Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe

Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe

(born April 30, 1939, Miami, Fla., U.S.) U.S. composer. She was trained as a violinist, studying with Ivan Galamian (1903–81). She studied composition with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions at Juilliard. Her straightforward and expressive music won wide recognition; her Symphony No. 1 (1983) was the first composition by a woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. A prolific composer whose works were performed regularly, she is noted for writing music that is both substantive and accessible.