Joseph Schwantner - Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra

Joseph Schwantner website


Known for his dramatic and unique style and as a gifted orchestral colorist, Joseph Schwantner is one of the most prominent American composers today. He received his musical and academic training at the Chicago Conservatory and Northwestern University and has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, and the Yale School of Music, simultaneously establishing himself as a sought after composition instructor. Schwantner's compositional career has been marked by many awards, grants, and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his orchestral composition Aftertones of Infinity and several Grammy nominations. Among his many commissions is his Percussion Concerto, which was commissioned for the 150th anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic and is one of the most performed concert works of the past decade. Schwantner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Stephen Scott - Entrada

Stephen Scott via last.fm

Stephen Scott (b. Corvallis, Oregon, 1944) is an American composer best known for his development of the bowed piano (borrowed from C. Curtis-Smith, who invented the technique in 1972), which involves a grand piano being played by an ensemble of ten musicians who utilize lengths of horsehair, nylon filament, and other utensils to bow the strings of the piano, creating an orchestra-like sound. Scott founded the Bowed Piano Ensemble in 1977, for which he composes.

I also recommended Scott's Tears of Niobe on New Albion Records. Listen to the audio stream here.