Before 1964 Corigliano was born in New York City to a musical family. His Italian-American father, John Paul Corigliano Sr., was
concertmaster of the
New York Philharmonic for 23 years. Corigliano's mother, Rose Buzen, an educator and pianist, He attended P.S. 241 and
Midwood High School in Brooklyn. He studied composition at
Columbia University (BA 1959) and at the
Manhattan School of Music. He studied with
Otto Luening,
Vittorio Giannini, and
Paul Creston. Before achieving success as a composer, Corigliano worked as assistant to the producer on the
Leonard Bernstein ''
Young People's Concerts'' and as a session producer for classical artists such as
André Watts. He was also music director for New York's listener-sponsored radio station
WBAI.
1964–1987 Corigliano first came to prominence in 1964 at the age of 26 when his Sonata for Violin and Piano (1963) was the only winner of the chamber-music competition of the
Spoleto Festival in Italy. In 1970, Corigliano teamed up with
David Hess to create
The Naked Carmen. In a recent communication with David Hess, Hess acknowledged that
The Naked Carmen was originally conceived by Corigliano and himself as a way to update the most popular opera of our time (
Carmen). Mercury Records wanted the classical and popular divisions to work together and after a meeting with Joe Bott, Scott Mampe and Bob Reno, it was decided to proceed with the project. In Hess's own words, the project was "a collective decision". After he was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship, Corigliano began teaching at the Manhattan School of Music and became a music faculty member at Lehman College. He credits his first two concerti for solo wind for both changing his art and his career. It was during the composition of his
Oboe Concerto (1975) and especially his
Clarinet Concerto (1977) that he first used an "architectural" method of composing. In 1974, he wrote his first film score for the documentary
A Williamsburg Sampler. He later wrote the score for
Altered States (1980) for which he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Score. The award-winning score for
Revolution (1985), his third film, is one of Corigliano's most impressive creations, although it is less known, as it was never released in any recorded format; it has existed in a bootleg form until
Varèse Sarabande officially released the score for a limited time in December 2009 through their CD club, and then as a regular release in 2010. Corigliano later used portions of the score in his first symphony. He composed for flutist
James Galway his third wind concerto, titled
Pied Piper Fantasy, which premiered with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic (1982). In 1984, he became distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and left his position at Manhattan School of Music in 1986.
1987–present In 1987, Corigliano was the first composer to serve as
composer-in-residence for the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During his residency, he composed
his first symphony, which was inspired by the
AIDS epidemic and to honor the friends he lost. His first symphony won him the
University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1991 and his first
Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 1992. Corigliano's first opera,
The Ghosts of Versailles, was the
Metropolitan Opera's first commission in nearly three decades, celebrating the company's 100th anniversary. The opera was a huge success at the premiere and received the
International Classical Music Awards Composition of the Year award in 1992. Other important commissions have been
Chiaroscuro (1997) for two pianos tuned a
quarter tone apart for
The Dranoff International Two Piano Foundation,
Vocalise (1999) for the New York Philharmonic,
Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2003) which earned him his third Grammy Award,
Symphony No. 3 Circus Maximus (2004) for the
University of Texas Wind Ensemble,
STOMP (2011) written for the 2011
Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia, and
Conjurer (2008) commissioned by an international consortium of six orchestras for percussionist
Evelyn Glennie and winning him his fifth Grammy Award. Among Corigliano's students are
David Sampson,
Eric Whitacre,
Elliot Goldenthal,
Edward Knight,
Nico Muhly,
Dinuk Wijeratne and
David Ludwig. In 1996, The
Corigliano Quartet was founded, taking his name in tribute. In 2022 eight female former Juilliard students alleged that Corigliano had taught very few female students during his tenure there, claiming that he had an "unofficial policy" of refusing to teach women. ==Music==