John Harbison
Composer John Harbison is artistic co-director of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival. Among his principal works are four string quartets, large orchestral works, three operas, and a cantata, The Flight Into Egypt, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize (1987). Other awards include the Kennedy Center Friedheim First Prize (1980), a MacArthur Fellowship (1989), and the Heinz Award (1997). Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood, Marlboro, Aspen, Ojai, and Santa Fe Festivals, and the American Academy in Rome. Fifty of his pieces have been recorded on Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Koch, Albany, and CRI labels. His opera, The Great Gatsby, returned to the Metropolitan Opera in April 2002. Four Psalms, for the fiftieth anniversary of the State of Israel, was performed in December 2001 by the Choral Union and UW-Madison Symphony, Beverly Taylor, conducting. Premieres in 2002 include String Quartet No. 4 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and a new motet at Emmanuel Church, Boston. This past May Harbison was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UW-Madison. He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cantata Singers, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Harbison is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the board of directors of the Koussevitsky Foundation and is President of the Copland Fund.