swap_horiz Joan Tower Alternatives

1

Caroline Shaw

Caroline Shaw is an American composer and singer who became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 20...

American Contemporary Vocal Chamber

8.5 Great

2

John Corigliano

John Corigliano is an acclaimed American composer of symphonic and film music who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his Sy...

Opera American Contemporary Film

8.1 Great

3

George Crumb

George Crumb was an American avant-garde composer noted for his unusual timbres and extended techniques, winning the 196...

American Contemporary Chamber Mystical

8.0 Great

4

George Benjamin

British composer (born 1960) whose opera Written on Skin (2012) has been widely performed and acclaimed internationally.

Opera Contemporary Orchestral Chamber

7.8 Good

5

Alexandre Desplat

French composer who won Academy Awards for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of Water (2017), among the most...

French Contemporary Film Orchestral

7.8 Good

6

Missy Mazzoli

Missy Mazzoli is an American composer noted for her dramatic operas and was the first woman commissioned by the Metropol...

Opera American Contemporary Accessible

7.8 Good

7

Valentin Silvestrov

Ukrainian composer (born 1937) known for his post-minimalist, lyrical metamusic and the song cycle Silent Songs (1974–19...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Ukrainian

7.7 Good

8

Michael Giacchino

American composer who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Pixar's Up (2009) and scored the Mission: Imposs...

Television American Contemporary Film

7.7 Good

9

Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey (1946–1998) was a French composer and founding figure of spectral music, which derives musical structure f...

French Contemporary Orchestral Chamber

7.7 Good

10

Magnus Lindberg

Finnish composer (born 1958) known for dense, complex orchestral works such as Kraft (1985) and his tenure with the New...

Contemporary Modernist Orchestral Chamber

7.6 Good

11

Wolfgang Rihm

German composer (1952–2024), extraordinarily prolific, known for works like the opera Jakob Lenz and his expressive post...

German Contemporary Expressionist Orchestral

7.6 Good

12

Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli (1935–2019) was a Georgian composer noted for his hauntingly atmospheric post-Soviet orchestral works and...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Spiritual

7.6 Good

13

Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon is a prominent American composer of contemporary classical music who won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for her...

American Contemporary Accessible Orchestral

7.5 Good

14

Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter was an American composer whose highly complex modernist works pioneered the use of metric modulation and...

Modern American Avant Garde Orchestral

7.4 Good

15

Andrew Norman

Andrew Norman is an American composer recognized for his complex, architecture-inspired orchestral works like his Pulitz...

Complex American Contemporary Innovative

7.4 Good

16

George Walker

American composer George Walker was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996, notably for...

American Contemporary Orchestral Piano

7.4 Good

17

Toshio Hosokawa

Japanese composer (born 1955) known for works inspired by calligraphy and Zen aesthetics, including the opera Hanjo (200...

Contemporary Japanese Orchestral Chamber

7.3 Good

18

Tigran Mansurian

Armenian composer (born 1939) whose works blend Armenian folk idioms with contemporary classical techniques and poetic s...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Sacred

7.2 Good

19

Chen Yi

Born in 1953, Chinese-American composer Chen Yi is recognized for her orchestral works that skillfully fuse traditional...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Cross Cultural

7.2 Good

20

Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer known for her lyrical, vibrant orchestral works and her tenure as the Chicag...

American Contemporary Lyrical Orchestral

6.3 Fair