Aaron Jay Kernis Trivias

Began his musical studies on the violin; at the age of twelve he began teaching himself piano and, in the following year, composition.Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for music for "String Quartet n°2 (musica instrumentalis)" Won a Diapason d'or Award in 1997 for "Best Contemporary Music Disc of the year" ("Symphony No. 2", "Invisible Mosaic III," and "Musica celestis" by Hugh Wolff and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) Graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Manhattan and Yale Schools of Music, working with composers as diverse as John Adams, Charles Wuorinen and Jacob Druckman. In 2002, received the coveted Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition for the cello and orchestra version of "Colored Field" Won the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, an NEA grant, a Bearns Prize, a New York Foundation for the Arts Award, and three BMI Student Composer Awards. New Music Advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra since 1998.