Who is your favourite living composer?

Could someone please correct the thread title?

Ned Rorem is also a cool composer, I love his Symphonies and songs! :)

The Songs I DIE!!! SO GOOD!!!!!

The concerti are amazing as well.

Kenny Wheeler.

Kenny Wheeler - Part 1 - Opening - Music For Large & Small Ensembles | Deezer

Extremely underrated as a composer. That man has amazing musical intuition.

how is he underrated? he's the first (actually if we count london sinfonnieta and warp's work then one of the first) strictly non-notational non-academic electronic music composer whose works are arranged for acoustic instruments (alarm will sound)! and guy could sell his fart and get more than i and you for whole life's output, well, at least for now :toothygrin:

richard djames is pretty much an establishment's mainstream! :w00t:

Kenny Wheeler.

Kenny Wheeler - Part 1 - Opening - Music For Large & Small Ensembles | Deezer

How could I forget Kenny Wheeler?

I adore his stuff - I only have one album but I bloody love it.

Cheers for reminding me, need to get hold of some more of him; Gnu High is not enough :)

Amazed that nobody's mentioned James MacMillan or Tom Ades. Also Jan Sandstrom for the 'Motorbike Trombone Concerto'. But I think Rautavaara is my favourite.

How could I forget Kenny Wheeler?

I adore his stuff - I only have one album but I bloody love it.

Cheers for reminding me, need to get hold of some more of him; Gnu High is not enough :)

Get: Music For Large and Small Ensembles.

Have joined Deezer, and having heard most of the album it sounds like I definitely need it. (I always buy albums if the composer's alive)

=)

Thomas Ades is one of the few contemporary composers whose works hold my attention. His violin concerto, performed at the Proms last year, I found genuinely spellbinding.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is also worth a mention. He is mainly known as a conductor but also composes some great music, you should listen to his Piano Concerto!

Bleh. I heard a live performance of Salonen's piano concerto by the NY Philharmonic. It sucked, for lack of a better term. It sounded like mush.

It sounded like mush.

I used to think similar things about Salonen's music but I gave it another listen recently and found it very engaging and full of really nice colors. Yeah, the orchestration is often pretty heavy, but nobody's perfect.

Yeah, Fineberg is brilliant. I studied at columbia (hence my love for spectral music), and just barely missed him by a few years. I think he's in boston right now, right?

Yes, he's my composition teacher at Boston University.

Fineburg....I worked with him at Tanglewood over the summer......hes interesting.

John Adams!!! Noone likes Doctor Atomic, but I do. So there. Aaaaaand I've met him! He's a funny guy. A little pretentious and obstinant, but a good guy none the less.

Steve Reich. What's he doing now, anyway?

Christopher Rouse - I actually haven't heard much of his music, but I've attended a couple of master classes he's given here at Peabody. He's a genius.

David Smooke - bet you've never heard of him. He's on the faculty here, and his music is dissonant, colorful, emotional, and very unique.

And Nicholas Werner! I don't think there's anything wrong with liking your own music. Why would you write it if you don't like it? ;)

my favorite is John Williams.

John Adams!!! Noone likes Doctor Atomic, but I do. So there. Aaaaaand I've met him! He's a funny guy. A little pretentious and obstinant, but a good guy none the less.

Steve Reich. What's he doing now, anyway?

Christopher Rouse - I actually haven't heard much of his music, but I've attended a couple of master classes he's given here at Peabody. He's a genius.

David Smooke - bet you've never heard of him. He's on the faculty here, and his music is dissonant, colorful, emotional, and very unique.

And Nicholas Werner! I don't think there's anything wrong with liking your own music. Why would you write it if you don't like it? ;)

Doctor Atomic is awesome!

I just listened to John Adams' "The Dharma at Big Sur" and I have to add him more strongly onto my list.

I'm going to say Jennifer Higdon again, for more emphasis.

Maria Schneider, Nico Muhly, Darcy James Argue, and Steve Reich :]

Darcy James Argue is HEAVY - I look forward to hearing the record....

Interesting to have someone around here who would bother to mention him! :thumbsup:

I like Trey Spruance from Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr. BUngle

I'm less of a fan of Trey and more of a fan of Trevor Dunn... Trey I think is still caught up on the sarcasm that 80s and early 90s Zorn capitalized on (see the Secret Chiefs 3's Book of Angels record, versus even Marc Ribot's stuff in that series)...

james horner!!

Jennifer Higdon for sure. Derek Bermel and Tan Dun come pretty close. Mmm...John Adams and Steve Reich come pretty close too.

you like Derek's music? I'll tell him that! He's a cool guy! I've met jennifer a couple of times also.

I like Carter Pann's, Horner, Silvestri, William Bolcom's, and Ozi Cargile's music the best.

Eric Whitacre is my musical hero, although I do see a lot of his really beautiful stuff seeming to come back again and again in every piece.

Arvo Part is remarkable in what he does.

Morten Lauridsen writes really beautiful melodies and really nice harmonies...but isn't as orginal as Whitacre and suffers the same way in that he sometimes seems to write the same thing over and over.

I love the works of Veljo Tormis, another Estonian who writes amazing choir music.

I probably have more (Tarik O'Regan is doing some wonderful things, John Corigliano has never written anything I've heard that I haven't enjoyed) but those are some of my biggest influences.

I suppose I'll get chased down by an angry mob if I say Elliot Carter? (Not that I would...)

I'm not even sure he qualifies. More than being living, he basically transcends life.