May 5, 2008 (Vol. 7, No. 8)

Detroit School Children to Perform for Lehman Composer

Students from the Independence Elementary School in suburban Detroit will perform for Lehman College Distinguished Professor of Music John Corigliano—one of the leading composers of his generation—on Monday, May 12, at 1 p.m. EDT. The 400 students expected to attend, joined by their teachers and parents, will also have an opportunity to discuss music and ask questions via a videoconference link set up between the school and Lehman College.

It all started with an innocent question last year to Independence Elementary Music Teacher Gwen Stewart by one of her eight-year-old students. "Mrs. Stewart," the young boy asked, "why have all the composers been dead for a long time?"

So this year, Ms. Stewart named Prof. Corigliano "Composer of the Year," and her students have been studying his works. They even sent him homemade cards and letters for his 70th birthday earlier this year.

"I am proud to have introduced my students to a composer of your caliber," she wrote in a note, describing him as "a composer who writes sublime music that reaches even the smallest of ears, and hearts."

Prof. Corigliano received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his "Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra" and the 2000 Academy Award for Best Original Score for "The Red Violin," a Canadian film that chronicles the story of one violin over several centuries. He has received other major world music prizes, including several Grammy Awards for recordings of his work. He has taught at Lehman since 1972.

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