Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1983 (the first woman ever to do so) for her Symphony No. 1.  Among her many other awards and distinctions, she has been elected to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She was also awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  In 1995 she was named to first Composer’s Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and Musical America named her Composer of the Year in 1999.  She holds the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professorship at Florida State University.  In addition to her earned doctorate from the Juilliard School, she has received honorary doctorates from Oberlin, Manhattanville College, the Mannes College and New School, and Michigan State University.  She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition in 1980 and has been a trustee of the Foundation since 1997.