Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
Commissioning program

JENNIFER HIGDON

String Quartet ("An Exaltation of Larks")

Premiered by the Tokyo String Quartet. March 2006. Commissioned by AFCM. Sponsored by: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Peters. Composer's website: http://www.jenniferhigdon.com/ Jennifer Higdon on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Higdon

Performances: (12/7/09): " The quartet is getting done quite a bit. We also sell a lot of copies through distributors around the world".
Florida West Coast Symphony: July 2, 2008 , January 24, 2008
Tokyo String Quartet: Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA, April 23, 2006 ; April 27, 2006; Beall Concert Hall, University of Oregon, January 5, 2007; Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, January 12, 2007; March 14, 2007, March 16, 2007.

Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) started late in music, teaching herself to play flute at the age of 15 and then beginning formal musical studies at 18, with an even later start in composition at the age of 21. Higdon makes her living from commissions and her music is known for its technical skill and audience appeal. Hailed by the Washington Post as "a savvy, sensitive composer with a keen ear, an innate sense of form and a generous dash of pure esprit," the League of American Orchestras reports that she is one of America's most frequently performed composers. She currently holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition Studies at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music has been awarded to Jennifer Higdon for her Violin Concerto. The citation from the Pulitzer committee cited Jennifer's work as "a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity".

The composer writes: Larks—any of numerous singing birds. Exaltation—an act of exalting; the state of being exalted; an excessively intensified sense of well-being, power, importance; an increase in degree or intensity. The first time someone told me that a flock of larks is called an exaltation, I immediately thought, “What a sound an exaltation of larks must make!” This prompted my imagination to run wild in a composerly fashion, thinking of thousands of birds flying and singing wildly with extraordinary energy and intensity. Not to mention the wonderfully simple play on words implied with the above definitions. How to capture the beauty of the idea of exalting and singing? A string quartet seemed perfect!