On Friday, January 26, 2007, the Westport Arts Center will present the music of John Corigliano, winner of five Grammy Awards, a 1991 Grawemeyer Award for his First Symphony, a Pulitzer Prize for his Second Symphony, and an Academy Award for his score to Francois Giraud's 1997 film The Red Violin.
Corigliano, whose 1991 opera The Ghosts of Versailles was the first commission by the Metropolitan Opera in three decades, spent his boyhood summers in Westport. At a recent concert by the Norwalk Symphony, he reminisced that his father used to practice the great violin concertos outside his home on a hill on Valley Road. His father, John Corigliano, served as assistant concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic in 1935 and later became concertmaster from 1943-1966.
As part of the Composers Project, a series of concerts and conversations exploring 21st century musical compositions, Mr. Corigliano will be joined by Professor Paul Moravec, composer and 2007 WAC Artist in Residence, Amy Burton, soprano with the New York City Opera, and Stephen Gosling, pianist. Discussions, demonstrations of musical examples, and performances of his works will be heard at the Seabury Center.
The library invites you to sample his music including Creations and Other Works, Concerto for Piano & Orchestra, Of Rage and Remembrance, and The Red Violin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.