Concertos by living composers
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-)
Offertorium
About the Composer: Sofia Gubaidulina is a Russian pianist and composer currently residing in Germany. She began her musical studies at the Kazan Conservatory and then the Moscow Conservatory. She finally graduated in 1961 and became a member of the Composer’s Union. She then began her career as a freelance composer and primarily made a living composing film scores for the next thirty years. Many of Gubaidulina’s compositions surround her fascination with religion, which sometimes created conflict with the Soviet authorities. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Gubaidulina moved to a small village in Germany and she still resides there to this day.
Year Composed: 1980 (edited afterward)
Premiere: Gidon Kremer with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leif Segerstam on May 30th, 1981
Inspiration: The title of the concerto stems from its references to Bach’s The Musical Offering, BWV 1079, as well as the religious undertones Gubaidulina integrated into the work.
Length: 38 min
Copyright Status: Under the protection of Boosey & Hawkes
In Tempus Praesens
Year Composed: 2007
Commission: Paul Sacher Foundation
Premiere: Anne-Sophie Mutter ecorded the piece with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev in 2008
Length: 32 min
Copyright Status: Under the protection of Boosey & Hawkes
Dialogue: I and You
Year Composed: 2018
Commission: Paul Sacher Foundation
Premiere: Vadim Repin premiered the piece with Adres Mustonen and the Novosibisk Philharmonic Orchestra on April 2nd, 2018 at the Arnold Kats State Concert Hall in Novosibirsk.
Length: 20 min
Copyright Status: Under the protection of Boosey & Hawkes
Violin Concerto
Alicia Terzian (1934-)
About the Composer: Alicia Terzian is an Argentinian conductor, musicologist, and composer. She studied composition with Alberto Ginastera at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires. She has composed over eighty works over the course of her career, many of which were commissioned. Terzian employs an incredibly imaginative compositional language that includes microtonality, polytonality, modality, tone clusters, and the use of electronics. As a musicologist, Terzian specializes in Latin music and Armenian sacred music.
Year Composed: 1954-1955
Special Fact: This piece was one of Terzian's first and she wrote it while studying with Alberto Ginastera
Length: 32 min
Movements: Allegro - "Daughter, your mother has died" - Andante-Allegro - Allegro vivace
Copyright Status: Unpublished
Violin Concerto
Joan Tower (1938-)
About the Composer: Joan Tower is one of the most prominent American composers alive today. She spent her early childhood in South Africa surrounded by indigenous percussion techniques and rhythms, which would influence her future compositional style. She went on to study composition at Bennington College and Columbia University. She then became a founding member and pianist of the Da Capo Chamber Players and won a Naumburg Award with the group in 1973. Along with performing and composing, Tower has been a faculty member at Bard College since 1972.
Year Composed: 1991
Commission: Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University and the Snowbird Institute in Utah, with a grant from the Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund
Dedicatee: Elmar Oliveira
Inspiration: Oliveira's relationship with his brother
Premiere: Oliveira premiered the piece on April 24, 1992, with the Utah Symphony under the direction of Joseph Silverstein
Copyright Status: Published by Hal Leonard
Violin Concerto
Ann Carr-Boyd (1938-)
About the Composer: Anne Carr-Boyd is an Australian composer, teacher, author, visual artist, and broadcaster. Her compositional education began in London, where she studied with Peter Racine Fricker and Alexander Goehr on scholarship. She settled in Sydney, Australia in 1967 and branched out into broadcasting. In this role, Carr-Boyd played a major role in the creation of several series about Australian music and music history. Her involvement in the visual mediums of broadcast and painting has informed her compositional style, which seeks to conjure both imagery and emotionality in the listener.
Year Composed: 2010
Commission: Rev. Dr. Arthur Bridge on behalf of Ars Musica Australis
Dedicatee: Alexandra Loukianova
Premiere: Alexandra Loukianova premiered the work in July of 2010 with the Wollongong Symphony Orchestra
Length: 21 min
Movements: Con espressione - Andantino e con molto espressione - Vivace
Copyright Status: Protected by the Australian Music Centre
Ellen Taafe Zwilich (1939-)
About the Composer: Ellen Taafe Zwilich is one of the most celebrated American composers alive today. She had her first brush with international attention in 1975 when Pierre Boulez conducted her Symposium for Orchestra at the Juilliard School in New York to great success. Her fame was compounded in 1983 when she became the first woman to ever win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Zwilich’s music is in high demand to this day and it is regularly performed by some of the most prestigious ensembles in existence.
Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
Year Published: 1993
Commission: McKim Fund in the Library of Congress
Length: 7 min
Copyright Status: Published by Merion Music Inc.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Year Published: 1997
Commission: Carnegie Hall
Dedicatee: Pamela Frank
Inspiration: Zwilich took inspiration for the piece from the essence of the violin as a solo instrument, believing that it should guide the nature of the concerto
Length: 26 min
Copyright Status: Published by Merion Music Inc.
Partita for Violin and String Orchestra
Year Published: 2000
Commission: Louise Behrend for the 30th anniversary of the School for Strings in New York
Premiere: Carnegie Hall on June 16, 2001, at which time Colin Jacobsen performed with the School for Strings Alumni Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Aibel
Length: 18 min
Movements: Introduction and Allegro - Serenade - Tango - Meditation - Finale
Copyright Status: Published by Merion Music Inc.
Commedia dell'Arte
Year Published: 2012
Premiere: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra on May 12th, 2012
Length: 17 min
Movements: Harlequin - Columbine - Captain - Cadenza and Finale
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser Co.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Margaret Brouwer (1940-)
About the Composer: Margaret Brouwer is an American violinist and composer. She began her professional career as a violinist and played for both the Fort Wayne Symphony and Dallas Symphony, but returned to school in order to study composition at Indiana University. She then went on to become Head of Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music and create compositions for several major artists and ensembles. The Music Division of the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center established a Margaret Brouwer Collection in 2015 in order to make her scores, manuscripts, papers, and recordings available for the public to research.
Year Composed: 2009
Commission: CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, conductor James Gaffigan, Arts and Culture as Economic Development Program, Cuyahoga County of Ohio, The Honorables Jimmy Dinora, Timothy F. Hagan, Peter Lawson Jones
Premiere: March 28th, 2007 with violinist Michi Wiancko and the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, conducted by James Gaffigan
Length: 24 min
Instrumentation: 1+picc.1.2.2 / 2.2.1.0 / perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Brouwer New Music Publishing
Anne Lauber (1943-)
Violin Concerto No. 1
About the Composer: Anne Lauber is a Swiss-born Canadian teacher, conductor, and composer. She studied with several major composers during her early life in Europe, the most prominent of these being Darius Milhaud. She immigrated to Canada in 1967 and continued her studies at the University of Montreal. She is known for her mastery of myriad compositional techniques and her ability to creatively apply said techniques in service of the musical idea she seeks to communicate in any given piece.
Year Published:1988
Commission: Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Quebec
Premiere: 1991 by the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières
Length: 22 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.2.0 / timp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Unpublished but printed by the Canadian Music Centre
Violin Concerto No. 2
Year Published:2009
Commission: Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Quebec
Premiere: October 31st, 2009 with violinist Natalia Kononova and the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières under the direction of Pierre Simard
Length: 20 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.2.0 / timp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Unpublished but printed by the Canadian Music Centre
Concerto (Rhapsody) for Violin and Orchestra
Gabriela Moyseowicz (1944-)
About the Composer: Gabriela Moyseowicz is a Polish composer who began her musical career at the age of thirteen, at which time she composed a concerto for two pianos that was premiered by the Krakow Conservatory orchestra. Her compositional style draws deeply from the practices of the Romantic period in both tonality and emotionality. Moyseowicz’s sensibilities conflicted with the fascination with aleatoricism and electronic music that gripped the Polish musical community in the mid-twentieth century and she grew increasingly ostracized. Despite this conflict, she continues to remain true to her artistic identity.
Year Composed: 1964
Length: 20 min
Copyright Status: Primton Thomas Hammer
Elizabeth Raum (1945-)
Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra
About the Composer: Elizabeth Raum is a Canadian oboist and composer. She established herself as an orchestral oboist in her early life and played with both the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Regina Symphony Orchestra. She returned to school to study composition at the University of Regina in the 1980s and quickly rose to prominence in her new field. She has been praised for her neo-romantic approach and idiomatic instrumental writing, which has resulted in frequent commissions from within Canada and abroad.
Year Composed: 1992
Commission: Canadian Council for the Arts and the Thunder Bay Symphony
Premiere: Krista Buckland and the Thunder Bay Symphony under the direction of Glenn Mossop
Length: 10 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.1.0 / timp+perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: Faces of Woman
Year Composed: 1993
Commission: Regina Symphony Orchestra
Dedicatee: Erika Raum (composer's daughter)
Premiere: Erika Raum premiered the piece with the Regina Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Conta on April 24th, 1993
Length: 30 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.1.0 / timp+perc / hp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Maya Badian (1945-)
About the Composer: Dr. Maya Badian is a Romanian-Canadian musicologist, author, and composer. She studied at the University of Music and Bucharest and the University of Montreal, then immigrated to Canada in 1987 and began teaching at the Royal Music Conservatory in Ottawa. Badian is the first Canadian composer to have published a book outlining her compositional style, Glimpses Into My Compositional Style and Techniques. Her artistic output, including manuscripts, documents, and recordings, are under the protection of the Library and Archives of Canada.
Year Composed: 1980
Premiere: June 16th, 1980 with violinist Varujan Cozighian and the Brasov Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ilarion Ionescu Galati
Length: 16 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.3.2 / 3.3.3.1 / sax/ timp+perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
American Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Gwyneth Walker (1947-)
About the Composer: Dr. Gwyneth Walker is a celebrated American composer who studied composition at Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She taught at the collegiate level until 1982, at which time she retired in order to focus solely on composing. Her compositions are structured around melodic gestures and textures with broadly diatonic harmonies. Her catalog contains over one hundred and thirty pieces.
Year Composed: 1995
Dedicatee: Susan Pickett
Length: 21 min
Copyright Status: Score published by composer
Alexina Louie (1949-)
Thunder Gate
About the Composer: Alexina Louie is a Canadian composer and pianist of Chinese descent, who is known for her integration of electronics in her compositions, as well as her fusion of Eastern and Western compositional techniques. She is known for her diverse catalog of compositions, spanning from opera and ballet to experimental electro-acoustic works. Louie has taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music, York University, and the University of Western Ontario.
Year Composed: 1990 (revised in 1996)
Commission: Montreal International Music Competition
Length: 10 min
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2.2.2 / 4.2.2.1 / timp+perc / hp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
Arc
Year Composed: 1992
Commission: Kelowna Music Festival
Length: 15 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.0.0 / perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
Eleanor Alberga (1949-)
Violin Concerto No. 1
About the Composer: Eleanor Alberga is a Jamaican-born British composer and pianist who began composing at the age of ten. Since then, she has amassed an eclectic catalog of works that includes solo instrumental works, symphonic works, and operas. Alberga is part of Double Exposure, a duo she created with her husband, violinist Thomas Bowes. Together they have founded the festival Arcadia, which they host in the English countryside. Alberga has received numerous awards for her music and was made an Order of the British Empire in 2021.
Year Composed: 2001
Commission: Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Premiere: Thomas Bowes, Alberga’s husband, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Joseph Swensen
Length: 33 min
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2.2.2+cont / 2.2.0.0 / timp+perc / pno / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Violin Concerto No. 2 'Narcissus'
Year Composed: 2019
Commission: Francis Hornak
Premiere: March 7th, 2020 in the Red Hall at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Poland. Thomas Bowes performed the piece alongside the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra under the direction of Joseph Swensen
Length: 20 min
Instrumentation: 1+picc.0.1+bcl.0 / 0.1.0.0 / timp+perc / pn / hp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Shulamit Ran (1949-)
Violin Concerto
About the Composer: Shulamit Ran is an Israeli composer and pianist currently residing in the United States. She began composing at the age of seven by setting Hebrew poems to music and shortly began studying composition with Alexander Boscovich and Paul Ben Haim, two prominent composers in Israel at the time. Her studies eventually brought her to the United States, where she studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg and composition with Norman Dello Joio at the Mannes College of Music. Ran is known for her dramatic compositional style that often emphasizes the virtuosity of the performers with complex rhythms and fluctuating pitch centers. This is all done in service of the expressive humanity Ran seeks at the center of every piece she composes.
Year Published: 2003
Commission: David Bowerman and Ittai Shapira
Premiere: 2003 at Carnegie Hall with Ittai Shapira as soloist with the
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, directed by Charles Hazelwood
Length: 20 min
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser
Yearning for Solo Violin and Strings with Cello Obligato
Year Published: 1995
Length: 8 min
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser
Elena Firsova (1950-)
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 14
About the Composer: Elena Firsova is a Russian composer who currently resides in Great Britain. She began her compositional career at the early age of twelve, but only began receiving formal training at the Moscow Conservatory a few years later, where she learned composition from Alexander Pirumov and theory from Yury Kholopov. Her work gained international attention in 1979 when a selection of her pieces were performed in Cologne, Paris and Venice. Firsova received her first international commission from the BBC in 1984 and eventually relocated to the United Kingdom in 1991. Firsova’s works are generally story-like in their structure and take influence from the poetry of Osip Mandelstam.
Year Published: 1976
Length: 11 min
Instrumentation: 2+picc.3.3.3 / 3.3.3.1 / timp+perc / hp / cel / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Sikorski
Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 29
Year Published: 1983
Premiere: November of 1987 at the Moscow Hall of Columns with violinist Grigori Fagin and the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra, directed by Mikhail Yurovsky
Length: 15 min
Instrumentation: 3+picc.3.3.3+cont / 3.4.3.1 / perc / cel / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Sikorski
Chamber Concerto for Violin and Strings
Year Published: 2017
Premiere: August 26th, 2021 with soloist Alissa Firsova with the Orchestra of the Stift International Music Festival
Length: 15 min
Copyright Status: Published by Sikorski
Violin Concerto No. 1
Nancy Galbraith (1951-)
About the Composer: Nancy Galbraith is an American composer, pianist, and organist who resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is head of the Composition Department at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, where she holds the Vira I. Heinz Professorship of Music endowed chair. Her compositions have received many performances over the course of her fifty-year career, and she is known for the complex textures and emotional depth she brings to her works.
Year Composed: 2016
Dedicatee: Alyssa Wang
Premiere: Wang performed the piece with conductor Daniel Nesta Curtis and the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble on February 8th, 2017 at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburg
Length: 18 min
Interesting Fact: The middle movement, titled Eggshell White as Night, was dedicated to Pastor George Mendis, who had passed away in October of 2016
Copyright Status: Published by Subito Music
Chen Yi (1953-)
Chinese Folk Dance Suite
About the Composer: Dr. Chen Yi is a Chinese violinist, pianist, composer, and educator who studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing before moving to New York to continue her education at Columbia University. Dr. Chen is currently the Lorena Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her compositional style features a blend of Chinese and Western traditions that yields a unique timbral and harmonic experience for those listening.
Year Composed: 2000
Premiere: The Women's Philharmonic with the violin soloist Terrie Baune, conducted by Apo Hsu, on March 10, 2001, at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater in San Francisco
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser
Spring in Dresden
Year Composed: 2005
Commission: Friends of Dresden Music Foundation, the New York Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Dresden
Dedicatee: Mira Wang in commemoration of the rebuilding of the Dresden Frauenkirche after it was destroyed during World War II
Premiere: Mira Wang and the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of Ivan Fischer, at the Dresden Semperoper in October of 2005
Inspiration: 'Happy Rain on a Spring Night'- a poem by Du Fu that was written during the Tang dynasty
Length: 20 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 4.2.3.1 / perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser
Chinese Rap
Year Composed: 2012
Commission: Kennesaw State University Symphony Orchestra
Premiere: Prof. Helen Kim and the KSUSO led by Prof. Michael Alexander at Bailey Center on February 17th, 2014
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Presser
The Lesser Gods
Cheryl Cooney (1953-)
About the Composer: Cheryl Cooney is a Canadian pianist and composer who has lived and worked throughout Europe and North America. She is an Associate Composer for the Canadian Music Centre and works tirelessly to promote new music both in Canada and abroad. She continues to work as both a concert pianist and composer.
Year Composed: 1993
Length: 14 min
Instrumentation: 3.2.3.2 / 4.3.3.1 / timp / pn / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Canadian Music Centre
Sylvie Bodorová (1954-)
Messaggio
About the Composer: Sylvie Bodorová is a Czech composer and pianist who spent her early years studying at the Bratislava Conservatory, Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, and the Prague Academy of the Performing Arts. She continued her education by completing several residencies across Europe, at which time she acquired an extensive knowledge of modern compositional techniques. She has since taught at several universities in Europe and North America. Bodorová’s works are celebrated for their structural simplicity and brilliant lyricism.
Year Published: 1989
Length: 16 min
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Concerto dei Fiori
Year Published: 1996
Length: 17 min
Instrumentation: solo violin and string orchestra
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Volando
Isabelle Panneton (1955-)
About the Composer: Isabelle Panneton is a Canadian composer who specializes primarily in chamber music and orchestral works. She has received several honors, including the Prix de musique de chambre from the Society for Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) in 1985 for her piece Surimpression. She has also been chosen to represent Canada at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers twice, once in 1984 for Voilage and again in 1999 for Volando for violin and small orchestra.
Year Published: 1999
Commission: Quebec Contemporary Music Society (SMCQ) with support from the Canada Council of the Arts
Premiere: December 9th, 1999 with violinist Julie-Anne Derome, the musicians of the SMCQ, and artistic director Walter Boudreau
Instrumentation: 1.1.1.1 / 1.1.1.0 / perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Protected by the Canadian Music Centre
Bastet the Sun Goddess
Marie Samuelsson (1956-)
About the Composer: Marie Samuelsson is a Swedish composer who studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and IRCAM in Paris. She is known for the use of electronics in her compositions, as well as her innovative concept of sound. She was inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2005.
Year Composed: 2004
Premiere: January 20th, 2005 with violinist Anna Lindal and the Norrköpings Symfoniorkester, directed by Mats Rondin
Inspiration: The concerto musically depicts the legend of the Egyptian goddess Bastet, who is tasked with slaying the snake Apep every night so that the sun may rise the next morning.
Length: 20 min
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 / 2.2.2.0 / perc / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Gehrmans Musikförlag
Sally Beamish (1956-)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
About the Composer: Sally Beamish is a British violist and composer. She began her career as an orchestral violist with the Raphael Ensemble, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the London Sinfonietta. She retired from her performance career in the 1990s and moved to Scotland in order to focus solely on composition. She has received several awards and appointments for her work and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 2020.
Year Published: 1994
Dedicatee: Anthony Marwood
Inspiration: "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque
Length: 28 min
Copyright Status: Unpublished but recorded
A Book of Seasons
Year Published: 1995
Commission: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Dedicatee: Beamish dedicated the work to her newborn daughter and intended for the piece to be an introduction to life
Premiere: Lyn Fletcher and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group led by conductor Stefan Asbury in 1996
Length: 17 min
Copyright Status: Edition Peters Limited
Elena Kats-Chernin (1957-)
Concertino
About the Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer and pianist who spent her early life in Uzbekistan. She received much of her early training in Uzbekistan until her family emigrated to Australia in 1975, at which time she entered the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and studied both composition and piano. In 1979, she became the first person to graduate from the Conservatorium with a double degree in piano and composition. Kats-Chernin has gone on to write dozens of works, including orchestral pieces, vocal settings, and incidental music for television and is known for her quirky exploration of texture and timbre.
Year Published: 1994
Length: 17 min
Copyright Status: Published by Boosey & Hawkes
Fantasie im Wintergarten
Year Published: 2022
Commission: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with the support of Mary Lou Simpson
Dedicatee: Emily Sun
Premiere: Emily Sun with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Benjamin Northey on April 21st, 2023
Inspiration: The title of the piece stems from a 1920s German silent film that centered around a renowned Berlin performance venue called Wintergarten.
Length: 30 min
Copyright Status: Published by Boosey & Hawkes
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Caroline Ansink (1959-)
About the Composer: Caroline Ansink is a Dutch composer and flutist. She studied both flute and composition at the Utrecht Conservatory, the former with Abbie de Quant and the latter with Joep Straesser. Ansink returned to Utrecht Conservatory a few years later as a flute professor. Ansink’s catalog is diverse, but primarily includes vocal and chamber works. Her style is considered to be expressive and lyrical while generally adhering to tonality.
Year Published: 1986
Length: 18 min
Instrumentation: 2+picc+alto. 2+engl. 2+alto sax+tenor sax. 1+cont / 3.0.3.0 / perc / hp / pn / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Donemus Publishing
Hanna Kulenty (1961-)
Violin Concerto No. 1
About the Composer: Hanna Kulenty is a Polish composer who spent her early years studying composition at the Chopin Music Academy and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. Kulenty began her career as a freelance composer in 1989 and has received numerous international commissions and performances since. Kulenty’s early compositional style focused on emotional intensity, but her more recent work has experimented with the circularity of time and the repetition of events.
Year Composed: 1992
Commission: Orkest De Ereprijs
Distinction: This piece calls for delay for the solo violin
Length: 30 min
Copyright Status: Published by Donemus
Violin Concerto No. 2
Year Composed: 1996
Inspiration: Classical period
Length: 38 min
Copyright Status: Published by Donemus
Unsuk Chin (1961-)
Violin Concerto No. 1
About the Composer: Unsuk Chin is a Korean composer who has resided in Berlin since 1988. Her composition teachers include Sukhi Kang and György Ligeti, though her compositional style makes it clear that she also takes influence from specralist composers like Iannis Xenakis. Chin has received many residencies and awards over the years, including the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition that she won for her Violin Concerto No. 1.
Year Composed: 2001
Premiere: January 2002 with soloist Viviane Hagner and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the direction of Kent Nagano
Length: 27 min
Awards: 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
Copyright Status: Boosey & Hawkes
Violin Concerto No. 2 ‘Scherben der Stille’
Year Composed: 2021
Dedicatee: Leonidas Kavakos
Premiere: January 6th, 2022 at the Barbican Theatre with Leonidas Kavakos as the soloist, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Simon Rattle
Length: 27 min
Copyright Status: Boosey & Hawkes
Violin Concerto
Jennifer Higdon (1962-)
About the Composer: Jennifer Higdon is one of the most famous and sought-after American composers alive today. She began her formal musical studies at the age of eighteen, but did not begin composing until the age of twenty-one. Since these humble beginnings, Higdon has gone on to become a Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy-winner. Her works span a wide range of genres, including works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, wind ensemble, and opera.
Year Composed: 2008
Commission: Indianapolis Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Curtis Institute of Music
Dedicatee: Hilary Hahn
Premiere: Mario Venzago and the Indianapolis Symphony on February 6th, 2009
Awards: 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music
Copyright Status: Lawdon Press
Chiaroscuro Azzurro
Laura Schwendinger (1962-)
About the Composer: Laura Schwendinger is an American composer and educator who has seen recent success after winning the 2023 Charles Ives Opera Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and becoming the first composer to win the Berlin Prize. She has composed works for a variety of genres and artists, but has come to be known primarily for her vocal and operatic works. Schwendinger teaches composition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Year Composed: 2007
Commission: Miller Theater and Columbia University
Premiere: March of 2008 with violinist Jennifer Koh and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), directed by George Steel
Length: 28 min
Copyright Status: Published by Southern Music
Augusta Read Thomas (1964-)
Spirit Musings
About the Composer: Augusta Read Thomas is one of the most frequently performed composers of the modern day. She holds the distinction of being one of the longest-serving composers-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position she held from 1997 to 2006 while the ensemble was under the direction of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez. This residency concluded with a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2007 for her piece Astral Canticle. Thomas then went on to found the Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago, where she currently teaches.
Year Composed: 1997
Premiere: Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble in 1998
Length: 11 min
Instrumentation: 1.1.2.1 / 1.1.0.0 / perc / hp / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: G. Schirmer Inc.
Carillon Sky
Year Composed: 2005
Inspiration: A sky full of tinkling bells
Premiere: April 3rd, 2006 with violinist Baird Dodge, MusicNow Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, directed by Oliver Knussen
Length: 8 min
Copyright Status: G. Schirmer Inc.
Juggler in Paradise
Year Composed: 2008
Premiere: January 16th, 2009 with violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the direction of Andrey Boreyko
Length: 20 min
Copyright Status: G. Schirmer Inc.
Altar de Cuerda
Gabriela Ortiz (1964-)
About the Composer: Gabriela Ortiz is a Mexican composer who spent her early years studying her craft in Mexico City and London. Her work is characterized by the merging of sonic worlds that partially resulted from this unique education. Ortiz has seen a great deal of success in recent years, including several performances from major ensembles like the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Berliner Philharmoniker. She also received the Bellas Artes Gold Medal in 2022, which is the highest award granted by the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts.
Year Composed: 2021
Commission: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Dedicatee: María Dueñas
Premiere: Dueñas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Gustavo Dudamel, premiered the piece on May 14th, 2022 at Walt Disney Hall
Length: 28 min
Instrumentation: 2+picc.2.2.2 / 4.3.2+bass.0 / timp+perc / hp / pno+cel / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Published by Boosey and Hawkes
An Unexpected Light
Sadie Harrison (1965-)
About the Composer: Sadie Harrison is an Australian-born British composer and archeologist who is primarily known for her activism through composition, often challenging stereotypes and harmful misconceptions through her music. Inspired by her career as an archeologist, Harrison often quotes folk music from regions like Afghanistan, Lithuania, the Isle of Skye, the Northern Caucasus, and the United Kingdom. She has received international support and funding for her work, which is regularly performed in Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
Year Composed: 2003
Commission: St. Christophorus Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius for the twentieth anniversary
Premiere: Vilnius, Lithuania on February 20th, 2004, performed by violinist Rusne Mataityte and the St. Christophorus Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius, conducted by Donatus Katkus
Inspiration: Harrison used this piece to explore the folk music of Lithuania, Georgia, Khojent, and Armenia and map the musical development of these regions over the course of the twentieth century.
Length: 15 min
Instrumentation: solo violin, string orchestra, and percussion
Copyright Status: University of York Music Press
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Anna Ikramova (1966-)
About the Composer: Anna Ikramova is a Russian composer who spent her early years studying composition, theory, and clarinet at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She has since received many awards for her compositions and continues to attract attention for her vocal works. Ikramova currently resides in Lemgo, Germany and has gone on to become a church musician and music teacher.
Year Composed: 1987
Length: 17 min
Instrumentation: 3.3.3.2 / 2.0.0.0 / timp+perc / hp / cel / vn solo / str
Copyright Status: Russian Music branch of G. Schirmer
Still
Rebecca Saunders (1967-)
About the Composer: Rebecca Saunders is a Berlin-based British composer who is primarily focused on exploring the sculptural and spatial properties of sound. Saunders is primarily known for her extensive compositions in the chamber and concertante genres, which were almost all composed within the the five years between 2013 and 2018. Saunders is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Sachsen Academy of Arts, based in Dresden.
Year Composed: 2011
Commission: Beethovenfest Bonn and BBC Radio 3
Premiere: 2011 Beethoven Festival in Bonn by violinist Carolin Widmann and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling
Extention: Saunders extended and choreographed the piece in 2016, commissioned by Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. This version of the piece premiered on August 14th, 2016 with violinist Carolin Windmann and conductor Sylvain Cambreling returning to perform the piece with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests, choreographed by Antonio Rúz.
Copyright Status: Edition Peters Ltd.
Sanctuary
Lisa Bielawa (1968-)
About the Composer: Lisa Bielawa is an American vocalist, producer, and composer who takes inspiration for her work from literature. Bielawa has seen great success in recent years, with her most notable awards being the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize in Musical Composition. She was also made the artist-in-residence for the Kaufman Music Center in New York for the 2020-2021 season.
Year Published: 2019
Commission: Orlando Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Carnegie Hall
Dedicatee: Jennifer Koh
Premiere: Jennifer Koh premiered the piece on January 15th, 2020 with the Orlando Philharmonic under the direction of Eric Jacobsen
Interesting Fact: Bielawa composed the work during a fellowship with the American Antiquarian Society
Copyright Status: Ganesa Music
Roxanna Panufnik (1968-)
Abraham, A Concerto for Hope
About the Composer: Roxanna Panufnik is a British composer of Polish descent who is primarily interested in using her compositions to build social, political, and religious bridges. Many of her works are inspired by world music and span multiple genres, including ballet, opera, chamber music, and orchestral works. Roxanna Panufnik is the daughter of celebrated Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik.
Year Composed: 2004
Inspiration: September 11th, 2001
Commission: Savannah Music Festival for Daniel Hope
Premiere: Daniel Hope premiered it on March 25th, 2005 with conductor John Axelrod
Copyright Status: Edition Peters Limited
Four World Seasons
Year Composed: 2007-2011
Inspiration: September 11th, 2001
Commission: Tasmin Little, the Orchestra of the Swan, and the London Chamber Players
Structure: It consists of four movements that were initially released individually, titled Autumn in Albania, Tibetan Winter, Spring in Japan, and Indian Summer.
Premiere: March 2nd, 2012 by Tasmin Little and the London Mozart Players, under the direction of Gerard Korsten. The performance was broadcasted by BBC Radio 3 in celebration of the 2012 London Olympics.
Copyright Status: Edition Peters Limited
Lera Auerbach (1973-)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1
About the Composer: Lera Auerbach is an Austrian-American composer, conductor, and pianist, as well as an award-winning poet and visual artist. She is especially sought out as an orchestral collaborator and she has composed pieces for ensembles like the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra. She often integrates her experiences as an author and visual artist into her compositions, giving her a unique compositional voice.
Year Composed: 2003
Commission: American Youth Symphony
Premiere: February 22nd, 2004 in Los Angeles by violinist Philippe Quint and the American Youth Symphony, conducted by Alexander Treger
Copyright Status: Sikorski Music Publishers
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2
Year Composed: 2004
Commission: Ensemble Kanazawa
Premiere: Ensemble Kanazawa premiered the piece on September 21st, 2004 in Kanazawa with violinist Akiko Suwanai and conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki
Copyright Status: Sikorski Music Publishers
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 ‘De Profundis’
Year Composed: 2015
Commission: Vadim Repin Foundation Moscow for violinist Vadim Repin and the Trans-Siberian Art Festival Novosibirsk
Premiere: Repin premiered the work alongside the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dmitri Jurowsky on March 25th, 2015
Copyright Status: Sikorski Music Publishers
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 4’NYx: Fractured Dreams’
Year Composed: 2017
Commission: New York Philharmonic with the support of the Sorel Foundation
Premiere: March 1st, 2017 with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert
Structure: Instead of movements, this piece is separated into thirteen separate "dreams"
Copyright Status: Sikorski Music Publishers
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Ľubica Čekovská (1975-)
About the Composer: Ľubica Čekovská is a Slovakian composer whose work is performed throughout Europe. She has composed works for the stage and screen, and she has become a highly sought-after operatic composer. Her contemporary instrumental works are regularly performed at festivals across Europe.
Year Composed: 2010
Premiere: September 15th, 2010 with violinist Milan Pala and the Philharmonisches Orchester Altenburg-Gera under the baton of Howard Arman
Length: 20 min
Copyright Status: Bärenreiter-Verlag
Vivian Fung (1975-)
Violin Concerto No. 1
About the Composer: Vivian Fung is a Canadian-born composer who currently lives in California. She spent her early years learning her craft from figures like Violet Archer, David Diamond, and Robert Beaser. She is known for her individualistic textures and timbres that are reflective of her diverse cultural background and interest in international travel. She has won many awards for her compositions, including the JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year” from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which she received in 2013 for her first violin concerto.
Year Published: 2011
Commission: Kristin Lee and the Metropolis Ensemble through the funding of the DeRosa Family Fund
Premiere: September 15th, 2011 at the Angel Orensanz Center when violinist Kristin Lee performed the work alongside the Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr
Inspiration: Balinese gamelan music
Copyright Status: Published by Bill Holab Music
Violin Concerto No. 2 ‘Of Snow and Ice’
Year Published: 2014
Commission: Toronto Symphony Orchestra through a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts
Premiere: Jonathan Crow premiered the piece with the Toronto Symphony and conductor Peter Oundjian on February 28th, 2015
Inspiration: Childhood winters in Alberta, Canada
Copyright Status: Published by Bill Holab Music
Stradivari
Aziza Sadikova (1978-)
About the Composer: Aziza Sadikova is an Uzbekistani composer and pianist whose compositions are regularly performed across Europe, Asia, and North America. She is known for her creative use of instrumental techniques, complex rhythms, and unique structural components. Her compositions have been featured by organizations like the BBC Proms and Berliner Philharmoniker, among others.
Year Composed: 2020
Dedicatee: Dieter Rexroth
Commission: Rebekka Hartmann with the intent of a CD release that featured conductor Kent Nagano
Copyright Status: Published by Boosey & Hawkes
Violin Concerto ‘Procession’
Missy Mazzoli (1980-)
About the Composer: Missy Mazzoli is an American pianist and composer who made history in 2018 when she became one of two women to ever receive a commission from the Metropolitan Opera. She has received several awards and commendations over the course of her career, including a Grammy nomination in 2019 and a Musical America Composer-of-the-Year award in 2022. Mazzoli is known for her constant innovation and creativity as a composer.
Year Composed: 2021
Commission: Jennifer Koh from the National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and BBC Symphony
Premiere: February 3rd, 2022 with Jennifer Koh and the National Symphony, under the baton of guest conductor Gemma New
Copyright Status: G. Schirmer
Violin Concerto
Helen Grime (1981-)
About the Composer: Helen Grime is a Scottish oboist and composer who studied first at the St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and then the Royal College of Music. Her teachers included Julian Anderson, Edwin Roxburgh, John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran, and Augusta Read Thomas. Grime rose to prominence early in her career and has since received several awards and commissions. She has had multiple compositions premiere at the BBC Proms and in 2017 she was made Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Year Composed: 2016
Dedicatee: Malin Broman
Premiere: December 15th, 2016 in Stockholm with Broman as the soloist alongside Daniel Harding conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Copyright Status: Chester Music Limited
Reena Esmail (1983-)
The Blue Room
About the Composer: Reena Esmail is an American composer of Indian descent who uses her unique background to compose works that meld Indian and Western music traditions. Her compositional perspective was further cemented when she traveled to India on a Fulbright-Nehru scholarship to study Hindustani music with Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar. Esmail’s catalog of works primarily includes orchestral, choral, and chamber works, which is primarily informed by her recent residencies with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Seattle Symphony.
Year Composed: 2007
Commission: Robert Bolyard
Premiere: Bolyard premiered the piece on April 14th, 2007 with violinist Alexander Woods at Battell Chapel, part of Yale University
Inspiration: The piece was inspired by the poem “White Key” by Carol Muke and takes its title from the poem’s text
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Concerto for You
Year Composed: 2019
Commission: ARTSpeaks for Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois
Premiere: Vijay Gupta premiered the piece on November 9th, 2019 with the Neuqua Valley Symphonic Strings under the direction of Gregory Schwaegler.
Inspiration: The piece was specifically composed for a professional solo violinist to perform with an ensemble of high school students.
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Concerto for Hindustani Violin and Orchestra
Year Composed: 2022
Commission: Seattle Symphony and the Celebrate Asia Festival specifically for Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath
Premiere: March 20th, 2022 with Ramnath appearing alongside the Seattle Symphony in Benaroya Hall
Inspiration: This concerto specifically requires a soloist with Hindustani classical training, as well as the trappings needed to accommodate that mode of performance. This includes amplification and an elevated platform for the performer to sit on.
Copyright Status: Published by the composer
Woven Loom, Silver Spindle
Julia Adolphe (1988-)
About the Composer: Julia Adolphe is an American composer who is known for her colorful, narrative-driven works. Her large-scale works have been especially successful, leading to several high-profile collaborations with ensembles like the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Adolphe is also a passionate mental health advocate and regularly works to dispel the myth of the ‘tortured artist.’
Year Composed: 2021
Commission: Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
Premiere: Los Angeles in December of 2021 with Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the LA Philharmonic, appearing as the soloist alongside his orchestra
Copyright Status: Published by Theodore Front
Violin Concerto in G Minor
Alma Deutscher (2005-)
About the Composer: Alma Deutscher is a composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor. She composed her first piece when she was six and has since become internationally renowned as a prodigy. Her works, which range from chamber music to opera, have been performed across Europe and North America to sold-out venues. She has been the subject of several television programs and documentaries, thus immortalizing her talents and success.
Year Published: 2014-2017
Recording: Deutscher playing the piece with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Joji Hattori in July of 2017.
Copyright Status: Unpublished