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1900
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Born on November 14 in Brooklyn to Sarah Mittenthal and Harris Copland, the youngest
of five children (Ralph, Leon, Laurine, and Josephine)
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1906
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Attends Public School 111 in Brooklyn
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1909
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Begins to make up songs at the piano
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1910-13
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Attends summer camp (Camp Carey at Wilkes-Barre, PA)
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1911
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Earliest existing piece of music; begins piano lessons with sister Laurine
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1914
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Begins studies with first professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn in Brooklyn
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1916
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Hears first symphony concert in Brooklyn
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1917
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First public performance as a pianist
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1918
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Graduated from Boys’ High School, Brooklyn
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1917-21
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Studies harmony and counterpoint with Rubin Goldmark
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1919-21
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Studies piano with Clarence Adler
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1921
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Enrolls at newly-established American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in May; attends
harmony class of Nadia Boulanger and begins composition studies with her in October
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1922
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First work published (by Durand): Le chat et la Souris (composed 1920);
writes the Passacaglia for piano and first large-scale work, the ballet Grohg
(revised 1932)
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1924
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First important article published, “Gabriel Fauré, A Neglected Master
(The Musical Quarterly)
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1925
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First major performances of an orchestral work: Symphony for Organ and Orchestra at
Carnegie Hall (Nadia Boulanger, organist, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New
York Symphony) and in Boston (with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony
Orchestra); first visit to MacDowell Colony to work on Music for the Theatre;
receives the first-ever Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (renewed in 1926); writes
first of many articles for Modern Music
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1927
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First major performance of Copland as pianist, World Premiere of his Piano Concerto
(composed 1926); begins lectures at New School for Social Research, New York
(continuing for ten years, eventually developing some of these into his book What
to Listen for in Music)
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1928
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Initiates Copland-Sessions Concerts with composer Roger Sessions, an important
series mostly in New York devoted exclusively to contemporary music (continuing to
1932, averaging 2 concerts per season); joined the League of Composers (remaining a
member until 1954); helps to establish Cos Cob Press, devoted to publishing works by
young American composers; completes first important chamber work, Vitebsk
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1929
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Wins the RCA Victor Composers’ Competition with Dance Symphony (along
with Ernest Bloch, Robert Russell Bennett, and Louis Gruenberg); completes
Symphonic Ode
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1930
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First visit to Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY; composes first major work for solo
piano, Piano Variations
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1931
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Organizes Festival of Contemporary Music at Yaddo (and a second one in 1932)
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1932
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First visit to Mexico, arranged by Carlos Chavez, which includes first all-Copland
program (organized by Chavez at the Conservatorio Nacional de Music on September
2nd: Two Pieces for String Quartet, Variations, Two Pieces for Chorus,
and Music for the Theatre); joins the Board of Directors of the League of
Composers; joins a social and professional collective called Young Composers’
Group (including Arthur Berger, Henry Brant, Lehman Engel, Vivian Fine, Bernard
Herrman, Elie Siegmeister, and others)
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1934
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First performance of a staged work, the ballet Hear Ye! Hear Ye! by Ruth Page
Ballets (in Chicago)
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1935
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Teaches for the first time at Harvard, replacing Walter Piston on leave in spring
semester; organizes five concerts at the New School, each devoted to the music of
one composer (Harris, Thomson, Sessions, Piston, and Copland)
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1936
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Writes regular column (“Scores and Records” for Modern Music,
which continues until 1939); completes El Salon Mexico
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1937
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Composes The Second Hurricane, a “play-opera” for the Henry
Street Settlement Music School in New York City, directed by Orson Welles, to be
performed by children and adults
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1938
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Publisher becomes Boosey & Hawkes, to which he was recommended by Benjamin
Britten; helps to establish American Composers’ Alliance (serving as President
between 1939 and 1945); helps to found Arrow Music Press (incorporating Cos Cos
Press) with Engel, Blitzstein, and Thomson
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1939
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Writes first film score to The City, a documentary by Ralph Steiner and first
score for a feature film, Of Mice and Men; helps to found American Music
Center; publishes first book, What to Listen for in Music
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1940
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Invited by Koussevitzky to teach at the first summer of the Berkshire Music Center
at Tanglewood (continuing until 1965, and including various administrative
positions)
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1941
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Second book, Our New Music, published; four-month South American tour for the
Committee for Inter-American Artistic and Intellectual Relations
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1942
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Completes A Lincoln Portrait, commissioned by conductor Andre Kostelanetz,
and Fanfare for the Common Man, and composes the ballet Rodeo,
commissioned by Agnes de Mille; elected to the Music Department of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters
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1944
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Receives Academy Award nomination for his film score to The North Star;
returns to Harvard in the spring for five talks as Horace Appleton Lamb Lecturer
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1945
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Wins Pulitzer Prize in Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Award for
Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Martha Graham composed in 1944
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1946
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Completes one of his largest works, Symphony No. 3 (begun 1944), which wins the New
York Music Critics Circle Award; elected a member of ASCAP
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1947
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Four-month tour of Latin America for the U.S. Department of State; gives up New York
City apartment and loft studio, and moves to Sneden’s Landing, Rockland
County, NY; begins Clarinet Concerto for Benny Goodman
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1948
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Becomes Director of League of Composers (remaining until 1951)
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1949
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European tour
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1950
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Wins Academy Award for Best Original Musical Score for the film The Heiress;
sixth visit to the MacDowell Colony, during which he begins work on the Piano
Quartet, his first 12-tone work; completes Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson
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1951
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Receives Fulbright Fellowship for six-month stay abroad, including a short residency
at the American Academy of Rome and first trip to Israel; conducts work by another
composer for the first time (Diamond’s Rounds, in Italy); gives Charles
Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard (first native-born American to hold Poetry Chair),
published in 1952 as Music and Imagination
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1952
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Begins work on The Tender Land; buys Shady Lane Farm in Ossining, where he
lived for eight years
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1953
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Becomes embroiled in Washington’s anti-Communist hysteria, and is subpoenaed
to testify at McCarthy hearings in Congress, as a result of which several of his
engagements are canceled; first book about Copland published, written by
composer-critic Arthur Berger
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1954
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World Premiere on April 1 of The Tender Land at the New York City Opera;
elected to membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
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1955
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Six months in Europe; Julia Smith’s biography of Copland published
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1956
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Awarded Gold Medal of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters;
receives first Honorary Doctorate (from Princeton, U.); six months in Europe
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1957
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Composes Orchestral Variations (a symphonic transcription of his Piano Variations);
completes monumental Piano Fantasy (begun in 1955)
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1958
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New York Philharmonic conducting debut
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1960
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Buys Rock Hill, in the Town of Cortlandt, which was to be his home for the remaining
30 years of his life; fourth book published, Copland On Music
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1961
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Receives MacDowell Colony Medal of Honor, for distinguished service in the field of
music; becomes President of MacDowell Colony (serving until 1968)
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1962
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Writes Connotations for Lincoln Center Inaugural Concert by the New York
Philharmonic; composes Down A Country Lane, is published in Life
magazine on June 29
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1964
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Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor
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1965-66
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Wrote, hosted, and performed on a 12-part public television series, Music in the
Twenties
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1967
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Writes Inscape, last major orchestral work, for the New York
Philharmonic’s 125th Anniversary
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1968
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The New Music, 1900-1960 is published (a revision of his Our New
Music)
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1970
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Receives Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from West Germany and the
Howland Memorial Medal from Yale University; awarded membership in Institut de
France and Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Society
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1971
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Composes the Duo for Flute and Piano, his last important work
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1975-76
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Gives interviews to Vivian Perlis for her Oral History Project in American Music at
Yale University, which develop into their collaboration on Copland’s
autobiography
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1977
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Copland’s complete piano music performed in concert for the first time (by Leo
Smit)
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1979
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Receives Kennedy Center Honors; first recording of Copland’s complete piano
music (by Leo Smit)
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1980
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“Wall-to-Wall Copland," a day-long marathon concert, at Symphony Space,
New York City
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1981
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Department of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York renamed
Aaron Copland School of Music
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1984
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First volume of memoirs appears (Copland: 1900 Through 1942, written with
Vivian Perlis)
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1986
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Awarded both the Congressional Medal of Honor (by “act of Congress,”
America’s highest civilian honor) and the National Medal of Arts (bestowed by
President Ronald Reagan)
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1989
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Second volume of memoirs published (Copland: Since 1943, with Vivian Perlis
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1990
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Dies on December 2 at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, North Tarrytown, NY; ashes
are scattered at Tanglewood
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