American composer John Corigliano was born in New York in 1938, son of the violinist John Corigliano. After studying at Columbia University (B.A. 1959), he worked as a music programmer for the New York Times radio station, WQXR, and as music director for WBAI (NYC). He also produced recordings for Columbia Masterworks (1972-3) and worked with Leonard Bernstein on the Young People’s Concerts series for CBS (1961-72). He has taught at the Manhattan School, the Julliard School, and Lehman College-CUNY, where he was named Distinguished Professor in 1984. During the period 1987-90 he served as the first Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Corigliano’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship (1968), the Grawemeyer Award (1991), two Grammy awards for Best Contemporary Composition (1991, 1996), the Composition of the Year award from the International Music Awards (1992) for his opera The Ghosts of Versailles, and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Symphony No.2 for String Orchestra. He was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1991. John Corigliano was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition