Charles Wuorinen (1938-2020), who until the age of 6 was not sure whether he wanted to be an astrophysicist or a composer, amassed a catalog of nearly 300 works in every genre. He wrote the operas Haroun and the Sea of Stories with James Fenton, and Brokeback Mountain with Annie Proulx. In 1970, at 32, Charles was the youngest composer ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking and timeless full-length purely electronic work, Time’s Encomium. He later became one of the first composers to win a MacArthur, the “genius award.”

Wuorinen received his MA from Columbia in 1963. With Harvey Sollberger, he founded the Group for Contemporary Music in 1962. It was the first contemporary music ensemble based at a university and run by composers. “The Group” as it was known, commissioned and premiered hundreds of works and cultivated a new generation of performers. Together they worked with major composers such as Boulez, Babbitt, Cage, Carter, Copland, Davidovsky, Feldman, Takemitsu, Varèse, and Wolpe.

Wuorinen went on to be championed by Fred Sherry, Peter Serkin, Ursula Oppens, Oliver Knussen, James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas and Peter Martins, who commissioned Charles for seven ballets for the New York City Ballet. As a conductor and pianist, he appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, L.A. Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.

Wuorinen has been described as a “maximalist,” writing music luxuriant with events, lyrical and expressive, strikingly dramatic. His works are characterized by powerful harmonies and elegant craftsmanship, offering at once a link to the music of the past and a vision of a rich musical future.