Melinda Wagner

Melinda Wagner (born February 25, 1957 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American composer .

life and work

Melinda Wagner holds degrees in composition from the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania . Her teachers included Richard Wernick , George Crumb , Shulamit Ran, and Jay Reise .

Several works were created for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , including " Falling Angels " (1992) and the piano concerto " Extremity of Sky " (2002), which Emanuel Ax premiered. In 1999 Melinda Wagner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize of Music for her Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion , which the flautist and conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel and the Westchester Philharmonic, which he directed , had commissioned. Her other commissioned works include a trombone concerto for the New York Philharmonic with soloist Joseph Alessi (2006) as well as compositions for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center , guitarist David Starobin , the Fromm Foundation and the Koussevitzky Music Foundations .

Wagner's other awards include a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1988) and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2000). She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2017.

Melinda Wagner has taught at various universities and conservatories, including the University of Pennsylvania , Syracuse University , Yale University , Juilliard School, and Mannes College of Music . As composer-in-residence, she worked at the University of Texas at Austin and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival .

Melinda Wagner is married to the drummer James Saporito .

Web links

• Information about the life and work, Theodore Presser Company (Engl.)
• The American Society of Composers (Engl.)