Many of his compositions were commissioned or first performed by such famous artists as Vladimir Horowitz, Eleanor Steber, Raya Garbousova, John Browning, Leontyne Price, Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
It premiered successfully two years later in a performance given by the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Alexander Smallens. His first orchestral work, an overture to The School for Scandal, was composed in 1931 when he was 21 years old. Middle yearsįrom his early to late twenties, Barber wrote a flurry of successful compositions, launching him into the spotlight of the classical music world. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his violin sonata (now lost or destroyed by the composer). At the age of 18, Barber won the Joseph H. Bok that Barber was introduced to his lifelong publishers, the Schirmer family. He soon became a favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok. At the Curtis Institute, Barber was a triple prodigy in composition, voice, and piano. Around the same time, he met fellow Curtis schoolmate Gian Carlo Menotti, who became his partner in life as well as in their shared profession. He began composing seriously in his late teenage years. When he was 14, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova, composition with Rosario Scalero and George Frederick Boyle, and voice with Emilio de Gogorza. At the age of 12, he became an organist at a local church. īarber attempted to write his first opera, entitled The Rose Tree, at the age of 10. I'll ask you one more thing.-Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.- Please-Sometimes I've been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very). I was meant to be a composer, and will be I'm sure. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlet. I suppose I will have to tell it now without any nonsense. Now don't cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. At the age of nine he wrote to his mother:ĭear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret. He began studying the piano at the age of 6 and at age 7 composed his first work, Sadness, a 23-measure solo piano piece in C minor. Through his aunt, Barber had access to many great singers and songs.Īt a very early age, Barber became profoundly interested in music, and it was apparent that he had great musical talent and ability. Louise Homer is known to have influenced Barber's interest in voice. His aunt, Louise Homer, was a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera his uncle, Sidney Homer, was a composer of American art songs. His father was a physician his mother, called Daisy, was a pianist of English-Scottish-Irish descent whose family had lived in the United States since the time of the American Revolutionary War. He was born into a comfortable, educated, social, and distinguished American family. īarber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Samuel Le Roy Barber.
At the time of his death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded. Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century: music critic Donal Henahan stated that "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." Samuel Osborne Barber II (Ma– January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music.
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