# Are there any prominent "young" classical composers today?



## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Just looking through this Wikipedia list, I've realized that most living composers that I am aware of are over 70 years old, with some from 40-70. Although I maybe haven't explored enough 21st century classical music, I find it kind of surprising that the only two composers under 40 that I really know anything about are Alma Deutscher and Emily Bear. Dobrinka Tabakova, Lev Zhurbin, and Guðmundur Gunnarsson sound like names I might have heard before, but that's pretty much.

So, are there any "young" classical composers that might be either promising or already established good composers? Also, is this even an unusual phenomenon, or do composers typically only become well-known at an older age? Thanks in advance.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Here you go... Ms. Spinei is pretty young and a wonderful composer here 

http://www.blindearmusic.com/Blind_Ear_Music/Cristina_Spinei.html


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

CoAG started a particularly good thread on that subject, that led to many worthy suggestions and links:

http://www.talkclassical.com/31712-new-generations.html


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## Guest (Mar 16, 2015)

I have a running list of composers I really like that are born after 1900. Here's page 2...

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/jcpcc14/great_composers_born_after_1900/2/

...Now if you scroll down all the way, you see my knowledge comes to a halt around 1977. Part of this is my very limited knowledge, but my knowledge is very much limited by recordings.

So it might be fair to say that it takes a composer until their mid-30's to have a decent number of recordings floating around after a long process of schooling and non-recorded exposure.

Of those from my list born after 1970, Thorvaldsdottir is getting a good bit of press now ('77) and some of the folk born in the earlier '70s are already thriving as much as anyone (Ades, Pintscher, Widmann...)


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

A lot of the composers on the inciptisfy and score follower youtube channels are relatively young.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

nathanb said:


> So it might be fair to say that it takes a composer until their mid-30's to have a decent number of recordings floating around after a long process of schooling and non-recorded exposure.


I think we could say more generally that it takes most composers until their 30s to hit their stride anyway. Even your Beethovens and Bachs.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Also, musicrom, there are some young composers who are listed in the composer guestbook section here so that's a good start as well if you want to find young composers who are ready to get their just due in the sunlight.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Adès is 44 now, so I don't know if he's young enough to count, but he is a very good composer.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Nico Muhly's name sure is way out there for a young composer. I am not speaking for his music, as I feel I don't know it well enough, but his career sure is "in lights"

I would say the same is even more true of Thomas Ades. Britain loves this fellow. He is quite prominent in their musical scene and has quite an impressive output considering that he is only, what, like 42 years of age.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Alma Deutscher is the only name you need to know. Point, Game, Match.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

an example of 34 year old Nico Muhly's work:


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

*Greenberg*

I'd nominate Jay Greenberg for this list. I've listened to his 5th symphony and string quintet a number of times, and both are tremendous achievements for one so young. He's about 22 or 23 this year.

His 5th symphony, at least the first movement can be heard at 



 and the other movements are available on YouTube as well.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Some of my favorite composers under 40. (I don't know the ages of Gibson and Worthington, but I guess they are young.) I have not checked out the works of all of them thoroughly yet. I also want to try out the higly praised work of Caroline Shaw (b. 1982).

Adrian Knight (b. 1987) ... beautiful minimalism (time of my life)
Nico Muhly (b. 1981) ... catchy & complex (Drones)
Nick Storring (b. 1981) ... musical melting pot (Aigre-Douce)
Anna Clyne (b. 1980) ... just wonderful! (The Violin)
Dai Fujikura (b. 1977) ... sharp & edgy
Simon Steen-Andersen (b. 1976) ... astounding
Randy Gibson (?) ... marvellous microtonalist (Aqua Madora for just intonation piano and sine wave drones)
Scott Worthington (?) ... _Even the Light Itself Falls_ is my 2013 best


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Add in Mason Bates for sure. His piece "Mothership" is a landmark work already... also he has collaborated with Hilary Hahn before as well.

Definitely an up and coming rising star here.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

This is actually quite a good question. A google search of composers under 40 or even under 30 will turn up heaps of names. I can sorta see why you might ask for interpretation and suggestions from the crowd but just diving in based on descriptions and audio clips seems fun to me as well. The problem with these listicles is they are generally American - gives you a good line-up of a particular type of emerging music: plenty of minimalism, pop-rock influences, non-western musicians alongside more "modernist" fare. Lists of European composers less available 

A little sad to see the so-called "prodigies" like Deutscher, Bear and Greenberg coming up again


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

dgee said:


> The problem with these listicles is they are generally American - gives you a good line-up of a particular type of emerging music: plenty of minimalism, pop-rock influences, non-western musicians alongside more "modernist" fare. Lists of European composers less available


That is an interesting observation. I thought it's just me because I myself have a preference for minimal / post minimal and American music, but as you stated, Americans are dominant in the 21st century composers list of wikipedia. Are there actually less young European composers? Are they doing different things, such as improvisation or electroacoustic, or other ultra avant-garde stuff, which are not recognized as works of compositions in a traditional sense?


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Bruce said:


> I'd nominate Jay Greenberg for this list. I've listened to his 5th symphony and string quintet a number of times, and both are tremendous achievements for one so young. He's about 22 or 23 this year.
> 
> His 5th symphony, at least the first movement can be heard at
> 
> ...


Yeah, he is/ was a childhood prodigy and wrote some very impressive music.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Albert7 said:


> Add in Mason Bates for sure. His piece "Mothership" is a landmark work already... also he has collaborated with Hilary Hahn before as well.
> 
> Definitely an up and coming rising star here.


I heard his recent cello concerto at its premier and was impressed.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

tortkis said:


> That is an interesting observation. I thought it's just me because I myself have a preference for minimal / post minimal and American music, but as you stated, Americans are dominant in the 21st century composers list of wikipedia. Are there actually less young European composers? Are they doing different things, such as improvisation or electroacoustic, or other ultra avant-garde stuff, which are not recognized as works of compositions in a traditional sense?


I'd always assumed it was a language thing (probably not in English so a bit invisible to me) or a cultural thing (serious Europeans don't make listicles!). I know there's a lot of under-40 composers in Europe (and Latin-America but I've never seen them packaged up


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Regarding listicles being mostly American......Europe is known for even more academic, unapproachable music than even the U.S.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

It depends on what you mean by young ... Jennifer Higdon is now in her early 50s but has been very visible for over 15 years. She has been very successful in terms of compositions and performances, has won a Pulitzer (FWIW). One of her works, _blue cathedral_, has, according to wiki, been performed by over 400 orchestras!


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

dgee said:


> I'd always assumed it was a language thing (probably not in English so a bit invisible to me) or a cultural thing (serious Europeans don't make listicles!). I know there's a lot of under-40 composers in Europe (and Latin-America but I've never seen them packaged up





Gaspard de la Nuit said:


> Regarding listicles being mostly American......Europe is known for even more academic, unapproachable music than even the U.S.


I don't know how much unbiased it is, but The Living Composers Project seems to cover broader range of composers than Wikipedia(US). (Wikipedia German or France may have similar articles?)

Fun Facts of The Living Composers Project (LCP)

_- The country that has the most number of composers represented in the LCP is the USA, with the UK in second place and Germany in third place.

- The countries that have the least number of composers represented in the LCP are Algeria, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Congo (Kinshasa), the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, Montenegro, Morocco, Nigeria, and the Sudan, all tied at one composer per country. Of course, several countries have no composer yet represented._

However, UK has the highest ratio of composers at 40 or younger to the population.

USA: 308 (population 319 milion) ~1.0 per milion
UK: 69 (population 64 minion) ~1.1 per milion
Germany: 43 (population 81 milion) ~0.5 per milion
France: 14 (population 66 milion) ~0.2 per milion


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Some not yet mentioned whom I rate highly:

Cheryl Frances-Hoad (b 1980)
Tarik O'Regan (b 1978)
Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergey)(b 1975)
Mantas Savickis (b 1986)
Dobrinka Tabakova (b 1980)
Huw Watkins (b 1978)


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## mogsie (Mar 20, 2014)

my offer to this thread would be kjartan sviennson,


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

musicrom said:


> Just looking through this Wikipedia list, I've realized that most living composers that I am aware of are over 70 years old, with some from 40-70. Although I maybe haven't explored enough 21st century classical music, I find it kind of surprising that the only two composers under 40 that I really know anything about are Alma Deutscher and Emily Bear. Dobrinka Tabakova, Lev Zhurbin, and Guðmundur Gunnarsson sound like names I might have heard before, but that's pretty much.
> 
> So, are there any "young" classical composers that might be either promising or already established good composers? Also, is this even an unusual phenomenon, or do composers typically only become well-known at an older age? Thanks in advance.


Alma Deutscher, prodigy

http://www.almadeutscher.com/


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