Curated playlist
20th-century American classical composers
- Kurt WeillA song Kurt Weill wrote for a petty criminal in 1928 became a jazz standard.
- Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its 1913 Paris premiere.
- George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He collapsed at age 38 while working on a film score.
- Ezra PoundEzra Pound cut T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land by about half. Eliot called the edits proof of Pound's critical genius.
- John CageJohn Cage once had a pianist play nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Audience noise became the music.
- Roger SessionsComposer Roger Sessions won a Pulitzer Prize for a whole career, then another for one concerto.
- Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
- John WilliamsSteven Spielberg laughed at John Williams's two-note Jaws theme, thinking it was a joke.
- Billy JoelWilliam Martin Joel, better known as Billy Joel, left Hicksville High School in 1967 without a diploma. He had missed a crucial English exam after playing a late-night gig at a piano bar, where he earned money to help support his mother…
- Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
- Jennifer HigdonJennifer Higdon taught herself flute from an old method book. She later won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music.