Christopher Theofanidis

Christopher Theofanidis (born December 18, 1967 in Dallas, Texas) is an American composer who has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, and many others. He participated in the Young American Composer-in-Residence Program with Barry Jekowsky from 1994 to 1996 and, more recently, served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006-2007 Season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang.^[1]

Career

Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize (hosted at the Barbican Centre in London), the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowship, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Charles Ives Fellowship. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi. His orchestral concert work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the last ten years, having been performed by over 100 orchestras internationally.^{[citation needed]}

Theofanidis' has recently written a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of their "New Brandenburg" series, and he currently has two opera commissions for the San Francisco and Houston Grand Opera companies. He has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony, and has just had his first symphony premiered and recorded with that orchestra. He has served as a delegate to the U.S.-Japan Foundation's Leadership Program and is a former faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School. He currently teaches at the Yale School of Music.

Awards

• 2007 Grammy nomination for The Here and Now
• 2003 Masterprize for Rainbow Body
• 1999 Rome Prize
• 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship ^[2]
• 1996 Barlow Prize
• six ASCAP Morton Gould Prizes
• Fulbright Fellowship to France
• Tanglewood Fellowship
• Charles Ives Fellowship, by The American Academy of Arts and Letters

Selected compositions^[3]

References

External links

• Christopher Theofanidis's Official Site
• Masterprize 2003