Ithaca College

Composer Melinda Wagner will present an informal talk about her music and musical life this Sunday, April 9th, at 8:15p.m.Iger Lecture Hall JJWCM 2105.  She is the college’s Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition this year.

Her colorful Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, commissioned by Paul Lustig Dunkel and the Westchester Philharmonic, was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music (the only flute concerto to date to win the coveted award). Since then, she has written Concerto for Trombone, for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax, who has also performed it with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Staatskapelle Berlin. In addition to Extremity of Sky (2002), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has commissioned two other major works: Falling Angels (1992), and a forthcoming work.

Ms. Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, Network for New Music, the Empyrean and Left Coast Ensembles, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Little Moonhead), and other leading organizations. She has also written for band: Scamp (commissioned by the United States Marine Band), and a band version of 57/7 Dash. Among her many other commissions are those from the Barlow Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations, the Ernst and Young Emerging Composers Fund, the American Brass Quintet, and guitarist David Starobin.

Melinda Wagner has taught at Brandeis University, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College. She has lectured at many schools including Yale, Cornell, Juilliard, and Mannes, and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, percussionist James Saporito, and their children.


Concerts are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.  Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodation should contact the School of Music at 607-274-3717.