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Composer of the Month - December, 2004

Eric Whitacre, b. 1970
by Daryl Lee

Eric Whitacre is young, energetic, and already cutting a new path through the compositional forest.  After receiving his M.M degree from Julliard, where he studied with John Corigliano and David Diamond, he proceeded immediately to establish himself as a brightly shining new star in the world of modern and classical musical composition. Even in the first few years of his career, he has already established an international reputation. Whitacre has conducted in Asia and Europe; in Japan he was named music director of the Narashino Wind Consortium.

He began his musical career with a false step, getting kicked out of his high school marching band, but he soon discovered classical music singing Mozart's Requiem in the University of Nevada chorus. Whitacre has since established himself by fusing classical and modern music into a form uniquely his own.  This style has received much acclaim. At the age of 23, he received First Prize in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) "Composers of the Future" competition for his Cloudburst, a composition combining chorus, hand bells, piano, and percussion. He is also the youngest recipient of the ACDA's Raymond C. Brock commission.  Other awards have come from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, and the American Composers Forum.

Whitacre continues to be much in demand as a conductor and clinician. Recent appearances include the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Sydney Opera House's first annual festival dedicated entirely to Whitacre's music. Besides his choral compositions, Whitacre's credits include work with Barbra Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch as well as composing the score for the 2000 movie Alligator Alley.

The Michael O'Neal Chamber Singers first programmed a Whitacre work with its inclusion of Water Music in its 2004 concert, and the full chorus includes his Lux Aurumque in its Christmas concert this year.  The Lux has been performed in such illustrious venues as the National Cathedral and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

For further reading on Eric Whitacre
http://www.ericwhitacre.com/home.html
http://www.waltonmusic.com/whitacre.html
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Eric%20Whitacre
http://www.windband.org/foothill/pgm_note/notes_wx.htm#Whitacre
http://www.sbmp.com/WebPagesTwo/EricWhitacrebio.html

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