Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, conductor, teacher, and author affectionately remembered as the 'Dean of American Composers'. Born in Brooklyn, he traveled to Paris in 1921 to become the first American student of legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger.

Upon returning to the United States, Copland sought to forge a distinctively American classical music that spoke directly to wide democratic audiences. His open, resonant harmonies, expansive spacing, and incorporation of cowboy ballads and folk melodies defined the sonic landscape of the American frontier in masterpieces like Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning ballet Appalachian Spring (1944).