Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. After some years working in television and radio, he taught in New York and was composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony (198790). His music has been described as polished, popularistic avant-gardism. His Symphony No 1 received a Grammy award in 1992.
John Corigliano (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of classical music.
Most of Corigliano's work has been for full symphony orchestra.
He has written three symphonies (orchestra, string orchestra, and wind band respectively), concertos for clarinet, flute, violin, oboe, and piano, film scores, various chamber works (including a string quartet) and an opera, The Ghosts of Versailles. Corigliano composed dramatic scores for three motion pictures: Altered States (1980) (Oscar-nominated), Revolution (1985) (Anthony Asquith Award winner) and The Red Violin (1999) (won an Academy Award). Revolution is one of Corigliano's more impressive but less well-known creations, as it was never released as a recording (the composer did however extract some of the score for use in his "Symphony #1").
Corigliano comes from a musical family. Before achieving success as composer, Corigliano worked as assistant to the director on Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts and as a session producer for classical artists such as Andre Watts.
In 1970 Corigliano teamed up with David Hess to create The Naked Carmen. In a recent communication with David Hess, Hess acknowledged that The Naked Carmen was originally conceived by John Corigliano and himself as a way to update the most popular opera of our time (referring to Bizet's Carmen). Mercury Records wanted the Classical (music) and Popular (music) divisions to work together and after a meeting with Joe Bott, Scott Mampe and Bob Reno it was decided to proceed with the project.
In 1996, The Corigliano Quartet was founded, taking John Corigliano's name as a tribute to the composer.
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