2003, she was the first woman to be named a featured composer at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival.

Higdon enjoys more than a hundred performances a year of her works. Her orchestral work blue cathedral is one of the most performed contemporary orchestral works in the United States, receiving more than 50 performances in the '04 -'05 season alone. As of February 20, 2005, Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, has received 19 performances since its June 2002 premiere.

Her works have been recorded on over 2 dozen CDs. In spring of 2003 Telarc released blue cathedral with the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Spano, conducting, on a disc that made the Classical Billboard charts. Telarc has also recently released Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra/City Scape which was nominated for 4 Grammy Awards.

She holds degrees from Bowling Green State University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Curtis Institute of Music, where she is currently on the composition faculty.

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Where do we go from here?

An interesting trend that I’ve noticed lately is the smaller-budgeted orchestras taking more of a chance on radical programming. What I mean by this is creating programs that are all new music; many blanch at the idea. But contrary to what one would think, the times I’ve seen these types of programs, the concerts were a huge hit. Most recently, I had the honor of being on one of these programs with the North Carolina Symphony. All-American with 3 of Michael Torke’s color works, a bass concerto by Edgar Meyer, and my Concerto for Orchestra. 3 concerts, one of which sold out, and the other 2 almost completely full. Folks did not leave at intermission and many people returned after one night’s attendance to hear the concert again. Several in the audience came up to me and told me how nice it was to hear new music…something different! At first, I wasn’t sure I heard them correctly, but after it happened repeatedly, I realized that I wasn’t misunderstanding the comment. The next concert the NC Symphony put on was an all contemporary English concert. It was also popular.

This wasn’t my first all-contemporary concert of which I had been a part. Several years ago, the Eugene Symphony did Lutoslawski’s “Concerto for Orchestra” on the first half and my concerto on the 2nd half. No soloist involved, but lots of energetic and engaged playing by the musicians. And the crowd loved it (attendance was above normal as well).

I’m excited by some of the things that have come up here. I do believe that things must change inside and outside the orchestra in order for the orchestral world to survive (it’s the only art form that is considered “boring” by the majority of the population on this planet—(I take this from several recent surveys completed by orchestra audiences and from interviewing the culturally-aware-non-attenders). And having faith and moving forward to educate, share and trust will be a paramount step. It must be done.

As a composer, I promise to continue to try to write interesting, engaging, clearly-notated music, for all of the musicians out there who work so very hard at their jobs.

Thank you, Lisa, Chris, Roberto, Robert, Molly, Barbara, Christian, and Drew. I’ve learned a lot from you all…let us go out, educate and make music instead!

About the author

Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) maintains a full schedule of commissions, writing on average 6-12 works a year, and is now considered a major figure in contemporary American music.

Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and include The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The National Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Indianapolis Symphony, The Dallas Symphony, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, St. Lukes Chamber Ensemble, pianist Gary Graffman, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Ying Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Gilmore Piano Festival, and the Philadelphia Singers.

She has been honored with awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ASCAP. She is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Singers. Her orchestral work Shine was named Best Contemporary Piece of 1996 by USA Today in their year-end classical picks. In the summer of 2003, she was the first woman to be named a featured composer at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival.

Higdon enjoys more than a hundred performances a year of her works. Her orchestral work blue cathedral is one of the most performed contemporary orchestral works in the United States, receiving more than 50 performances in the '04 -'05 season alone. As of February 20, 2005, Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, has received 19 performances since its June 2002 premiere.

Her works have been recorded on over 2 dozen CDs. In spring of 2003 Telarc released blue cathedral with the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Spano, conducting, on a disc that made the Classical Billboard charts. Telarc has also recently released Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra/City Scape which was nominated for 4 Grammy Awards.

She holds degrees from Bowling Green State University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Curtis Institute of Music, where she is currently on the composition faculty.

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