Jennifer Higdon makes her living from commissions and receives approximately 250 performances a year of her works. A Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy winner, Higdon works in many genres within classical music: from opera to chamber, symphonic to band, solo works to concerti (18).
Her music has been hailed by Fanfare Magazine as having “the distinction of being at once complex, sophisticated but readily accessible emotionally”, with The Times of London citing it as “traditionally rooted yet imbued with integrity and freshness”. The Chicago Sun Times recently cited her music as “both modern and timeless, complex and sophisticated, and immensely engaging in a way that both charms and galvanizes an audience craving something new and full of urgency, yet not distancing”. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune called her writing “beautiful, accessible, inventive, and impeccably crafted”.
Higdon’s list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic as well such groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and the President’s Own United States Marine Band. She has also written works for such renowned artists as mandolinist Avi Avital, baritone Thomas Hampson and mezzo Sasha Cooke, pianists Yuja Wang and Gary Graffman, and violinists Joshua Bell and Hilary Hahn.
Her work, Blue Cathedral, has been performed throughout the world, and has had more than 800 performances. Jennifer’s Secret & Glass Gardens was a required piece for the semi-finalists of the 2005 Van Cliburn Piano Competition. Her first opera, Cold Mountain, sold out at all four productions and won the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere in 2016. Her second opera, Woman With Eyes Closed, will be premiered by Pittsburgh Opera in May 2025.
Higdon’s works have been recorded on more than 90 CDs.
