Full Biography
The music of Judith Lang Zaimont (b. 1945) is internationally acclaimed for its immediacy, dynamism and emotion and is performed world-wide. 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 U.S. and Europe: Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore and Mississippi symphonies, Berlin and Czech Radio symphonies, Slovak National Philharmonic and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Two dozen CDs are currently available on Naxos, MSR Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Parma/Navona, Koch International Classics, Arkiv Music, Albany, Jeanné, Inc., and Leonarda. Recent all-Zaimont recordings include a 2010 CD of orchestra music (Kirk Trevor: Slovak National Philharmonic – Naxos. three world premieres), 2011 chamber music CD (Eternal Evolution. The Harlem Quartet and Awadagin Pratt – Navona. three world premieres ); 2012 piano solo CD (Christopher Atzinger – Naxos); and the just-released 2012 2-CD album surveying her solo piano music (Elizabeth Moak: MSR Classics - Fifteen works, including three world premieres).
Judith Zaimont is actively commissioned, and her recent works include Attars for piano solo commissioned as the required work for the 2017 American Pianists Association (APA) competition (2016), Mondale Cycle for dramatic tenor and chamber orchestra (2015) commissioned by the Three Bridges Festival to honor Vice President Walter Mondale, the second string quartet A Strange Magic (2016), PURE, COOL (Water) - Symphony No. 4 (2013), Violin Sonata-Rhapsody (2012), JoyDance in Spring (2012) commissioned by Camerata Bern to honor its 50th anniversary, Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra ‘Solar Traveller’ ( 2009-2010), and String Quartet 'The Figure' (2007). She is the subject of 20 doctoral dissertations, and a Featured Composer at U.S. Festivals and Residencies. Music by Judith Zaimont appears on repertoire lists for major international performance competitions in voice, conducting and piano (Cliburn ’01, San Antonio, ’03, Kapell ’12, APA 2017), and two of her compositions are on Century Lists: Doubles (oboe and piano; Chamber Music America), and Sonata (Piano & Keyboard magazine).
Her numerous prizes and honors include the 2015 The American Prize for Chamber Music Composition, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, awards from both National Endowments (NEA: composition / NEH: scholarship), 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 on, Zaimont is also 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 (http://www.subitomusic.com/), Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné and Vivace.
Judith Zaimont is married to artist and musician Gary Zaimont, and they have a son, Michael Zaimont, video game creator and master programmer. She lives near Phoenix, Arizona.
July 2016
Word count: 675
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 U.S. and Europe: Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore and Mississippi symphonies, Berlin and Czech Radio symphonies, Slovak National Philharmonic and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Two dozen CDs are currently available on Naxos, MSR Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Parma/Navona, Koch International Classics, Arkiv Music, Albany, Jeanné, Inc., and Leonarda. Recent all-Zaimont recordings include a 2010 CD of orchestra music (Kirk Trevor: Slovak National Philharmonic – Naxos. three world premieres), 2011 chamber music CD (Eternal Evolution. The Harlem Quartet and Awadagin Pratt – Navona. three world premieres ); 2012 piano solo CD (Christopher Atzinger – Naxos); and the just-released 2012 2-CD album surveying her solo piano music (Elizabeth Moak: MSR Classics - Fifteen works, including three world premieres).
Judith Zaimont is actively commissioned, and her recent works include Attars for piano solo commissioned as the required work for the 2017 American Pianists Association (APA) competition (2016), Mondale Cycle for dramatic tenor and chamber orchestra (2015) commissioned by the Three Bridges Festival to honor Vice President Walter Mondale, the second string quartet A Strange Magic (2016), PURE, COOL (Water) - Symphony No. 4 (2013), Violin Sonata-Rhapsody (2012), JoyDance in Spring (2012) commissioned by Camerata Bern to honor its 50th anniversary, Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra ‘Solar Traveller’ ( 2009-2010), and String Quartet 'The Figure' (2007). She is the subject of 20 doctoral dissertations, and a Featured Composer at U.S. Festivals and Residencies. Music by Judith Zaimont appears on repertoire lists for major international performance competitions in voice, conducting and piano (Cliburn ’01, San Antonio, ’03, Kapell ’12, APA 2017), and two of her compositions are on Century Lists: Doubles (oboe and piano; Chamber Music America), and Sonata (Piano & Keyboard magazine).
Her numerous prizes and honors include the 2015 The American Prize for Chamber Music Composition, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, awards from both National Endowments (NEA: composition / NEH: scholarship), 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 on, Zaimont is also 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 (http://www.subitomusic.com/), Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné and Vivace.
Judith Zaimont is married to artist and musician Gary Zaimont, and they have a son, Michael Zaimont, video game creator and master programmer. She lives near Phoenix, Arizona.
July 2016
Word count: 675
Program Biography
Judith Lang Zaimont is internationally recognized for her music’s distinctive style, characterized by expressive strength and dynamism. A grantee of both National Endowments, winner of the 2015 The American Prize in Chamber Music Composition and a 2003 Aaron Copland Award winner, she has enjoyed a distinguished career as composer of over 100 works with performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Camerata Bern, Berlin and Czech Radio symphonies, and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Her music is widely performed throughout the U.S. and Europe and has been recorded for the MSR Classics, Naxos, Navona, Koch Classics, Arabesque, Milken Family Foundation, Albany, Jeanne, Leonarda, Northeastern, and 4Tay labels. Her principal publishers are Subito Music (http://www.subitomusic.com/), Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné and Vivace. She is a distinguished teacher and pianist, and creator and editor-in-chief of the critically acclaimed book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. More information about Ms. Zaimont, including sound clips of many of her compositions, is available at http://www.jzaimont.com/.
July 2016
158 words
July 2016
158 words
Critic's Comments
Zaimont is a serious artist, formidably endowed, and capable of a broad audience appeal.
- FANFARE
Her music immediately immerses the auditor in Zaimont’s own soundscape …. This is music sown with seeds of greatness.
- FANFARE 2012
A composer of the first rank - a mid-career master.
- NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR
Irresistible... The music enchants. - GRAMOPHONE - October/November 2007
Elegant, gorgeous, and revelatory. - WORLD Magazine - July 2007
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. - NEW YORK TIMES
Interesting and distinctive. Enjoyable, intelligent, consistently inventive and accomplished music. - MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL 2007
The music is handsomely turned with flashes of brilliance. There are no arid passages, nor is there any padding at all. Zaimont has enriched the literature. - SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD
A colorful and commanding work. This is contemporary music you really want to hear again.
- THE NEW RECORDS
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. - NEW YORK TIMES
A composer worthy of her broad recognition is Judith Lang Zaimont, whose high-voltage, glittering [work] proved completely satisfying. - THE WASHINGTON POST
A piece of considerable poetic and incantatory power -- compelling rhythmic energy, provocative instrumental textures and haunting melismatic melody. - OVATION
Zaimont lays out in clear display her formal concepts, contained masterfully by a centrifugal moving tonality that never lacks direction. - GREENVILLE (SC) NEWS
Beautiful and original. - PIANO QUARTERLY
Uncommonly attractive music. - FANFARE
Expressive and idiomatic works. - CLAVIER
Powerful and inspired. - WOMEN OF NOTE QUARTERLY
Beautiful music. Enthusiastically recommended to every lover of chamber music with strings and piano. -FANFARE
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. -- NEW YORK TIMES
Interesting and distinctive. Enjoyable, intelligent, consistently inventive and accomplished music. - MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL 2007
A composer worthy of her broad recognition is Judith Lang Zaimont, whose high-voltage, glittering [work] proved completely satisfying. - THE WASHINGTON POST
Zaimont's vocal solo works are a unique contribution to contemporary song literature. They are of high quality and lasting significance. - NATS JOURNAL
Judith Lang Zaimont is one of the foremost composers active on the American scene.
- CHORAL JOURNAL
Its elegant piano accompaniments, the greatly varied but always coherent melodic writing made this piece intensely interesting and at times quite beautiful. - NEW YORK TIMES
These pieces are terrifically good in many ways. Zaimont’s harmonic language is intriguing and well-handled. The overall sound world here is relatively dissonant, yet clearly contains tonal underpinnings. Surprisingly, she is able to effectively juggle triads, more astringent verticals, and extended techniques within this style. A wide range of moods is also tellingly delineated here; there is much variety of atmosphere, and Zaimont clearly possesses a keen sense of characterization, pacing and drama. Best of all each piece inhabits its own emotional world. - NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR
An excellent work, its disparate elements fused with remarkable skill. Indeed, listening to Zaimont’s music, one often thinks that if a common musical language could exist in the late 20th century, it might sound like this. - BALTIMORE SUN
Life on this earth is simply too short: If I had more time here, I’d travel to her residence and insist that she play for me every note she’d ever composed... [T]hese two masterworks are exemplary in all parameters... Indeed, you will not want to miss this profoundly moving pair of works. - Canfield, FANFARE 2016
- FANFARE
Her music immediately immerses the auditor in Zaimont’s own soundscape …. This is music sown with seeds of greatness.
- FANFARE 2012
A composer of the first rank - a mid-career master.
- NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR
Irresistible... The music enchants. - GRAMOPHONE - October/November 2007
Elegant, gorgeous, and revelatory. - WORLD Magazine - July 2007
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. - NEW YORK TIMES
Interesting and distinctive. Enjoyable, intelligent, consistently inventive and accomplished music. - MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL 2007
The music is handsomely turned with flashes of brilliance. There are no arid passages, nor is there any padding at all. Zaimont has enriched the literature. - SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD
A colorful and commanding work. This is contemporary music you really want to hear again.
- THE NEW RECORDS
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. - NEW YORK TIMES
A composer worthy of her broad recognition is Judith Lang Zaimont, whose high-voltage, glittering [work] proved completely satisfying. - THE WASHINGTON POST
A piece of considerable poetic and incantatory power -- compelling rhythmic energy, provocative instrumental textures and haunting melismatic melody. - OVATION
Zaimont lays out in clear display her formal concepts, contained masterfully by a centrifugal moving tonality that never lacks direction. - GREENVILLE (SC) NEWS
Beautiful and original. - PIANO QUARTERLY
Uncommonly attractive music. - FANFARE
Expressive and idiomatic works. - CLAVIER
Powerful and inspired. - WOMEN OF NOTE QUARTERLY
Beautiful music. Enthusiastically recommended to every lover of chamber music with strings and piano. -FANFARE
Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing. -- NEW YORK TIMES
Interesting and distinctive. Enjoyable, intelligent, consistently inventive and accomplished music. - MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL 2007
A composer worthy of her broad recognition is Judith Lang Zaimont, whose high-voltage, glittering [work] proved completely satisfying. - THE WASHINGTON POST
Zaimont's vocal solo works are a unique contribution to contemporary song literature. They are of high quality and lasting significance. - NATS JOURNAL
Judith Lang Zaimont is one of the foremost composers active on the American scene.
- CHORAL JOURNAL
Its elegant piano accompaniments, the greatly varied but always coherent melodic writing made this piece intensely interesting and at times quite beautiful. - NEW YORK TIMES
These pieces are terrifically good in many ways. Zaimont’s harmonic language is intriguing and well-handled. The overall sound world here is relatively dissonant, yet clearly contains tonal underpinnings. Surprisingly, she is able to effectively juggle triads, more astringent verticals, and extended techniques within this style. A wide range of moods is also tellingly delineated here; there is much variety of atmosphere, and Zaimont clearly possesses a keen sense of characterization, pacing and drama. Best of all each piece inhabits its own emotional world. - NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR
An excellent work, its disparate elements fused with remarkable skill. Indeed, listening to Zaimont’s music, one often thinks that if a common musical language could exist in the late 20th century, it might sound like this. - BALTIMORE SUN
Life on this earth is simply too short: If I had more time here, I’d travel to her residence and insist that she play for me every note she’d ever composed... [T]hese two masterworks are exemplary in all parameters... Indeed, you will not want to miss this profoundly moving pair of works. - Canfield, FANFARE 2016
Press Questions
The following questions are intended for print and broadcast journalists in connection with interviews with Judith Lang Zaimont. These topics are designed to facilitate conversation with her and will make for a fascinating interview:
1. Tell me about your compositional process. Do you like to start from an outside inspiration such as something you’ve read, or do you like to start with a purely musical idea?
2. When you have outside inspiration, what draws you to the subject matter you choose?
3. Are there any works that you haven’t yet written that would be a sort of dream project for you?
4 Tell me about growing up in such a musical family.
5. Tell me about some of your collaborations with the many fine artists and organizations you’ve worked with over the years.
6. Tell me about your current projects. What compositions are you currently working on?
7. Do you like the CD recording process?
8. Have there been any joys or problems you’ve encountered along the way as a composer, performer or educator?
9. How are you responding to the changing face of classical music in the 21st century?
10. What does the future hold for Judith Lang Zaimont?
1. Tell me about your compositional process. Do you like to start from an outside inspiration such as something you’ve read, or do you like to start with a purely musical idea?
2. When you have outside inspiration, what draws you to the subject matter you choose?
3. Are there any works that you haven’t yet written that would be a sort of dream project for you?
4 Tell me about growing up in such a musical family.
5. Tell me about some of your collaborations with the many fine artists and organizations you’ve worked with over the years.
6. Tell me about your current projects. What compositions are you currently working on?
7. Do you like the CD recording process?
8. Have there been any joys or problems you’ve encountered along the way as a composer, performer or educator?
9. How are you responding to the changing face of classical music in the 21st century?
10. What does the future hold for Judith Lang Zaimont?
Judith Lang Zaimont’s website at http://www.JudithZaimont.com/ will be considerably updated in 2017.
All press inquiries should be directed to:
Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433
or jamesarts@att.net.
Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433
or jamesarts@att.net.