Jennifer Elaine Higdon is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto in 2010, Viola Concerto in 2018, and Harp Concerto in 2020. Elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019, she was a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1994 to 2021.
Higdon speaking at the 2014 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to composers for quality works of contemporary classical music. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Aaron Copland was the first recipient of the award.
The composer Igor Stravinsky won in 1962 and 1963.
Three-time winner Samuel Barber (photograph by Carl Van Vechten).
The composer Krzysztof Penderecki, the winner in 1988 and 1999.