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John Corigliano
Midsummer Fanfare

John Corigliano, American composer and son of the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, was born on February 16, 1938 in New York City. His compositions have brought him several prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and an Academy Award for the score to François Girard’s film, The Red Violin. He also wrote an opera, The Ghosts of Versailles (1987) which was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1991. John Corigliano's music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. His honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony No. 2, the Grawemeyer Award for his Symphony No. 1, the Academy Award for Best Original Score (The Red Violin), and, of his five Grammy Awards, three for Best Contemporary Composition (Symphony No. 1, String Quartet, and Mr. Tambourine Man). His Midsummer Fanfare was commissioned, and first performed, by the Grant Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago under the direction of Carlos Kolmar on July 16, 2004. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.


Midsummer Fanfare is an exhilarating 6-minute composition that places the mysterious and spooky in juxtaposition with bold and triumphal writing for the brass. The composer provided the following note regarding his Midsummer Fanfare:


Midsummer Fanfare, a reworking of an earlier effort, is actually an introduction and a fanfare. The introduction is ethereal and fragmented-sounding, and reveals the notes of the fanfare in a disguised manner. It slowly builds in both tension and texture until, by its end, the sound is wild and frenzied, pulsing with blurring energy. The fanfare that interrupts this climax is bright and clean-sounding, and like most fanfares spotlights the brass. Starting with the French horns, the melody is then heard in the trombones and finally in the high D trumpets. A short recapitulation of the introductory material and the fanfare itself leads to a furious coda that brings this short work to its climax.

– John Corigliano


Program Note by David B. Levy/John Corigliano, © 2026

John Corigliano
Midsummer Fanfare

John Corigliano, American composer and son of the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, was born on February 16, 1938 in New York City. His compositions have brought him several prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and an Academy Award for the score to François Girard’s film, The Red Violin. He also wrote an opera, The Ghosts of Versailles (1987) which was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1991. John Corigliano's music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. His honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony No. 2, the Grawemeyer Award for his Symphony No. 1, the Academy Award for Best Original Score (The Red Violin), and, of his five Grammy Awards, three for Best Contemporary Composition (Symphony No. 1, String Quartet, and Mr. Tambourine Man). His Midsummer Fanfare was commissioned, and first performed, by the Grant Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago under the direction of Carlos Kolmar on July 16, 2004. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.


Midsummer Fanfare is an exhilarating 6-minute composition that places the mysterious and spooky in juxtaposition with bold and triumphal writing for the brass. The composer provided the following note regarding his Midsummer Fanfare:


Midsummer Fanfare, a reworking of an earlier effort, is actually an introduction and a fanfare. The introduction is ethereal and fragmented-sounding, and reveals the notes of the fanfare in a disguised manner. It slowly builds in both tension and texture until, by its end, the sound is wild and frenzied, pulsing with blurring energy. The fanfare that interrupts this climax is bright and clean-sounding, and like most fanfares spotlights the brass. Starting with the French horns, the melody is then heard in the trombones and finally in the high D trumpets. A short recapitulation of the introductory material and the fanfare itself leads to a furious coda that brings this short work to its climax.

– John Corigliano


Program Note by David B. Levy/John Corigliano, © 2026