Aaron J. Kernis

One of the youngest composers ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, is among the most esteemed musical figures of his generation. Each work of Kernis bears the unmistakable stamp of a wildly fertile imagination forged out of the wide-ranging musical languages of the 1980s and 1990s. His music bursts with rich poetic imagery, brilliant instrumental color, distinctive wit, and infectious exuberance. His work might be inspired by the horrors of the Persian Gulf War (as in the much-talked about Symphony No.2) the love poems of Anna Swir (Love Scenes), the earthy rhythms of Salsa (100 Greatest Dance Hits), the antics of a child (Before Sleep and Dreams), complexities and high-craftsmanship of Italian mosaics (Invisible Mosaic III ).

His music figures prominently on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs around the world. He has already written works for many of America foremost musical institutions; including New Era Dance, commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of the New York Philharmonic and recorded by the Baltimore Symphony; Still Movement with Hymn, a piano quartet commissioned by American Public Radio for Christopher O'Riley, Pamela Frank, Paul Neubauer, and Carter Brey; Colored Field, an English horn concerto for Julie Giacobassi and the San Francisco Symphony; Goblin Market for narrator and ensemble, on a text by Christina Rossetti, for the Birmingham [England] New Music Group; Air for violinist Joshua Bell; an a cappella work for the Birmingham Bach Choir; Lament and Prayer, a work for violin and string orchestra for Pamela Frank and the Minnesota Orchestra; and Double Concerto for Violin, Guitar, and Orchestra, commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Sharon Isbin.

Mr. Kernis helps usher in the next century with a momentous choral symphony for the Millennium commissioned by Disney . Other upcoming commissions include works for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center the Minnesota Orchestra, and a song cycle for Renee Fleming in two versions -- one for voice and piano to be premiered on Lincoln Center Great Performers Series and the other with orchestra to be premiered with the Minnesota Orchestra. Mr. Kernis's music is published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers.

Mr. Kernis is one of the most honored young American composers. In addition to the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 2 (musica instrumentalis), his many awards have included the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, an NEA grant, a Bearns Prize, a New York Foundation for the Arts Award, and three BMI Student Composer Awards. He has become an especially familiar and much-admired presence in Minnesota Twin Cities; in September 1993, he was appointed Composer-in-Residence for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Public Radio, and the American Composers Forum, and he returned in the fall of 1998 as New Music Advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra.

Recordings of the music of Aaron Jay Kernis are available on CRI, Nonesuch, and New Albion. Argo, with which Mr. Kernis now has an exclusive recording contract, has released his Symphony in Waves, with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony; String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Lark Quartet; New Era Dance, with the Baltimore Symphony, and Colored Field and Still Movement with Hymn with the premiering performers. A CD of Hugh Wolff conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Mr. Kernis's Symphony No. 2, Invisible Mosaic III, and musica celestis has been widely acclaimed, and winning France's Diapason d'or Palmares for Best Contemporary Music Disc of the Year as well as a Grammy nomination. Recently released Argo recordings include an album of works for the outstanding young violinists Joshua Bell and Pamela Frank with the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and his Double Concerto with guitarist Sharon Isbin, violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Other recent recordings include an Arabesque disc of the Lark Quartet in the Pulitzer Prize-winning String Quartet No. 2 and their second recording of Mr. Kernis’s first quartet, and a Phoenix release of the Eberli Ensemble in various chamber works, featuring The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine.

Aaron Jay Kernis was born in Philadelphia on January 15, 1960. He began his musical studies on the violin; at age 12 he began teaching himself piano, and, in the following year, composition. He continued his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of music, the Manhattan School of

Music, and the Yale School of Music, working with composers as diverse as John Adams, Charles Wuorinen, and Jacob Druckman. Kernis received national acclaim for his first orchestral work, Dream of the Morning Sky, premiered by the New York Philharmonic at the 1983 Horizons Festival.