Donald Martino

Donald Martino ( born May 16, 1931 in Plainfield, New Jersey, † December 8, 2005 at the Caribbean island of Antigua ) was an American composer.

Martino had from the age of nine, clarinet, saxophone and oboe lessons and began at the age of fifteen years to compose. He studied at Syracuse University and Princeton University, and studied composition with Ernst Bacon, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt and Luigi Dallapiccola.

He taught at Princeton University and Yale University, was Composer in Residence at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in Tanglewood and from 1969 to 1979 composition department of the New England Conservatory. After that, he was professor of music at Brandeis University and Harvard University.

In addition to two Fulbright scholarships and three Guggenheim prices, prices of the Massachusetts Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts Martino was awarded the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his nonet. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Martino composed orchestral works and instrumental concertos, choral and chamber music, pieces for piano and jazz ensemble and songs. He followed in his compositions a modern tone and form language and atonal and serial techniques used.

Martino died on 8 December 2005 at the age of 74 years on a cruise in the Caribbean off the coast of Antigua. After a hypoglycemic shock a cardiac arrest was the cause of death. After his death, Donald Martino Award was donated, which is awarded to outstanding students of composition of the New England Conservatory.

Works

  • Piano Concerto, 1965
  • Cello Concerto, 1972
  • Paradiso Choruses, 1974
  • Triple Concerto for clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet, 1977
  • The White Iceland, 1985
  • Saxophone Concerto, 1987
  • Violin Concerto, 1996
  • Clarinet Concerto, 2003
  • From The Bad Child's Book of Beasts for soprano and piano
  • From the Other Side for flute, cello, piano and percussion
  • Notturno for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion
  • Fantasies and Impromptus for piano
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