Joan Tower

Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1938, Tower moved to Bolivia when she was nine years old, an experience which she credits for making rhythm an integral part of her work. For the next decade Tower's talent in music, particularly on the piano, grew rapidly due to her father's insistence that she benefit from consistent musical training. Tower's relationship with her mineralogist father is visible in many aspects of her work, most specifically her "mineral works" including Black Topaz (1976) and Silver Ladders (1986). She returned to the United States as a young woman to study music, first at Bennington College, in Vermont, and then at Columbia University where she studied under Otto Luening, Jack Beeson, and Vladimir Ussachevsky and was awarded her doctorate in composition in 1968.

In 1969 Tower, along with violinist Joel Lester and flautist Patricia Spencer, founded the New York-based Da Capo Chamber Players where she served as the group's pianist. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s Tower wrote a number of successful works for the Da Capo Players, including Platinum Spirals (1976), Amazon I (1977) and Wings (1981). Though the group won several awards in its early years, including the Naumburg Award in 1973, Tower left the group in 1984, buoyed by the immediate success of her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981). In 1972 Tower accepted a faculty position at Bard College in composition, a post she continues to hold today. Tower received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1976.

In 1985, a year after leaving the Da Capo Players, Tower accepted a position at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1988-1991 where she was a composer-in-residence. During this period Tower produced two of her most significant works, Amazon and Sequoia.

Tower became the first woman recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Music in 1990 for her composition Silver Ladders. In 1993, under commission from the Milwaukee Ballet, Tower composed Stepping Stones, a selection from which she would go on to conduct at the White House. Other compositions from the 1990s include the third Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, several piano concertos (notably 1996's Rapids (Piano Concerto no. 2) and Tambor (1998) written for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1999 Tower accepted a position as composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and in 1998 she won the Delaware Symphony's prestigious Alfred I. DuPont Award for Distinguished American Composer.

In 2002 Tower won the Annual Composer's Award from the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Symphony. During the 2003-2004 season two new works were debuted, DNA a percussion quintet commissioned for Frank Epstein, and Incandescent. In 2004 the Pittsburgh Symphony's recording of Tambor, Made in America, and her Concerto for Orchestra earned a Grammy nomination. In 2004 Carnegie Hall's "Making Music" series featured a retrospective of Tower's body of work, performed by artists including the Tokyo String Quartet and pianists Melvin Chen and Ursula Oppens. In 2005 Tower became the first composer commissioned for the "Ford Made in America" program, the only project of its kind to involve smaller-budget orchestras as commissioning agents of new work by major composers, in which her 15-minute Made in America was performed in every state of the union during the 2005-2007 season. In 2008, Tower's Made in America and the recording of it by the Nashville Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin won three Grammy Awards: in the categories Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

She is currently the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson,[5] New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on the Artistic Advisory panel of the BMI Foundation.

Tower's early music seems to reflect the influences of her mentors at Columbia University and is rooted in the serialist tradition, whose sparse texture complimented her interest in chamber music. As she developed as a composer Tower began to gravitate towards the work of Olivier Messiaen and George Crumb and broke away from the strict serialist model. Her work became more colorful and has often been described as impressionistic. She often composes with specific ensembles or soloists in mind, and aims to exploit the strengths of these performers in her composition.

Among her most notable work is Tower's five part Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, each dedicated to 'women who are adventurous and take risks'. Inspired by Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the fanfares are scored for 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba and percussion. The first fanfare was debuted in 1987 and conducted by Hans Vonk. For the second fanfare, which premiered in 1989, Tower added one percussion while the third, debuted in 1991 was scored for a double brass quintet, and the fourth was scored for a full orchestra. The fifth, and final, portion of Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman was commissioned for the Aspen Music Festival in 1993 and was written specifically for Joan Harris.

Works list

Ballet

• Stepping Stones (1993), commissioned by the Milwaukee Ballet
  • Choreographed by Kathryn Posin

Orchestral

• Sequoia (1981)
  • commissioned by the Jerome Foundation for the American Composers Orchestra, who gave the work's première with Dennis Russell Davies conducting in New York City
• Music for Cello and Orchestra (1984)
  • written for André Emelianoff
• Island Rhythms (1985)
  • commissioned by the Florida Orchestra (with a grant from the Lincoln Properties Company), who gave the work's première under Irwin Hoffman on 29 June 1985.
• Homage to Beethoven (Piano Concerto No. 1) (1985), for piano & orchestra
  • co-commissioned by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Virtuosi, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
• Silver Ladders (1986)
  • commissioned by the Saint Louis Symphony, and dedicated to Leonard Slatkin, who conducted the première. The work was a prize winner in the 1988 Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, and in 1990 won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award.
• Clarinet Concerto (1988), for clarinet & orchestra
  • commissioned by the Naumburg Foundation for clarinettist Charles Neidich, who gave the work's première with the American Symphony Orchestra under Jorge Mester in 1988
• Flute Concerto (1989), for flute & orchestra
  • written for Carol Wincenc, who gave the work's première.
• Island Prelude (1989), for oboe & string orchestra
  • written for oboist Peter Bowman, who premièred the work with the Saint Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin on 4 May 1989.
• Concerto for Orchestra (1991)
  • co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.
• Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1987–1992)
  • commissioned by Absolut Vodka for the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Kansas City Symphony. The world première was given by the Houston Symphony with Hans Vonk conducting.
• Violin Concerto (1992), for violin & orchestra
  • commissioned by the Snowbird Institute and the Barlow Endowment
• Stepping Stones (1993)
  • commissioned by the Milwaukee Ballet
• Duets (1994), for chamber orchestra
  • written for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
• Paganini Trills (1996)
  • premièred in Powell Symphony Hall, Saint Louis on 19 May 1996.
• Rapids (Piano Concerto No. 2) (1996), for piano & orchestra
  • commissioned by the University of Wisconsin for pianist Ursula Oppens
• Tambor (1998)
  • commissioned by Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony, who gave the work's première on 7 May 1998.
• The Last Dance (2000)
  • written for the Orchestra of St. Luke's, who premièred the work under Alan Gilbert (conductor) at Carnegie Hall, New York City on 24 February 2000.
• Fascinating Ribbons (2001), for concert band
  • commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association and was given its première at the CBDNA Conference in 2001.
• Strike Zones (2001), concerto for percussion & orchestra
  • written for Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra, who gave the work's première under Leonard Slatkin at the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. in October 2001.
• In Memory (2002), for string orchestra
  • transcription of a string quartet Tower wrote for the Cavani String Quartet
• Made in America (2004), for chamber orchestra
  • commissioned by Ford Made in America in partnership with the League of American Orchestras and Meet the Composer, for a consortium of over 60 amateur orchestras across the United States. The world première was given by the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra in October 2005.
• Purple Rhapsody (2005), concerto for viola & chamber orchestra
  • co-commissioned by the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus), the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra (Door County, Wisconsin), and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, with a grant from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress. The work was premièred by the violist Paul Neubauer (to whom the work is dedicated) and the Omaha Symphony Orchestra in 2005.
• Chamber Dance (2006), for chamber orchestra
  • written for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, who premièred the work at Carnegie Hall in May 2006.
• Stroke (2010)
  • commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, who premièred the work under Manfred Honeck on 13 May 2011 at Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Red Maple (2013), for bassoon and string orchestra
  • premiered by Peter Kolkay, bassoon, with the South Carolina Philharmonic under Morihiko Nakahara on 4 October 2013.

Chamber

• Breakfast Rhythms I. and II. (1974), for clarinet solo, flute, percussion, violin, cello & piano
• Black Topaz (1976), for flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano & two percussion
• Amazon I. (1977), for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano
• Petroushskates (1980), for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano
• Noon Dance (1982), for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin & cello
• Fantasy... Harbour Lights (1983), for clarinet & piano
• Snow Dreams (1983), for flute & guitar
• Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1986), for eleven brass & three percussion
• Island Prelude (1989), for oboe solo & string quartet/quintet or wind quintet
• Second Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1989), for eleven brass & three percussion
• Third Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1991), for brass dectet
• Celebration Fanfare (1993), for eleven brass & three percussion
• Elegy (1993), for trombone solo & string quartet
• Fifth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1993), for four trumpets
• Night Fields (String Quartet No. 1) (1994), for string quartet
• Très lent (Hommage à Messiaen) (1994), for cello & piano
• Turning Points (1995), for clarinet & string quartet
• And...they're off (1997), for piano trio
• Rain Waves (1997), for violin, clarinet & piano
• Toccanta (1997), for oboe & harpsichord
• Big Sky (2000), for piano trio
• In Memory (String Quartet No. 2 (2002), for string quartet
• Incandescent (String Quartet No. 3) (2003), for string quartet
• For Daniel (2004), for piano trio
• DNA (2005), for percussion quintet
• A Little Gift (2006), for flute & clarinet
• Copperwave (2006), for brass quintet
• A Gift (2007), for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano
• Trio Cavany (2007), for piano trio
• Angels (String Quartet No. 4) (2008), for string quartet
• Dumbarton Quintet (2008), for piano quintet
• Rising (2009), for flute & string quartet
• White Granite (2010), for piano quartet
  • 17-minute work, co-commissioned by the St Timothy's Summer Music Festival, Montana, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado, and the LaJolla Music Society for SummerFest, California. Premièred in Georgetown Lake, Montana on 11 July 2010.
• White Water (String Quartet No. 5) (2011), for string quartet, commissioned for the Daedalus Quartet by Chamber Music Monterey Bay.

Vocal

• Can I (2007), for S.S.A.A. choir & two percussion
  • written for the Young People's Chorus of New York City, who premièred the work under Francisco J. Nuñez at the Miller Theater, New York City on 27 April 2008.

Solo

• Platinum Spirals (1976), for violin
• Wings (1981), for clarinet or alto saxophone
• Clocks (1985), for guitar
• Or like a...an engine (1994), for piano
• Ascent (1996), for organ
• Holding a Daisy (1996), for piano
• Valentine Trills (1996), for flute
• Wild Purple (1998), for viola
• Vast Antique Cubes/Throbbing Still (2000), for piano
• Simply Purple (2008), for viola
• Ivory and Ebony (2009), for piano
• For Marianne (2010), for flute
• String Force (2010), for violin

• Private Interview with Joan Tower, February 23, 1988, Saint Louis, MO, in "An Analysis of Joan Tower's Wings for Solo Clarinet", August 1992, by Nancy E. Leckie Bonds
• Private Interview with Joan Tower, May 21, 1988, Saint Louis, MO, in "An Analysis of Joan Tower's Wings for Solo Clarinet", August 1992, by Nancy E. Leckie Bonds,
•  CS1 maint: Multiple names: interviewers list (link)
• The composer in conversation with Bruce Duffie, published in New Music Connoisseur Magazine, Spring, 2001.

• Big Sky: Chamber Music of American Women Composers White Pine WPM202
• Cantos Desiertos / BEASER / TOWER / LIEBERMANN Naxos – Catalogue No:8.559146
• Chamber and Solo Music Naxos – Catalogue No:8.559215 Chamber Music, Instrumental
• Silver Ladders / Island Prelude / Sequoia Naxos – Catalogue No:FECD-0025
• TOWER: Made in America / Tambor / Concerto for Orchestra Naxos – Catalogue No: 8.559328
• WORLD PREMIERE COLLECTION Naxos- Catalogue No: FECD-0032