| 1 | Name: | Dr. Jennifer Higdon | |
| Year Elected: | 2019 | ||
| Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
| Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1962 | ||
Jennifer Higdon was born on New Year’s Eve, 1962. She didn’t start playing an instrument until she taught herself to play the flute at the age of 15 and began formal studies at 18 when she entered college. Despite this late start, the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Grammy winner has become a major figure in Classical music, and is one of the few individuals in the U.S. who makes her living from commissions. Over the past two decades, Higdon has successfully broken the glass ceiling of Classical music, a musical form that has historically focused on the music of men, and even more restrictively, music from the 18th and 19th centuries. Higdon averages 200 performances a year of her works, in many genres within classical music: from opera to chamber, symphonic to band, solo works to concerti. She has even written works in forms not tackled before: a bluegrass/classical hybrid concerto, a concerto for the entire low brass section of the orchestra, and one that features 6 soloists. After receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto, Higdon also won a Grammy for her Percussion Concerto...a singular feat which no other classical composer has ever managed: two of the biggest major awards for two different pieces in one year. Additionally, she has been awarded the prestigious Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University, the Guggenheim Fellowship, two awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation Fellowship, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, an Independence Foundation Grant, funding from the NEA, and ASCAP Awards. A winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition’s American Composers Invitational, her Secret & Glass Gardens was performed by the semi-finalists. Her first opera, Cold Mountain, sold out its premiere run in Santa Fe, as well as in North Carolina, and Philadelphia (becoming the third highest selling opera in Opera Philadelphia’s history). Cold Mountain won the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere in 2016; the first American opera to do so in the award’s history. Her music has been hailed by Fanfare Magazine as having "the distinction of being at once complex, sophisticated but readily accessible emotionally," with the Times of London citing it as "...traditionally rooted, yet imbued with integrity and freshness." The Chicago Sun Times recently cited her music as "both modern and timeless, complex and sophisticated, and immensely engaging in a way that both charms and galvanizes an audience craving something new and full of urgency, yet not distancing." John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune called her writing, "beautiful, accessible, inventive, and impeccably crafted." Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well such groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and the President’s Own Marine Band. She has also written works for such renowned artists as baritone Thomas Hampson; pianists Yuja Wang and Gary Graffman; and violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Jennifer Koh, and Hilary Hahn. The demand for her music is such that there is a waiting list of soloists, orchestras and chamber groups who want to commission new works. Higdon has been a featured composer at many festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Vail, Norfolk, Grand Teton, and Cabrillo. She has served as Composer-in-Residence with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony. She was honored to serve as one of the Creative Directors of the Boundless Series for the Cincinnati Symphony. Higdon was honored to serve as the Barr Laureate Scholar at the University of Missouri Kansas City and, as winner of the Eddie Medora King Award, completed a residency at the University of Texas Austin. Her orchestral work, blue cathedral, is one of the most performed contemporary works in the orchestral repertoire, and is widely considered the first work in the 21st century to have become part of the standard repertoire. Higdon’s works have been recorded on more than 70 CDs. Her Percussion Concerto won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2010 and her Viola Concerto won in 2018. Her work, All Things Majestic, written for the Grand Teton Music Festival, is part of that national park’s visitor center experience. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from Bowling Green State University, an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Higdon has been awarded honorary doctorates from the Hartt School and Bowling Green State University. Dr. Higdon currently holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press. | |||