Artist Biographies: Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon was recently named a 1999 Pew Fellow in the Arts, and was appointed composer-in-residence in the American Composers Forum's Continental Harmony Project. Other awards have come from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the International League of Women Composers, Composers Inc. (the Lee Ettelson Prize), the University of Delaware New Music Competition, the Louisville Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony's Young Composer's Competition, NACUSA, and ASCAP. In addition, she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has served as composer-in-residence with the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Summit Institute, the Walden School, and currently with the Prism Saxophone Quartet and the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Her work, Shine, was named Best Contemporary Piece of 1996 by USA Today in their year-end classical picks. This marks her first visit to Cabrillo Music Festival.

Upcoming commissions include works for The Philadelphia Orchestra (one of their Centennial commissions), the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, eighth blackbird, the Verdehr Trio, the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, and the American Guild of Organists. Recent commissions come from groups that are as diverse as the Oregon Symphony, the Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Women's Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Singers, Gary Graffman and the Lark String Quartet, The Network for New Music, The National Flute Association, the DaVinci String Quartet, the Brannen Flute Company, ZAWA! and flutist Carol Wincenc.

Higdon's works have been performed extensively around the country, including performances at the White House, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall, and by such performers as Carol Wincenc, Jeffrey Khaner, Marc-Andre Hamelin, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, The Pacifica String Quartet, The Prism Sax Quartet, Synchronia, Earplay, the American Composers Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, and the Knoxville Symphony.

Her works have been recorded on the CRI, Crystal, Centaur, Edition de la Rue Margot, I Virtuosi Records, and the Flute Choir label. Deep In The Night was released in Fall of 2000 on a recording by the New York Concert Singers, Judith Clurman conducting, on the New World label. My True Love's Hair, Imagine, A Quiet Moment, Voices, wissahickon poeTrees, and rapid.fire were released on separate discs in 2001. Autumn Reflection was recently recorded by Philadelphia Orchestra principal flutist Jeffrey Khaner for future release. As a flutist, she is recorded on the Access and I Virtuosi labels, and as a conductor on CRI.

Higdon holds a Ph.D. and a Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania in composition, a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from Bowling Green State University, and an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teachers have included George Crumb, David Loeb, James Primosch, Jay Reise, Ned Rorem and Marilyn Shrude, (composition), Judith Bentley and Jan Vinci (flute), and Robert Spano (conducting).

Higdon is currently on the faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music. She formerly served as conductor of the University of Pennsylvania orchestra and wind ensemble, and has served as Visiting Assistant Professor in music composition at Bard College. She is published by Lawdon Press.