John Corigliano ranks among the greatest of contemporary American composers. His more than one hundred published compositions feature a considerable variety of style and forms, including orchestral, chamber and solo works as well as operas, choral works, and film scores. Defying the current dominant trend of contemporary art music, his music is largely tonal and often highly expressive, and is often much more accessible to classical music audiences than most contemporary music. In addition to composing, he also serves as a professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and is on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School.
Corigliano was born 1938 in New York City and grew up in a highly musical family. His father was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for 23 years, and his mother was an accomplished educator and pianist. The former, well aware of the extreme difficulties faced by composers, initially tried hard to discourage him from his dream of becoming one. Nevertheless, he persisted and went on to study composition at Columbia University and at the Manhattan School of Music. He first came to prominence in 1964 when his Sonata for Violin and Piano was the only winner of the chamber music competition of the Spoleto Festival in Italy.
Among the most highly regarded of Corigliano's works is his Clarinet Concerto (1977). This is an extremely complex and truly amazing piece, and was the first clarinet concerto by an American composer to have entered the standard repertoire since Aaron Copland's (1949).
Corigliano wrote the score for François Girard's 1997 film The Red Violin and subsequently adapted it to his Suite from "The Red Violin" in 1999 and then into a violin concerto in 2003. Some critics have contended that this score was the strongest component of the award-winning film.
Further illustrative of Corigliano's diversity of style is Conjurer, a concerto for a solo percussionist and string orchestra, with optional brass. It was well received by the critics at its 2008 debut, although some feel that it becomes a bit boring at about 35 minutes.