Conjurer: A Composer's Life

By John Corigliano

The son of the New York Philharmonic's concertmaster and his formidable pianist wife, John Corigliano grew up surrounded by artistry but starved for encouragement, determined to become a composer despite his parents' resistance and the academy's fierce suspicion of tonal beauty. He writes with candor and wit about coming out in 1950s New York, the exhilarating freedoms and dangers of gay life before AIDS, the devastations of the epidemic, and the friendships, romances, rivalries, and collaborations that shaped his art.

Along the way appear Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Teresa Stratas, and many others. Moving from childhood wounds to Oscar, Grammy, and Pulitzer triumphs, this is a memoir of survival, invention, humor, love, artistic independence, and one composer's lasting, lifelong determination to make beauty on his own terms.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1324097868
• ISBN13: 9781324097860
• Release Date: July 2027
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 224 Pages