Gunther Schuller, '43
Composer, Conductor, Writer, Publisher
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Composer, Conductor, Writer, Publisher
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Schuller has written more than 160 original compositions in virtually every musical genre, including commissions from the Baltimore Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, National Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic. Recent premieres include Encounters by the New England Conservatory (October 2003), String Quartet No. 4 by the Juilliard String Quartet (September 2002), Concerto da Camera No. 2 by Orchestra 2001 (April 2002), Quodlibet by the Rockport Music Festival (June 2001), Saxophone Sonata by Kenneth Radnofsky in New York City (December 1999), as well as his 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning work Of Reminiscences and Reflections for the Louisville Orchestra; An Arc Ascending for the American Symphony Orchestra League and the Cincinnati Symphony; and The Past is in the Present, also for the Cincinnati Symphony.
Above quoted on 12/29/05 from a biographical note published by G.Schirmer/AMP : Gunther Schuller (updated 20 September 2004)Born in New York in 1925, his father, Arthur Schuller, was a violinist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, remaining there for 38 years. Gunther himself took up the flute and, after starting school in Germany, he returned to sing as a boy-soprano in the St Thomas' Church School choir - where it was discovered that he could sight-read music 'like a whiz'. His voice eventually broke, and he went to Jamaica High School. Now some new outlet for his musical urges was necessary. Advised by his father to avoid the violin (violinists were two-a-penny at that time), he started lessons on the French horn. He was then 14. Schuller the horn player left school at 16 to play in the Ballet Theatre orchestra, at $125 a week. A year later, he joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and soon Schuller the 19-year-old composer made his debut as soloist in his own Horn Concerto, with Sir Eugene Goossens conducting. From 1945 until 1959 he played with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and his work during this period began to assume the breadth and scope which we now associate with him. He left the Met in 1959 to devote himself to composition.
Above quoted on 12/29/05 from a biographical note by Meirion Bowen: MEIRION BOWEN - Articles & Publications - Gunter Schuller
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