Jennifer Higdon

Born: December 31, 1962, Brooklyn, New York

Fanfare Ritmico

• Composed: 1999–2000
  
• Premiere: March 2000 by the Women’s Philharmonic, San Francisco
  
• CSO Notable Performances:
  • First: May 2005, Paavo Järvi conducting. 
  • Most Recent: March 2025 as part of a Young People’s Concert, Samuel Lee conducting. 
  • Recording: Released in 2011 on American Portraits, Paavo Järvi conducting.
• Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. piccolo), 3 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, piano, strings
• Duration: approx. 7 minutes

Jennifer Higdon is one of America’s most acclaimed figures in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto, a 2018 Grammy for her Viola Concerto and a 2020 Grammy for her Harp Concerto. Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain, won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere and the opera recording was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Her work, All Things Majestic, written for the Grand Teton Music Festival, is part of that national park’s visitor center experience. The Library of Congress has added the recording of her Percussion Concerto to the National Recording Registry.

In 2018, Higdon received the prestigious Nemmers Prize, awarded to contemporary classical composers of exceptional achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition. Most recently, she was inducted into the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works, and her music has been recorded on more than 90 CDs. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press. jenniferhigdon.com

Fanfare Ritmico was commissioned by the San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic and premiered in March 2000. It was part of an initiative called “The Fanfares Project” that was part of The Women’s Philharmonic’s drive for “the promotion of women composers, conductors and performers.” A wind ensemble version, commissioned by the Alpha Lambda Chapter of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity at Illinois Wesleyan University, received its world premiere in April 2002 by the Illinois Wesleyan Wind Ensemble, Steven W. Eggleston, conducting.

Higdon describes Fanfare Ritmico as follows:

Fanfare Ritmico celebrates the rhythm and speed (tempo) of life. Writing this work on the eve of the move into the new Millennium, I found myself reflecting on how all things have quickened as time has progressed. Our lives now move at speeds much greater than what I believe anyone would have ever imagined in years past. Everyone follows the beat of their own drummer, and those drummers are beating faster and faster on many different levels. As we move along day to day, rhythm plays an integral part of our lives, from the individual heartbeat to the lightning speed of our computers. This fanfare celebrates that rhythmic motion, of man and machine, and the energy which permeates every moment of our being in the new century.