Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Composer
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“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.” -Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (8th edition)
At a time when the musical offerings of the world are more varied than ever before, few composers have emerged with the unique personality of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Her music is widely known because it is performed, recorded, broadcast, and – above all – listened to and liked by all sorts of audiences the world over.
A prolific composer in virtually all media, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s works have been performed by most of the leading American orchestras and by major ensembles abroad. Her works include five symphonies, a string of concertos commissioned and performed over the past two decades by the nation’s top orchestras, and a wealth of chamber music.
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), the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four Grammy nominations, the Alfred I. Dupont Award, Miami Performing Arts Center Award, the Medaglia d’oro in the G.B. Viotti Competition, and the NPR and WNYC Gotham Award for her contributions to the musical life of New York City. Among other distinctions, Ms. Zwilich has been elected to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, she was named to the first Composer’s Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America’s Composer of the Year for 1999. Ms. Zwilich, who holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School, currently holds the Krafft Distinguished Professorship at Florida State University.
- See more Zwilich news here: www.zwilich.com/latest-news
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Turns 85 on April 30, 2024, BMOP Releases Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 5 – Press release
- Read coverage of the National Recording Registry induction in The Washington Post, NPR, and PBS Newshour
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra Recording Inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress April 12, 2023; World Premiere of Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra May 6-8, 2023 – Press release
- ZKM Karlsruhe feature and interview of Ellen as part of “Femmes4Music,” Dec. 4, 2022
- “A new cello concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b.1939) was always going to be big news,” says The Strad magazine in its December 2022 review of the Delos recording of Ellen’s works, praising “this sassy, jazzy work in which Zwilich’s hallmark propulsive energy in passages of incisively bowed syncopated semiquavers, alternates with moments of profound calm.” The review continues, “The tightly worked Prologue and Variations (1983) shows a particular affinity for the string-orchestra medium, and the Romance, for the composer’s own instrument, is beautifully characterised by concertmaster Joseph Edelberg.” Read the review in The Strad.
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich – Cello Concerto & Other Works, Featuring Cellist Zuill Bailey, a New Delos Release – Press release
- Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Portrait Concert” on April 8, 2022, garners rave reviews from the Boston Globe, Boston Classical Review, and Boston Musical Intelligencer.
- The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas/Fort Worth NBC affiliate NBCDFW previewed the October 7 premiere of Zwilich’s Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the Dallas Symphony, Denyce Graves, and Jeffrey Biegel.
- Concerto for Cello & Orchestra is the featured work in The Violin Channel’s “New Music Tuesday,” April 20, 2021
- Contemporary Voices CD Wins 2021 Grammy Award – Press release
- “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Shines On Brightly” – San Francisco Classical Voice interview, Feb. 9, 2021
Click here for past news about Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Top Photo by Florida State University Photo Lab
Headshot Photos by Bill Keefrey
