Composer David Del Tredici (1937 - 2023) started out as an experimentalist but became best known for a midcareer shift that led to him being widely considered the pioneer of the Neo-Romantic movement in music. His work not only forged a fresh compositional path, but also gave hope to a generation of young composers seeking a new way of creating music. Del Tredici's work received numerous awards and has been performed by nearly every major American and European orchestral ensemble. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for In Memory of a Summer Day for soprano and orchestra, and he was in residence 18 times between 1965 and 1998.
Many of Del Tredici’s early works were inspired by the writings of James Joyce and Lewis Carroll. His Alice in Wonderland settings, which were written over a span of more than 25 years (1968-1995), included Final Alice and In Memory of a Summer Day, which both became best-selling classical music recordings. More recently, Del Tredici set to music numerous contemporary American poets, often celebrating a gay sexuality. These compositions, including Gay Life and Love Addiction, garnered Del Tredici considerable media attention. He was twice named one of Out Magazine’s “People of the Year.” Del Tredici’s work has been performed by chamber ensembles and orchestras globally and recorded on more than a dozen labels, earning him a Grammy nomination for Best New Classical Composition in 2007.
Del Tredici started studying piano at the age of 11 and gave his first public performance at age 16. He started collecting scholarships and awards for his playing and entered U.C. Berkeley. A few years later, and pianist Leonard Shure’s brusque evaluation of Del Tredici’s playing at the Aspen Music festival in 1958 led him to launch into composing music. He showed his first work, Soliloquy, to Darius Milhaud, the festival’s resident composer, and his encouragement prompted Del Tredici to focus on composition at school. From California, he moved to continue studies at Princeton with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. After Princeton, Del Tredici sent his Fantasy Pieces—set to James Joyce texts—to Aaron Copland. Copland became a mentor and helped secure a commission from Tanglewood Music Festival where he met soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, who was able to make his difficult music work.
Del Tredici taught composition throughout his career, first at Harvard University, from 1966 to 1972 and then at Boston University, from 1973 to 1984. He also taught at Yale, in 1999 and 2000, but his longest association was with the City College of New York, where he taught from 1984 to 2015.
