Melinda Wagner achieved widespread attention when her colorful Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1999. Since then, major compositions have included Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax and Elegy Flywheel, composed for the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19 series. Wagner has received a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and ASCAP. She is currently Chair of the Department of Composition at The Juilliard School.