Andrew Norman
Illustration — Norman speaks at the 2014 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Andrew Norman (born October 31, 1979) is an American composer of contemporary classical music whose texturally complex music is influenced by architecture and the visual arts. His string trio The Companion Guide to Rome (2010), was a runner-up for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music. While composer-in-residence for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, he first gained international attention for the orchestral work Play (2013), which was nominated for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and won the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.
Andrew Norman

CTV Santa Cruz County · Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music - Meet the Composers 2014 · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 1979 · Grand Rapids.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- composer
- Education
- Yale University
- Honours
- Grawemeyer Awards · Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition · Guggenheim Fellowship
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wikidata · Q22007191 · wikipedia · Andrew Norman
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
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Biography
Biography
He received another Grammy nomination for the orchestral work Sustain (2018), a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Other noted works include the fantasy for piano and orchestra Split (2015) and the opera A Trip to the Moon (2017). Norman was on the composition faculty of the Juilliard School and is currently teaching at the USC Thornton School of Music.
Norman studied composition at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and Yale School of Music. Much of his music is influenced by architecture and visual arts, in which he has had a lifelong interest. He was composer-in-residence for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project from 2011 to 2013. Among his most notable works are the 2010 string trio The Companion Guide to Rome, the 2013 symphony Play, the 2015 fantasy for piano and orchestra Split, the 2017 opera A Trip to the Moon, and the 2018 orchestral work Sustain. His composition The Companion Guide to Rome (inspired by the guidebook of the same name written by Georgina Masson) was a runner-up for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music. A recording of Play by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project was named one of the best classical music recordings of 2015 by David Allen of The New York Times and nominated for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Norman won the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for Play, which the music writer Will Robin called "the best orchestral work that the 21st century has seen thus far". In reference to the prize, Norman said in an interview with NPR: In 2018, the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned Norman to write Sustain for the beginning of their centennial season. Norman was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music for the work. In 2020, it won him a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for their 2019 recording of the piece. He was a MacDowell Fellow in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014; and served as Carnegie Hall's Debs Composer's Chair for the 2020–2021 season. Norman is currently on the composition faculty of the Juilliard School. He was an assistant professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music from 2013 to 2020, returning as an associate professor in 2023. He is also program director of the Nancy and Barry Sanders Youth Composer program at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His works are published by Schott Music. On October 31, 2020, 31 members of the Berlin Philharmoniker performed Norman's composition Sabina (arranged for string orchestra), described as "a sound painting full of iridescent reflections of light", at the Philharmonie in Berlin. The arrangement was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmoniker Foundation.
Documentary record
Andrew Norman, a composer, was born in 1979 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The birth is recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Opera
Opera
• A Trip to the Moon, a Melodrama for Children (2017)
Chamber
Chamber
• Light Screens (2002) for flute and string trio • Farnsworth: Four Portraits of a House (2004) for four clarinets, flute, violin, piano, and percussion • Gran Turismo (2004) for violin octet • Garden of Follies (2006) for alto saxophone and piano • The Companion Guide to Rome (2010) for string trio • Try (2011) for large chamber ensemble • Peculiar Strokes (2011–2015) for string quartet • Music in Circles (2012) for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, and cello • Mime Mime Mime (2015) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion • Frank's House (2015) for two pianos and two percussion
Orchestral
Orchestral
• Sacred Geometry (2003) • Drip Blip Sparkle Spin Glint Glide Glow Float Flop Chop Pop Shatter Splash (2005) • Unstuck (2008) • The Great Swiftness (2010) for chamber orchestra • Apart (2011) • Play (2013, rev. 2016) • Suspend (2014) for solo piano and orchestra • Split (2015) for solo piano and orchestra • Switch (2015) for solo percussion and orchestra • Spiral (2018) • Sustain (2018)
Solo
Solo
• Sabina (2008–09) for violin, viola, or cello • For Ashley (2016) for solo cello
Vocal
Vocal
• Lullaby (2007) for mezzo-soprano and piano • Don't Even Listen (2010)
List of compositions
Source:
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q22007191: Andrew Norman
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Andrew Norman”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Andrew Norman, revision 1350822494 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Robin, William. Andrew Norman on Loving 'Star Wars' and Pushing Musical Boundaries. The New York Times. November 25, 2015.
- 2.Lanzilotti, Anne. Andrew Norman's "The Companion Guide to Rome": Influence of Architecture and Visual Art on Composition. PhD diss, Manhattan School of Music. 2016.
- 3.Boehm, Mike. Composer Andrew Norman tries to evoke Gehry home in 'Frank's House'. Los Angeles Times. January 31, 2015.
- 4.Wright, David. BMOP celebrates youngish composers in season closer. Boston Classical Review. May 18, 2013.
- 5.Lanzilotti, Anne. "Cut to a Different World": Andrew Norman. Music & Literature. October 25, 2016.
- 6.Gardner, Alexandra. ANDREW NORMAN: EMPOWERING PERFORMANCE. NewMusicBox. February 1, 2014.
- 7.Davidson, Justin. Can Serious Music Be Funny? The New York Philharmonic, via Andrew Norman, Gives It a Try. New York. December 14, 2015.
- 8.Tommasini, Anthony. Review: Andrew Norman's 'Split,' a Teeming Premiere From the New York Philharmonic. The New York Times. December 11, 2015.
- 9.Lanzilotti, Anne. A Trip to the Moon. London Symphony Orchestra. July 9, 2017.
- 10.Review: Andrew Norman's astonishingly sustainable 'Sustain'. Los Angeles Times. November 4, 2019.
- 11.Shop The Companion Guide To Rome.
- 12.Oteri, Frank J. Kevin Puts Wins 2012 Pulitzer Prize. NewMusicBox. April 16, 2012.
- 13.Berger, Kevin. Composer Andrew Norman's imagination has taken residence. Los Angeles Times. September 22, 2012.
- 14.Sirota, Nadia. Bonus Track: "Sabina" from The Companion Guide to Rome by Andrew Norman. WQXR-FM. August 12, 2014.
- 15.The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2015. The New York Times. December 10, 2015.
- 16.2016 Grammy Awards: Complete list of nominees. Los Angeles Times. December 7, 2015.
- 17.Oteri, Frank J. About Those 2016 Grammy Nominations. NewMusicBox. December 7, 2015.
- 18.Norman's Grawemeyer. Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise.
- 19.Ross, Alex. CD of the Week: Andrew Norman's Play. The Rest is Noise. January 5, 2015.
- 20.Andrew Norman Wins The Grawemeyer Award For Music. NPR.org.
- 21.Sustain – Andrew Norman.
- 22.Andrew Norman – Sustain. LA Phil.
- 23.Music. www.pulitzer.org.
- 24.Winners & Nominees. GRAMMY.com.
- 25.Gustavo Dudamel, L.A. Phil win Grammy for Andrew Norman's 'Sustain' – Los Angeles Times
- 26.Winners & Nominees. GRAMMY.com.
- 27.Andrew Norman – Artist. MacDowell.
- 28.EAM: Andrew Norman Named Carnegie Hall's 2020–21 Debs Composer's Chair. www.eamdc.com.
- 29.Award-Winning Composer Andrew Norman to Join Juilliard Faculty The Juilliard School. www.juilliard.edu.
- 30.Coming Home to USC Thornton. USC Thornton School of Music.
- 31.Nancy and Barry Sanders Fellowship Program.
- 32.Kirill Petrenko Conducts Strass, Shostakovich And Norman. digitalconcerthall.com.
- 33.Andrew Norman. Schott Music. October 31, 1979.
References
Citations
References
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Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q22007191: Andrew NormanWikimedia Foundation
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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