Biography
Composer Harold Meltzer received multiple honors and grants, reached the Pulitzer Prize finals, and established the Sequitur ensemble, serving as its co-director across many seasons. His pieces drew creative impetus from an eclectic range of influences.
Born in Brooklyn on June 8, 1966, Meltzer began his musical training under Morton Estrin in piano and theory. At Amherst College he continued piano studies with Robert Miller, took bassoon lessons from Frank Morelli, and worked in composition with Lewis Spratlan. He next pursued philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge, while studying composition with Alexander Goehr. In 2000 he completed master’s and doctoral degrees at Yale, where his instructors included Martin Bresnick, Anthony Davis, and Richard Rephann. He also obtained a Juris Doctor from Columbia University in 1992. For fifteen years he led the New York-based Sequitur ensemble, which he had founded, and he served on the faculty of Vassar College from 2005 until 2012.
Meltzer produced scores for an unusually broad spectrum of forces, many of them widely praised. Major American institutions such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Library of Congress commissioned works from him. His 2008 piece Brion, scored for flute, oboe, guitar, mandolin, violin, and cello, was named a Pulitzer finalist. Orchestral compositions include Full Faith and Credit (2004) and Fortunes (2016). Solo pieces encompass Blush for cello (2000), Toccatas for harpsichord (2005), and Iconography for piano (2014), along with additional chamber, vocal, and choral music. Naxos issued the first album devoted entirely to his output in 2010 under the title Harold Meltzer: Brion; Sindbad; Exiles. In 2019 he earned a Grammy nomination for Songs and Structures, released on the Bridge label. That same year a severe stroke in Italy left him permanently impaired, and he died on August 12, 2024, at the age of fifty-eight.
Among his distinctions are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Arts and Letters Award in Music, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Barlow and Rome Prizes.
Born in Brooklyn on June 8, 1966, Meltzer began his musical training under Morton Estrin in piano and theory. At Amherst College he continued piano studies with Robert Miller, took bassoon lessons from Frank Morelli, and worked in composition with Lewis Spratlan. He next pursued philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge, while studying composition with Alexander Goehr. In 2000 he completed master’s and doctoral degrees at Yale, where his instructors included Martin Bresnick, Anthony Davis, and Richard Rephann. He also obtained a Juris Doctor from Columbia University in 1992. For fifteen years he led the New York-based Sequitur ensemble, which he had founded, and he served on the faculty of Vassar College from 2005 until 2012.
Meltzer produced scores for an unusually broad spectrum of forces, many of them widely praised. Major American institutions such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Library of Congress commissioned works from him. His 2008 piece Brion, scored for flute, oboe, guitar, mandolin, violin, and cello, was named a Pulitzer finalist. Orchestral compositions include Full Faith and Credit (2004) and Fortunes (2016). Solo pieces encompass Blush for cello (2000), Toccatas for harpsichord (2005), and Iconography for piano (2014), along with additional chamber, vocal, and choral music. Naxos issued the first album devoted entirely to his output in 2010 under the title Harold Meltzer: Brion; Sindbad; Exiles. In 2019 he earned a Grammy nomination for Songs and Structures, released on the Bridge label. That same year a severe stroke in Italy left him permanently impaired, and he died on August 12, 2024, at the age of fifty-eight.
Among his distinctions are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Arts and Letters Award in Music, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Barlow and Rome Prizes.