This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938 in New Rochelle, New York) is a contemporary American composer. She became known for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia, a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant redwood from trunk to needles. Among her other prominent pieces are the Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, her two string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely-performed Petroushskates. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... New Rochelle City Hall New Roc City New Rochelle (French: Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of New York in Westchester County, 16 miles (26 km) from Grand Central Terminal in New York City and 2 miles north of the border with... In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. ... Fanfare for the Common Man is one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th Century American classical music. ... The resident string quartet of the Library of Congress in 1963 A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments—usually two violins, a viola and cello—or a piece written to be performed by such a group. ... The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. ... Da Capo Chamber Players is an American contemporary music ensemble. ...

Tower's style is of the 20th century, and the 21st. The rhythm and melodic flow of her music are very flexible, not limited by tonality or regular meter, and her orchestration encompasses a wide range of tone colors. She teaches that the best pieces are the ones that are not "safe" in terms of sitting within a key or meter or standard group of instruments. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... 20XX redirects here. ... Tonality is a system of writing music according to certain hierarchical pitch relationships around a key center or tonic. ... Instrumentation is the study and practice of writing music for a musical instrument. ...

She was the first woman to win the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In addition, she is the first composer chosen for Made in America, an ambitious and groundbreaking commissioning program that is a collaboration of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer. The commissioned work Made in America is to be performed by orchestras in every state in the union during the 2005-2006 season. This is the only project of its kind to involve smaller-budget orchestras as commissioning agents of new work by major composers. The Grawemeyer Award is a prestigious and lucrative award presented each year by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. ...

Tower's writing is exclusively instrumental. She has expressed no intention to compose using vocalists or extramusical texts, noting that she simply does not feel that words are required to express anything in music.

She is currently the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on the Artistic Advisory panel of the BMI Foundation. She is a graduate of The Walnut Hill School and Bennington College. For other meanings of the word Bard, see Bard (disambiguation). ... This article is about the state. ... American Academy of Arts and Letters is an organization whose goal is to foster, assist, and sustain an interest in American literature, music, and art. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Walnut Hill School is a private, coeducational, boarding and day high school for the arts, for grades 9–12 (ages 13–18). ... Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont. ...

External links

• G. Schirmer: Joan Tower Biography
• Environmental Themes: Joan Tower
• Joan Tower interview by Bruce Duffie
• NewMusicBox cover: Joan Tower in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, September 15, 2005 (includes video)

Listening

• Art of the States: Joan Tower Petroushskates (1980)