The Violin Channel posted a video of Ellen talking about her Viola Concerto, which premieres on July 12 at the Brevard Music Center Summer Festival.
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Viola Concerto is to have Its world premiere on July 12 at the Brevard Music Festival, with Paul Neubauer as soloist and JoAnn Falletta conducting the Brevard Sinfonia.
The concerto will also have two performances on the Buffalo Philharmonic season, with soloist Neubauer and Falletta conducting, on May 21 and 22, 2027.
Paul Neubauer
Ellen attended the awarding of the 74th Annual BMI Composer Awards on May 27 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Ellen is the permanent chair of the annual competition.
Maya Miro Johnson, seen at far right in the photo, is this year’s recipient of the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award.
BMI and the BMI Foundation were excited to announce the recipients of the 74th Annual BMI Composer Awards on May 27 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The awards, which celebrate excellence in composition, were presented to seven emerging composers by BMI Foundation President and BMI AVP Creative, Classical & Jazz Deirdre Chadwick, BMI Chief Executive Officer, Mike O’Neill, and BMI Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue and Creative Officer Michael Steinberg.
Thanks to a recent gift to the Foundation from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams, as well as other donors, total awarded funds in 2026 exceeded $30,000, over $10,000 more than in previous years.
The 2026 award winners are:
Kevin Cromer – Age 22, student of Susan Botti
Cheryl Gau – Recipient of the Carlos Surinach Award for the youngest winner of the competition – Age 13, student of Alan Belkin
Maya Miro Johnson – Recipient of the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award – Age 24, student of Katherine Balch
Jacky Jiaqi Liu – Recipient of the John Adams Award – Age 23, student of Melinda Wagner and John Corigliano
Cole Reyes – Age 27, student of Michael Daugherty and Julia Wolfe
Calvin Rice – Age 21, student of Robert Kyr and David Crumb
Jackson A. Waters – Age 24, student of Julia Wolfe and Shelley Washington
“The life’s work of one of America’s most decorated composers and a cornerstone of the Florida State University College of Music has found a permanent home in the nation’s capital,” begins a feature article in FSU News posted April 3, 2026. “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1983, Marie Krafft Distinguished Professor of Composition and two-time FSU Alumnus, has donated her comprehensive personal archive to the Library of Congress.”
The article includes this quote from Ellen: “‘After collecting 101 large boxes in storage that contained my life’s work, I knew it was time to find a permanent home for them,’ Zwilich said. ‘To see my name preserved alongside legends like Stephen Sondheim is a distinction that validates a lifetime of work and stands as the greatest honor of my career.’”
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s papers were noted as one of the top five acquisitions of 2025 by the Library of Congress Music Division. The library’s blog post below reads in part:
“2025 was another thrilling year of acquisitions for the Music Division. Our top 5 acquisitions were especially staggering in terms of breadth and impact. As always, it is not easy to select only five acquisitions or to even rank them. This year we really built on existing strengths (that is, composers, manuscripts, instruments) while expanding our holdings on notable performers.”
The five noted acquisitions are: a viola made by Antonio Stradivari in 1690; the papers of Stephen Sondheim; the papers of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; Igor Stravinsky’s holograph working manuscript for the opera “The Nightingale,” 1914; and the papers of pianist Paul Wittgenstein.
Ellen’s Lament, originally written for cello and piano, is now available in an arrangement for baritone or alto saxophone and piano published by Theodore Presser HERE.
Adam Estes, who created the arrangement, has posted a video of his performance:
On May 24, Ellen received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from The Juilliard School at its 120th commencement ceremony, with, in the words of Juilliard Dean of Music David Ludwig, “our tremendous gratitude for the deep humanity of your life and music, and the breadth and depth of your many accomplishments.”
Five members of the 2025 graduating class performed the final movement of Ellen’s Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass, and Piano at the ceremony.
Ellen with Juilliard President Damian Woetzel
With Damian Woetzel
Ellen, front row right, with fellow honorary doctorate recipients (L to R) Alicia Graf Mack, Masaaki Suzuki, Gustavo Dudamel, Darren Walker, and Marsha Norman
At its 120th commencement ceremony on May 24, The Juilliard School will confer honorary doctorate degrees upon six individuals “in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the arts: Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and incoming music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic; Alicia Graf Mack, dean and director of Juilliard Dance and incoming artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Marsha Norman, Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and co-director of Juilliard’s playwriting program from 1994 to 2020; Masaaki Suzuki, organist, harpsichordist, principal conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum, and frequent collaborator with Juilliard’s Historical Performance program; Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation and president of the board of the National Gallery of Art; and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (DMA ’75, composition), first female-identifying composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
“‘Our 2025 honorary doctorate recipients exemplify how a life in the arts can be a life of impact through performance, leadership, education, and service,’ said Juilliard’s president, Damian Woetzel. ‘As we recognize their achievements, we also celebrate the newest generation of Juilliard graduates, who will carry forward this legacy of excellence and bring their own voices to the world stage.’”
Ellen was the first woman to receive a DMA in composition from Juilliard, in 1975.
Oliver Neubauer, the first prize winner of the 2023 Susan Wadsworth Young Concert Artists International Auditions, played Ellen’s Fantasy for Solo Violin on his YCA recital debut program at Merkin Concert Hall on April 29, 2025. You can watch his performance of the work on YCA’s video here (link).
At the post-concert reception, Ellen was able to congratulate Oliver, and his collaborative pianist, Janice Carissa, in person (photo courtesy of YCA).
Fanfare magazine’s March/April 2025 issue features a rave review for the BMOP/sound all-Zwilich disc: Reviewer David DeBoor Canfield says about Concerto Elegia that “the listener will be hard-pressed to find another flute concerto that can match it for sheer beauty,” and that the Symphony No. 5 “leaves the listener feeling eminently satisfied with the bounteous music repast he has consumed,” and concluding, “Zwilich’s many fans will devour this disc immediately, but others who have not yet been exposed to her masterful writing should give her a listen.”
Ellen’s Double Quartet was commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1984. On March 2, CMS presented a performance of the work by violinists Francisco Fullana, Ani Kavafian, Kristin Lee, and Julian Rhee; violists Paul Neubauer and James Thompson; and cellists Dmitri Atapine and Mihai Marica. The performance may be streamed on the CMS website here.
After the performance, Ellen had roses presented to the musicians, and they acknowledged her from the stage. Backstage after the concert, Ellen gathered with the musicians and CMS Artistic Director Wu Han.
Ellen’s celebrated PEANUTS GALLERY® is now available in a version for solo piano! Read on:
Charles Schulz was a big fan of Ellen Zwilich’s music, mentioning her premieres twice in Sunday PEANUTS® comic strips, including the first performance of Zwilich’s PEANUTS GALLERY® for Piano and Orchestra. The six-movement suite was composed as a concerto for young soloists, with movements depicting “Schroeder’s Beethoven Fantasy,” “Lullaby for Linus,” “Snoopy Does the Samba,” “Charlie Brown’s Lament,” “Lucy’s Freakout,” and “Peppermint Patty & Marcie Lead the Parade.” The original concerto version was later published for two pianos.
The present edition was arranged by pianist Marc Peloquin, adapting the entire work for solo piano. Each movement may be performed separately, and while the music is provided in its concert order of movements, the music may also be learned in other orderings for graded study, as the six character pieces call for varying skill levels.
At Carnegie Hall’s annual year-ending concert by the New York String Orchestra on Dec. 28, 2024, Jaime Laredo led the group in a program including Ellen’s Prologue and Variations - here’s the Instagram post.
Ellen’s Ceremonies was the compulsory work for Division I of the International Wind Band Contest “City of Valencia” that took place in July.
As they describe it, “For more than 130 years, the International Wind Band Contest ‘City of Valencia’ has helped to promote wind band music all over the world, as well as celebrating the most renowned Valencian musicians and prestigious composers. The dreamers of the late nineteenth century who suggested holding a "Music Contest" in Valencia could not have imagined that the Contest would become the most important music event for wind bands in the world, in which ensembles from the five continents take part every year. A Contest that strives year after year to continue to be a cultural reference point in the music world.”
“Throughout a long and fertile career, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has created works rich in character and emotion, and marked by impeccable craftsmanship. Those qualities are in healthy supply on this Boston Modern Orchestra Project recording of four Zwilich scores from the past quarter‑century. They demonstrate how deftly the American composer draws musicians, and their listeners, into narratives of immediate interest.”
So begins the Gramophone review of BMOP/sound Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 5 all-Zwilich recording.
You can read the full review here.
“How do you characterise a recording that is glorious in aspects both musical and non-musical?” So begins a rave review of the BMOP/sound all-Zwilich release by World Music Report. “You could begin almost anywhere. However, how about with the extraordinary Ellen Taaffe Zwilich [b. 1939] and the fact that while she wears her prodigious gift lightly – but she dispenses it most generously.”
After discussing each of the works on the recording - Upbeat (1999); Concerto Elegia (2015) with flute soloist Sarah Brady; Commedia dell’Arte (2012) with violin soloist Gabriela Diaz; and Symphony No. 5 (Concerto for Orchestra) (2008) - and praising the soloists, the review concludes: “All of these works have been premiered before, but somehow they all feel just as ‘right’ as performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the baton of the inimitable Gil Rose. Just as the soloists in Concerto Elegia… and Commedia Delle’Arte… have brilliantly internalised Ms Zwilich’s music, so also does Mr Rose, who directs his performers to marry virtuoso skills with new inspiration. The result is an extraordinary recording that does absolute justice to the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s mandate: “…to explore the evolution of the music formerly known as classical… [offering along with] classics of the 20th century…music of today’s most influential and innovative composers. It’s hard not to feel that this recording is, somehow, the apogee of that mandate.”
Read the full review here.
BMI Announcement:
BMI Foundation, Inc. and BMI celebrated the recipients of the 72nd annual BMI Composer Awards on May 13, 2024, at Chelsea Table and Stage in New York City. During the private ceremony, BMI Foundation President and BMI Executive Director of Classical Deirdre Chadwick and renowned composer and Chair of the Composer Awards Ellen Taaffe Zwilich presented the awards to seven emerging composers for excellence in composition. The 2024 award winners included:
Arjan Singh Dogra – age 24, student of Christopher Cerrone
John William Griffith II – age 26, student of Alison Kay
Luke Haaksma – age 26, student of Katherine Balch
Ennis Suavengco Harris – age 25, student of Vince Mendoza
Paul Novak – Recipient of the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award for most outstanding score – age 25, student of Augusta Read Thomas
Sofia Jen Ouyang – age 22, student of Amy Beth Kirsten and Andrew Norman
Ziyi Tao – Recipient of the Carlos Surinach Award for the youngest winner of the competition – 21, student of Andrew Norman
Read the full announcement here.
L-R: John William Griffith II; Luke Haaksma; Paul Novak (Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award); Sofia Jen Ouyang; Arjan Singh Dogra; Ziyi Tao (Carlos Surinach Award); President of the BMI Foundation Deirdre Chadwick; Chair of the Composer Awards Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; President and Chief Executive Officer of BMI Mike O’Neill; Ennis Suavengco Harris; Director of Finance and Administration of the BMI Foundation Susan Bywaters. Photo by Ezekiel Duncan for BMI
The Theodore Presser website now sells regular printable PDF's for many publications, including those chamber and recital works that some retailers don't carry as advance stock on hand. That's in addition to having everything in print in hard copy, and the "App Specific" options to download directly into forScore or Newzik apps.
Ellen’s works that are available digitally are indicated as “Digital Available” here: https://www.presser.com/ellen-taaffe-zwilich
Ellen’s Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass, and Piano is one of three works on a new disc by the Concordia Chamber Players titled ela - for Ellen, Louise (Farrenc), and Amy (Beach), the three composers whose works are featured. See the recording page here.
The ensemble says, “We are thrilled to share an inspired project of Concordia Chamber Players with these 3 remarkable female composers: Ellen Zwilich, Louise Farrenc and Amy Beach taking center stage. We call it simply “ela” for Ellen, Louise and Amy.
“Produced by Judith Sherman (Grammy Award winner 2022, 2023) and engineered by Leslie Ann Jones (Grammy Award winner 2020, 2021, 2022). Recorded at Skywalker Studios.
“Performed by Concordia Chamber Players artists — John Novacek on piano, Miho Saegusa on violin, Ayane Kozasa on viola, Michelle Djokic on cello, and Anthony Manzo on bass.”
Track list:
Quintet No. 1, Op. 30 – Louise Farrenc
Trio, Op. 150 – Amy Beach
Quintet – Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music, the very first holder of the Carnegie Hall Composer’s Chair, and a woman who helped blaze a trail in a world that seems only recently to have become truly equal-opportunity, turns 85 on April 30, 2024. Read the press release here.
On April 9, BMOP/sound releases Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 5, a recording by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project of Zwilich’s Upbeat (1999); Concerto Elegia (2015) with flute soloist Sarah Brady; Commedia dell’Arte (2012) with violin soloist Gabriela Diaz; and Symphony No. 5 (Concerto for Orchestra) (2008).
As BMOP notes: “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich may have found inspiration through introspection, but her music is anything but introverted. Concerto Elegia and Commedia dell'Arte unpack disparate themes—mourning a loss and the joy of theater—each within the framework of the concerto, exhibiting Zwilich's creativity and imagination in addition to her compositional prowess. While the concerti are naturally inviting, as if to allow you to partake in an intimate discussion, Symphony No. 5 grabs one's attention by introducing its own unmatched scale and grandeur. The listening experience pivots from a conversation to a Socratic debate, where a plurality of ideas shape a prevailing vision among its participants.”
See the recording on the BMOP website here.
