Judith Lang Zaimont

The music of Judith Lang Zaimont is internationally acclaimed for its immediacy, dynamism and emotion and is performed worldwide. Critics repeatedly term it “enjoyable, consistently inventive and accomplished” (Music Web International), citing its “richly eloquent vocabulary” (Records International), and note overall that “Zaimont is a serious artist, formidably endowed, and capable of a broad audience appeal… one of the most consistently rewarding composers of her generation” (Fanfare).

Her style is distinguished by its spirit of rhapsody featuring sudden shifts in texture, instrumental coloring, and atmosphere. Her 120 works include many prize-winning pieces covering every genre: four symphonies, chamber opera, music for wind ensemble, for chorus and solo voice, and works for individual instruments plus a wide variety of chamber music.

Zaimont’s music is widely performed throughout the US and Europe: Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore and Mississippi Symphonies, Berlin and Czech Radio Symphonies, Slovak National Philharmonic and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Zaimont is regularly commissioned to write new works. She is the subject of 20 doctoral dissertations and a Featured Composer at US Festivals and Residencies.

Her numerous prizes and honors include the 2015 The American Prize for Chamber Music Composition, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, awards from both National Endowments, a 2005 Bush Foundation Fellowship and earlier American Pen Women Fellowship, IAWM, CBDNA, Maryland, and New York State arts fellowships, the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation (2007), and an Aaron Copland Award (2003). There are a number of significant prizes especially for her orchestral music: First Prize - Gold Medal - Gottschalk Centenary International Composition Competition (1972); First Prize - contest to honor the Statue of Liberty Centennial (1986); and First Prize - International McCollin Competition for Composers (1995; Symphony No. 1). Zaimont’s music for wind ensemble, commissioned over the past ten years, has been particularly well received. These works include the Concerto ‘Solar Traveller’, Israeli Rhapsody, and Symphony for Wind Orchestra in Three Scenes. Additional honors include grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts (2009, 2012), and Meet the Composer and ASCAP awards over a 30-year period.

A notable pianist from childhood, Zaimont is also a distinguished educator with professor appointments over 36 years at US universities, including Peabody Conservatory, CUNY, and the University of Minnesota. She is equally skilled as writer, creating and editing the Greenwood book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective; her American Music Teacher magazine article “Embracing New Music” was named 2009 Article of the Year by MTNA.

Her principal publishers are Subito Music, Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné and Vivace.

Biography taken from composer’s website.