GRAMMY Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour has established himself as one of the most gifted and sought-after composers of his generation. His music has attracted an international and illustrious array of champions, and, as a devoted mentor and educator, he has also had a significant impact on the younger generation of composers over the past 30 years. His list of commissions include some of the most celebrated artists of our day including Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Susan Graham, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets, the New York City, Pacific Northwest and Nashville Ballets, and institutions such as the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and many more. With Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Danielpour created Margaret Garner, his first opera, which premiered in 2005. He has received two awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, including a Lifetime Achievement Award; a Guggenheim Award; the Bearns Prize from Columbia University; two Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships; and The Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin. He served on the composition faculty of the Manhattan School of Music from 1993 to 2017 and is currently professor of music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and a member of the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music.

In April 2019, JoAnn Falletta led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in performances of The Passion of Yeshua. The subsequent album (Naxos 8.559885–86) was nominated for three GRAMMY Awards in 2021, winning in the category of Best Choral Performance.

In 2020, the Oregon Bach Festival commissioned Danielpour to compose An American Mosaic as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein gave a livestreamed premiere and the critically acclaimed corresponding album, released on Supertrain Records, was recently nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

In 2021, Danielpour was commissioned by Orchestra della Toscana to write a piece for the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, making him the first American composer in nearly 40 years to be commissioned by a major Italian orchestra, and clarinetist Anthony McGill premiered Danielpour’s Four Angels with the Catalyst Quartet. That same year, he was given a lifetime achievement award from the Cremona Music Festival and was awarded the Covel Chair from UCLA to support the composition and production of his opera The Grand Hotel Tartarus, which received its world premiere at the Freud Playhouse in Los Angeles in May 2024. Premieres in 2023/24 include The Unhealed Wound, a cantata composed for baritone Eric Owens and mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms; Breaking the Veil and Triptych, both premiered by the ROCO chamber orchestra; and Agnus Dei performed by The Golden Bridge chorus conducted by Suzi Digby.

Danielpour is one of the most recorded composers of his generation; many of his recordings can be found on the Naxos and Sony Classical labels. Danielpour’s music is published by Lean Kat Music and Associated Music Publishers.

www.richard-danielpour.com