- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSamuel Osborne Barber
- Composer ("Adagio for Strings", "Overture to 'The School for Scandal'"). He was educated at the Curtis Institute, and studied with Isabelle Vengerova, Emilio de Gogorza, Fritz Reiner, and Rosario Scalero. He was awarded an honorary music degree from Harvard University. He was a sergeant in the USAF during World War II. He conducted and recorded his own compositions with orchestras in the USA and in Europe. Joining ASCAP in 1939, his chief musical collaborator was Gian Carlo Menotti. He received the American Prix de Rome in 1935, a Guggenheim fellowship, and Pulitzer awards in 1935 and 1936, plus the Bearns Prize for the "Overture to 'The School for Scandal'". His works besides the above-mentioned include: "Serenade for Strings Quartet"; "Cello Sonata"; "Music for a Scene from Shelley"; "String Quartet No. 1"; "2 Essays for Orchestra"; "Three Reincarnations: A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map"; "Violin Concerto"; "Commando March"; "Capricorn Concerto"; "4 Excursions for Piano"; "Cello Concerto" (NY Music Critics Award, 1946); "Medea (ballet)"; "Nuvoletta"; "Knoxville: Summer of 1915"; "Piano Sonata"; "Souveniers (ballet)"; "Prayers of Kierkegaard (cantata)"; "Hermit Songs" "Summer Music for Woodwind Quintet"; "Vanessa" (opera, Pulitzer Prize, 1958); "A Hand of Bridge"; "Toccata Festiva"; "Nocturne"; "Adromache's Farewell"; "Piano Concerto No. 1" (Pulitzer Prize, 1963, NY Music Critics Award, 1964); "Antony and Cleopatra (opera)" (Metropolitan Opera Ford Foundation commission); and two symphonies.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
- Lyrical, haunting, unforgettable melodies
- Was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to write a new American opera, for the inaugural opening of the new Met at Lincoln Center, September 16, 1966. The result of this commission was "Antony and Cleopatra." The libretto was by Franco Zeffirelli.
- His 1958 opera "Vanessa," comissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and his 1962 Piano Concerto, comissioned by the opening festivities of Lincoln Center, both individually won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, in their respective years.
- Made his entire financial income almost exclusively by composing music.
- Attended B. Reed West Chester Henderson High School, and is credited for composing alma mater. (Class of 1926)
- Pictured on one of a set of eight 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, issued 12 September 1997, celebrating "Classical Composers & Conductors". Others honored in this issue are Leopold Stokowski, Arthur Fiedler, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Ferde Grofé Sr., Charles Ives, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk.
- I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure...Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football - please. [To his mother, as a young child.]
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