“Dominick Argento, the 1975 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, has died. He was 91,” reads an unsigned Thursday (2/21) Associated Press report. “Argento died Wednesday in Minneapolis, according to Carol Ann Cheung, a spokeswoman for his music publisher, Boosey & Hawkes. Known for composing in styles ranging from melody to dissonance, he earned the Pulitzer for ‘From the Diary of Virginia Woolf,’ a composition for voice and piano. He also won a 2003 Grammy Award for best classical contemporary composition for ‘Casa Guidi,’ recorded by mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and the Minnesota Orchestra. Argento’s operas include ‘The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe,’ ‘Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night,’ ‘Postcard from Morocco,’ ‘Casanova’s Homecoming,’ ‘The Aspern Papers’ and ‘The Dream of Valentino.’ Born in York, Pennsylvania, he received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Peabody Conservatory. He studied in Italy after earning fellowships, became music director of Hilltop Opera in Baltimore and taught at the Eastman School in Rochester, New York. In 1958, he joined the faculty of the Department of Music at the University of Minnesota, where he taught until 1997 and later held the rank of Professor Emeritus.”
Posted February 27, 2019
