Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. A

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the

Los Angeles Master Chorale The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional chorus in Los Angeles, California, and one of the resident companies of both The Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one of the t ...

from 1994 to 2001, and is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Composition at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

Thornton School of Music The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...

, where he taught for 52 years until his retirement in 2019.

br>Profile

About

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

and lookout (on an isolated tower near

Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United St ...

), where he remained on this tower alone for 10 weeks. Lauridsen stated that it was a great time of self-reflection for him, and that it helped him realize that music needed to become a central part of his life. He attended

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

for 2 years, before traveling south to study composition at the

with

Ingolf Dahl Ingolf Dahl (June 9, 1912 – August 6, 1970) was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Biography Dahl was born Walter Ingolf Marcus in Hamburg, Germany, to a German Jewish father, attorney Paul Marcus, and his Swed ...

Halsey Stevens Halsey Stevens (December 3, 1908 – January 20, 1989) was a music professor, biographer, and composer of American music. Life Halsey Stevens was born in Scott, New York and educated at Syracuse University and the University of California, Ber ...

, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on their faculty ever since. In 2006, Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. In 2007 he received the

from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide". His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominations, including ''

O Magnum Mysterium O magnum mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. Text The text is drawn from the Matins of Christmas in the Roman Breviary. ; Latin text: : O magnum mysterium, : et admirabile sacramentum, : ut animalia viderent Do ...

'' by the Tiffany Consort, ''A Company of Voices'' by

Conspirare Conspirare is a choral ensemble based in Austin, Texas. They were formed in 1991 by conductor and musical director Craig Hella Johnson as New Texas Festival but did not begin to regularly perform until 1999. They have released over 25 albums and ...

, ''Sound The Bells'' by The Bay Brass, and two all-Lauridsen discs entitled ''Lux Aeterna'' by the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by

Paul Salamunovich Paul Salamunovich KCSG (June 7, 1927April 3, 2014) was a Grammy-nominated, American conductor and educator. He was the Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1991 to 2001 and its Music Director Emeritus from 2001 until his death in ...

, and ''Nocturnes'' with the

Polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

choir and the

Britten Sinfonia Britten Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra ensemble based in Cambridge, UK. It was created in 1992, following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognised the need for an orchestra in the ...

conducted by

Stephen Layton Stephen David Layton (born 23 December 1966) is an English conductor. Biography Layton was raised in Derby, where his father was a church organist. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College a ...

. His principal publishers are

Peermusic Peermusic is a United States-based independent music publisher. History Ralph Peer, a field recording engineer and A&R representative for Victor Records, went on a scouting trip to Bristol, Tennessee. For two weeks, he recorded artists such as ...

(New York/Hamburg) and

Faber Music Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications. Faber Music has close relations to th ...

(London). A recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and commissions, Lauridsen chaired the Composition department at the

USC Thornton School of Music The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...

from 1990 to 2002 and founded the School's Advanced Studies program in Film Scoring. He has held residencies as guest composer/lecturer at over 100 universities and has received honorary doctorates from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

Westminster Choir College Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's Westminster College of the Arts, the college under which the historic institution has b ...

, King's College,

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

, Scotland, and

. In 2014 he was invited to be Honorary Artistic President of Interkultur/World Choir Games. In 2016 he was awarded the

ASCAP Foundation The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

Life in Music Award. In late February 2020, via an update on his Facebook page, Lauridsen revealed he had retired from the Thornton School of Music in the spring of 2019, after having taught classes there for over 50 years. He will still travel to university residencies and concerts worldwide. Lauridsen now divides his time between Los Angeles and his home in the

San Juan Archipelago The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

off the northern coast of Washington State.

Compositions

His eight vocal cycles and two collections—''Les Chansons des Roses'' (Rilke), ''Mid-Winter Songs'' (Graves), ''A Winter Come'' (Moss), ''Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems'', ''Nocturnes'' (Rilke, Neruda and Agee), ''Cuatro Canciones'' (Lorca), ''Four Madrigals on Renaissance Texts'', ''A Backyard Universe'', ''Five Songs on American Poems'' (Moss, Witt, Gioia and Agee) and ''Lux Aeterna''—his series of sacred a cappella motets (''

O magnum mysterium O magnum mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. Text The text is drawn from the Matins of Christmas in the Roman Breviary. ; Latin text: : O magnum mysterium, : et admirabile sacramentum, : ut animalia viderent Do ...

'', ''Ave Maria'', ''O Nata Lux'', ''Ubi caritas et amor'', and ''Ave Dulcissima Maria'') and numerous instrumental works are featured regularly in concert by distinguished artists and ensembles throughout the world. ''O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on'' (from ''Les Chansons des Roses''), ''O Nata Lux'' (from ''Lux Aeterna'') and ''Sure On This Shining Night'' (from ''Nocturnes'') have become the all-time best-selling choral octavos distributed by Theodore Presser, in business since 1783. His musical approaches are very diverse, ranging from direct to abstract in response to various characteristics (subject matter, language, style, structure, historical era, etc.) of the texts he sets. His Latin sacred settings, such as the ''Lux Aeterna'' and motets, often reference Gregorian chant plus Medieval and Renaissance procedures while blending them within a freshly contemporary sound while other works such as the ''Madrigali'' and ''Cuatro Canciones'' are highly chromatic or atonal. His music has an overall lyricism and is tightly constructed around melodic and harmonic motifs. Referring to Lauridsen's sacred music, the musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple said he was "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered ... From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed

Randall Thompson Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works. Career Randall attended The Lawrenceville School, where his father was an English teacher. He then attended Harvard University, ...

as the most frequently performed American choral composer."Wine, Tom ''et al.'' (2007). ''Composers on Composing for Choir'' Graphite Publishing. Pg. 69–70.

Vocal works

Recordings

Over 200 recordings of works by Morten Lauridsen have been released, including five that have received

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nominations. Nine All-Lauridsen CDs:

Sheet music sales and performances

Morten Lauridsen is currently one of America's most performed composers, with hundreds of performances each year throughout the world in venues including

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

, the Vatican,

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

and

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. Over one million copies of his scores have been sold and his Dirait-on, O Magnum Mysterium and O Nata Lux have become the all-time best selling octavos distributed by the

Theodore Presser The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music publ ...

Co., in business since 1783. Recordings of Morten Lauridsen's compositions are featured regularly on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, and he is a frequent interview guest on radio and television programs, including a recent KCET '' Life and Times'' program, the oft-repeated national broadcast of "A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen" on ''First Art'', and a nationally broadcast Christmas Day feature on NPR's ''

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

'' with Scott Simon. He has been profiled in several extended printed articles, including those in the ''Los Angeles Times'' "Calendar", ''Seattle Times'', ''Choral Journal'', ''Choir and Organ'', Chorus America's ''Voice'', ''Fanfare Magazine'', and the ''Wall Street Journal''. He has received over four hundred commission requests, most recently from Harvard University, the American Choral Director's Association and the Pacific Chorale, and is a frequent guest lecturer and Artist/Composer-in-Residence. His principal publishers are

(New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate,

(London).

Teaching life

In addition to these positions, Lauridsen has served as Artistic Advisor on the Boards of the Los Angeles Master Chorale,

Dale Warland Singers The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music an ...

, I Cantori (New York), USC Scoring for Films/TV Program, National Children's Chorus, Creative Kids Education Foundation, Volti (San Francisco Chamber Singers), New York City Master Chorale,

Jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...

, and Angeles Chorale.

Publications

"It's a Still Life That Runs Deep: The Influence of Zurbaran's Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose on Morten Lauridsen's Composition O Magnum Mysterium"
''Wall Street Journal''
February 21, 2009 foreword to the book
''Evoking Sound''
by James Jordan, GIA Publications, 2009 "Morten Lauridsen on Composing Choral Music," a chapter in the book ''Contemporary Choral Music Composers'', GIA Publications, 2007 Liner notes for the CD ''Randall Thompson—The Peaceable Kingdom'', Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Hyperion Records "Remembering Halsey Stevens," National Association of Composer Journal, 1990

Documentary

The 2012 documentary film ''Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen'' portrays the composer at his

Waldron Island Waldron, also known as Waldron Island, is an unincorporated community in San Juan County, Washington, United States. Its population was 104 at the 2000 census. Waldron is in the San Juan Islands. It is designated as a Limited Development District ...

retreat and in rehearsals in California and Scotland. Commentaries about the composer by poet

Dana Gioia Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the literary movements within American poetry known as New Formalis ...

, conductor Paul Salamunovich, composer/conductor Paul Mealor, composer

Alex Shapiro Alex Shapiro (born January 11, 1962) is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music favoring combinations of modal harmonies with chromatic ones, and often emphasizing strong pulse and rhythm. Shapiro was born in New York City. She was e ...

and conductor Robert Geary, along with performances by the San Francisco Choral Society, University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Orchestra, Con Anima Chamber Choir and Volti, are featured. Works include ''O Magnum Mysterium'', ''Lux Aeterna'', ''Madrigali'', ''Dirait-on'', and ''Nocturnes'', with soundtracks by

and the

(conducted by

)
The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists
(conducted by Matthew Culloton), and the

(conducted by Dale Warland).The Best Composer You've Never Heard Of
''Wall Street Journal'' review by Terry Teachout.

References

External links

mortenlauridsen.net
Composer's Website
Peermusic Classical: Morten Lauridsen
Composer's Publisher and Bio
Los Angeles Master Chorale bio
by Bruce Duffie
A Choral Master's Grass-Roots Appeal
Wall Street Journal Review by Bruce Campbell
The Best Composer You've Never Heard Of
Wall Street Journal Review by Terry Teachout
Song Without Borders Film, Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen
Film publisher's website
Fanfare Magazine Review, Prayer: The Songs of Morten Lauridsen
Transcribed on Composer's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Lauridsen, Morten 1943 births Living people 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians American classical composers American male classical composers American people of Danish descent Choral composers Singers from Washington (state) People from Colfax, Washington People from Beaverton, Oregon People from San Juan County, Washington USC Thornton School of Music alumni USC Thornton School of Music faculty United States National Medal of Arts recipients