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Peter Boyer was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1970. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhode Island College, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He then studied privately with Academy Award-winning composer John Corigliano in New York, and moved to Los Angeles to study film/TV scoring at USC, where his teachers included Elmer Bernstein.
To date, Boyer has worked primarily as an orchestral composer for the concert hall, where he has had much success. His orchestral works have received well over 200 public performances, by more than 80 orchestras. He has conducted recordings of his music with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia. His concert works have received national broadcasts by NPR in the U.S., and by radio networks throughout Europe and Australia. He has received seven national awards for his work, including two BMI Awards for young composers, and the First Music Carnegie Hall commission. Orchestras which have performed his music include the Dallas Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, and dozens of others.
Boyer’s major work “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” for actors and orchestra, which celebrates the historic American immigrant experience, has been his most successful composition to date. Premiered in 2002, the work receives its 100th live performance in the 2009-10 season. Boyer recorded this work with a cast of renowned actors: Barry Bostwick, Blair Brown, Olympia Dukakis, Anne Jackson, Bebe Neuwirth, Eli Wallach, and Louis Zorich, directed by Martin Charnin. This recording was released by Naxos in its American Classics Series in May 2005, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
In addition to his work for the concert hall, Boyer is active in the film and television music industry as a composer, orchestrator and conductor. He has orchestrated music for a number of major films, including “Star Trek,” “Up,” and “Mission: Impossible III” (all for composer Michael Giacchino); twice arranged music for the Academy Awards telecasts; and composed music for The History Channel. Boyer has taught since 1996 at Claremont Graduate University, where he holds the Helen M. Smith Chair in Music and the rank of Full Professor.
Established in 1959, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award is the oldest award of its kind in the nation. Its purpose is to recognize and honor contemporary composers who are making a particularly significant contribution in the field of symphonic music, not only through their own creative efforts but also as effective personal advocates of new approaches to the broadening of critical and appreciative standards. While the judgment of any creative work ultimately rests upon the artist, it is nevertheless true that, in music as in other arts, appreciation often stems from personal association. The appearance of an outstanding composer before the more than 2,500 patrons of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra generates not only greater interest in his work but also a more appreciative hearing of contemporary music.
The Composer's Award is given as the key feature of a program designed to encourage and actively develop a special interest in modern music and contemporary composers on the part of the audiences of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, to the end that this Pennsylvania community may serve as an example in the advancement of greater understanding and appreciation of contemporary music everywhere.
The award is made in connection with a regular concert by the Lancaster Symphony at which a representative work of the composer being honored is performed. In the acceptance of the award, the composer gives a short talk, summarizing his/her individual approach to musical composition.
1959 - Howard Hanson
1960 - Peter Mennin
1963 - Henry Cowell
1964 - Vincent Persichetti
1965 - William Schuman
1966 - Walter Piston
1967 - Norman Dello Joio
1968 - Alan Hovhaness
1969 - Roger Sessions
1970 - Paul Creston
1971 - Virgil Thomson
1972 - Gunther Schuller
1973 - Gian Carlo Menotti
1974 - Leroy Anderson
1975 - Richard Yardumian
1976 - David Amram
1977 - David Diamond
1978 - Louis A. Mennini
1979 - Robert Ward
1980 - Morton Gould
1981 - Jacob Druckman
1982 - Ned Rorem
1983 - David Del Tredici
1984 - Elie Siegmeister
1985 - Benjamin Lees
1986 - George Rochberg
1987 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
1988 - John Corigliano
1989 - Ulysses Kay
1990 - John Harbison
1991 - Stephen Albert
1992 - Joseph Schwantner
1993 - Russell Peck
1994 - Stephen Paulus
1995 - David Ott
1996 - William Bolcom
1998 - George T. Walker
1999 - James “Kimo” Williams
2000 - Christopher Rouse
2001 - Aaron Jay Kernis
2002 - Lukas Foss
2003 - Joan Tower
2004 - Bernard Rands
2005 - Michael Daugherty
2006 - Richard Danielpour
2007 - Peter Schickele
2008 - Jennifer Higdon
2009 - Miguel del Aguila
2010 - Peter Boyer
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Last updated Monday, March 01, 2010; 11:08:26 AM
Nancy LeVasseur, Web Content Manager
©2005 - 2010 Lancaster Symphony Orchestra
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