Jennifer Higdon

Composer in Residence

Central to the mission of The Philadelphia Singers is its commitment to ensuring that choral music has a vibrant present as well as a rich past. To that end, The Singers has presented an extensive array of Philadelphia, American and World Premieres. With tonight’s performance of Deep in the night The Philadelphia Singers is proud to announce the appointment of critically acclaimed composer, Jennifer Higdon, as Composer-in-Residence. The Philadelphia Singers has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Ms. Higdon which has produced the commission and premiere of three important works. As Composer-in-Residence, Ms. Higdon will receive a commission for one choral work during each concert season. Ms. Higdon’s first commission as Composer-in-Residence will be premiered during The Philadelphia Singers 2002/2003, 30th Anniversary Season. The work will appear on our December 2002 “Christmas on Logan Square” program. The exact nature of the commission will take shape over the next few months.

Works by Jennifer Higdon commissioned and premiered by The Philadelphia Singers

• Deep In The Night, World Premiere, December 20, 1997
• Southern Grace, World Premiere, September 25, 1998
• Sing Sing, World Premiere, December 18, 1999

Jennifer Higdon has not only become a recognized and sought after young composer but also frequently concertises on the flute, and is active as a conductor. Donald Rosenberg, of The Plain Dealer, says that Ms. Higdon "... is a composer with a powerful command of creative resources." The Bellingham Herald claims that she "...has an authentic creative voice of her own." And The Philadelphia Inquirer's Lesley Valdez writes, "there's no denying Higdon's compositional ease or abundance of ideas. Her music has something to say and often does so with eloquence." USA Today, in its December 30, 1996 edition of Classical Picks of the Year, named Jennifer Higdon the composer of the "Best New Piece of 1996".

Ms. Higdon's works have been performed extensively around the country including performances at The White House, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall and by such performers as flutists Carol Wincenc and Jeffrey Khaner, pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, the Da Vinci String Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, the Prism Sax Quartet, The Dale Warland Singers, The Philadelphia Singers, the Oregon Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the New England Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony and The Symphony Orchestra of The Curtis Institute of Music. Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra as one of its Centennial Commissions, will be premiered by The Orchestra on June 12, 2002 in The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

In 1999, she was named a Pew Fellow in the Arts and a Composer-in-Residence with the Continental Harmony Project from the American Composers Forum and the NEA. Other awards have come from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the International League of Women Composers and ASCAP. In addition she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the American Composer's Forum, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.