Philadelphian wins Pulitzer Prize for music composition

A Philadelphia woman has won the Pulitzer Prize for music composition.

A Philadelphia woman has won the Pulitzer Prize for music composition.

Jennifer Higdon trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and still teaches there.

It isn’t enough that her composition Blue Cathedral has become one of the most played pieces of modern classical work since it premiered in 2000.

And it isn’t enough that the 48 year-old composer won a Grammy award earlier this year for her Percussion Concerto.

Now Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which she wrote for another Curtis Institute alumna and whose first movement is named after the Institute’s Locust Street address, was honored with a Pulitzer.

Higdon says it’s a lot of get used to.

Higdon:
I just, ironically, went to Fed Ex this morning – they were holding the Grammy. Now that the Grammy is sitting here in front of me… the Pulitzer is going to take a bit longer, though, that feels really huge. But what a good problem to have.

Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by several institutes, including the Curtis Institute, but has yet to be played in Philadelphia. It premiered in Indianpolis and is scheduled to be performed by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra next February.