American composer

Elliott Carter

Opera Symphony

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Intro

American composer

Genres

Opera Symphony

Awards Received

Guggenheim Fellowship

Rome Prize

National Medal of Arts

Grammy Trustees Award

Harvard Centennial Medal

Pulitzer Prize for Music

Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal

Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

Arts and Letters Award in Music

Music

News

Member of, past and present

American Academy of Arts and Letters

Academy of Arts, Berlin

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Harvard Glee Club

Carter in the 2000s.

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are known and performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. Carter was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Born in New York, he had developed an interest in modern music in the 1920s. He was later introduced to Charles Ives, and later came to appreciate the American ‘ultra-modernists’. After studying at Harvard University (including for a while with Gustav Holst in 1932) he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, then returned to the United States. Carter was productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008. He completed his last work, Epigrams for piano trio, on August 13, 2012.