Donald (James) Martino

Composer, born in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA. After studies at Princeton and in Italy, he taught at a number of institutions including Princeton and Harvard universities (from 1983). A leading exponent of serial compositional technique, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for his chamber work Notturno.

Donald Martino (May 16, 1931–December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Most of his mature works (including pseudo-tonal works such as Paradiso Choruses and Seven Pious Pieces were composed using the twelve-tone method;

The pianist Easley Blackwood commissioned Martino's sontata Pianississimo, explicitly requesting that it be one of the most difficult pieces ever written. (Blackwood declined to perform it.)

Martino, who taught at Yale University, the New England Conservatory of Music, Brandeis University, and Harvard University, won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1974 for his beautiful chamber work Notturno.