Jennifer Higdon is among the fortunate contemporary composers whose music receives frequent performances to enthusiastic reception. Audiences and performers alike take to it, and she is swamped with commissions.

It didn’t used to be like that for contemporary composers of the late twentieth century. During the 1970s and ‘80s when Higdon was a composition student at the University of Pennsylvania, the field of contemporary music was dominated by composer/academicians who espoused serialism and/or strict atonality. Their students espoused it too – or rebelled. But if the rebels became academic outcasts, there were audiences out there waiting for them and their more accessible, expressive – even tonal – music. Fortunately for these audiences, a new generation of composers, including Higdon, recognized that orchestras, chamber ensembles, choruses, opera companies and their audiences are the juries of the real world – and they have voted with their pocketbooks.

Growing up, Higdon was exposed to a wide range of musical styles, with a particular fondness for the Beatles. Her music, she says, “…is probably an amalgamation of all the music I ever heard.” When asked whether she decides on a style before she starts, she responded, “I guess I’m too close [to my work]. I never, never, never analyze while I am composing.”

Higdon composed the Low Brass Concerto in 2017 on a co-commissioned from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The one-movement work is written for four soloists: two tenor trombones, bass trombone and tuba.

Higdon noted:

“Normally, when people think of brass they think of power, which is not an inaccurate assessment. But brass players are quick to tell you that they also can play beautiful melodies, and do so quietly and with exquisite control. So early on in the planning process for this concerto, I decided to create music that would emphasize the qualities of majesty, grace, and power.” She notes that low brass players are usually a cheerful and convivial bunch, and she incorporates that spirit into the music.

Higdon holds the Rock Chair in Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, her Alma Mater.