Biography

Melinda WAGNER

© Alex Federov

Celebrated as an “...eloquent, poetic voice in contemporary music...” [American Record Guide], Melinda Wagner’s esteemed catalog of works embodies music of exceptional beauty, power, and intelligence. Wagner received widespread attention when her colorful Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Since then, major works have included Concerto for Trombone, for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax, and Little Moonhead, commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as part of its popular “New Brandenburgs” series. Extremity of Sky has been performed by Emanuel Ax with the National Symphony (on tour), the Toronto and Kansas City Symphonies, and the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Championed early on by Daniel Barenboim, Wagner has received three commissions from the Chicago Symphony; the most recent of these, Proceed, Moon, was premiered by the CSO under the baton of Susanna Mälkki in 2017. Other recent performances have come from the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Brentano String Quartet, the Grossman Ensemble, the United States Marine Band, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the American Brass Quintet.

Among honors Wagner has received is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2018 ASCAP Masters Award. Wagner was given an honorary doctorate from Hamilton College, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and serves on the Board of the American Composers Orchestra.

A passionate and inspiring teacher, Melinda Wagner has given master classes at many fine institutions across the United States. She has served as Chair of the Composition Department at Juilliard, and recently served as the Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Frost School of Music, at the University of Miami.

Melinda considered a great honor to work with David Dzubay and the Grossman Ensemble. Limbic Fragments is dedicated to each and every one of these fine musicians, with immense gratitude and admiration.

Work(s)

" Limbic Fragments "

For Ensemble

2024 SELECTION

"The limbic system is an immensely elegant and sophisticated network of interconnected brain structures that regulate certain features of human behavior, emotions, motivation, and arousal— as well as the formation and storage of memory.

I am intrigued by the notion that episodic memories, when connected to strong emotions, become eligible for long-term storage in the brain, while other less “important” memories tend to fall victim to routine neurological “housekeeping.”

I have come to believe that stored ideas are very much alive, and continue to evolve, independent of us, even while we are performing mundane tasks—or sleeping. This miracle is an essential part of the creative process: composers in particular must remember not only the sounds around them, but also their own incipient, evolving ideas—while creating a new piece.

Limbic Fragments seemed an apt title for a work that involves a series of energetic, yet largely inconclusive episodes, whose “loose ends,” I hope, serve to increase the momentum of the music from one section to the next—similar, perhaps, to the way memories sometimes come at us, cascading and tumbling over each other, fast and furious."

- Melinda Wagner