Biography

Grammy-Award winning Richard Danielpour "is an outstanding composer for any time, one who knows how to communicate deep, important emotions through simple, direct means that nevertheless do not compromise" (The New York Daily News). A distinctive American voice, his music is of large and romantic gestures, brilliantly orchestrated, deeply emotional, and rhythmically vibrant. His work has attracted an illustrious array of champions, and, as a devoted mentor and educator, he has also had a significant impact on a younger generation of composers.

Much in demand across the globe, Mr. Danielpour has received such prestigious honors as a Lifetime Achievement Award and the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Guggenheim Award, two Rockefeller Foundation grants, Bearns Prize from Columbia University, and grants and residencies from the Barlow Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Copland House, and the American Academy in Rome. In Fall 2002, he became one of the first recipients of a coveted Alberto Vilar Fellowship and Residency at the American Academy in Berlin.

Mr. Danielpour's work has been performed throughout the world, and his commissions read like a Who's Who of the world's leading musical institutions and artists. He has written for the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra, and San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Pacific, National, and Baltimore Symphonies, among many others. His music has also been championed by Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Gary Graffman, Christopher O'Riley, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Guarneri, Emerson, Muir, and American String Quartets, and conductors David Zinman, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Zdenek Macal, Leonard Bernstein, Carl St. Clair, and Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Danielpour has also composed two major scores for the New York City and Pacific Northwest Ballets.

Mr. Danielpour is one of the most recorded composers of his generation, and became only the third composer --after Stravinsky and Copland-- to be signed to an exclusive recording contract by Sony Classical. Since then, Sony has released several Danielpour recordings, including the Grammy Award-winning Cello Concerto, recorded by Yo-Yo Ma and Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by David Zinman, and the Grammy-nominated Concerto for Orchestra (coupled with Anima Mundi), recorded by Zinman and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Recent recordings include An American Requiem for chorus and orchestra on Reference Recordings, and A Child's Reliquary with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and In The Arms Of The Beloved, written for and recorded by Jamie Laredo and Sharon Robinson, with the Iris Chamber Orchestra and Michael Stern conducting on Arabesque Recordings. Other recordings include Celestial Night, with the London Philharmonia conducted by Zdenek Macal, coupled with Towards the Splendid City and Urban Dances for orchestra; First Light, The Awakened Heart, and Symphony No. 3 on Delos; a chamber music disc on Koch and his Piano Sonata on New World; and Metamorphosis (Piano Concerto No. 1) with pianist Michael Boriskin and the Utah Symphony conducted by Joseph Silverstein.

Mr. Danielpour is an active educator and believes deeply in the nurturing of young musicians. Beyond serving on the faculties of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, he also spends a great deal of time giving master classes throughout the country, and coaching and mentoring young musicians. He was in residency at the Acadamie Musicale de Villcroze, and served as Master Artist for the Atlantic Center for the Arts' first International Residency Program in Italy, and co-director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's Composition and Conducting Institute. He has also recently completed a three-year stint as Composer-in-Residence with the Pacific Symphony in southern California. In connection with other positions, he has coached not only composers but young performers in residencies at the Seattle Symphony, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, and Saratoga Chamber Music Festival.

Mr. Danielpour's schedule includes numerous commissions extending well into this decade, and he is working on his first opera, Margaret Garner, with the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, and new compositions for the Singapore Symphony and the Guarneri Quartet. Recent premieres and performances include Celestial Night with the WDR Sinfonie Orchester in Cologne; Through the Ancient Valley with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestre National de Lyon; Apparitions, an orchestra version for the New Jersey Symphony of his String Quartet No. 4; a double concerto for violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson, In the Arms of the Beloved, with the Iris Chamber Orchestra; the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Zodiac Variations) for Gary Graffman and the National Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin; and An American Requiem with the Pacific Symphony. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Indianapolis Violin Competition for a piece (As Night Falls on Barjeantane) to be performed by every semi-finalist.

Born in New York City on January 28, 1956, Mr. Danielpour studied at the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin. He also trained as a pianist with Lorin Hollander, Veronica Jochum, and Gabriel Chodos. Richard Danielpour's music has been published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers since 1988.