(b New York, 16 Feb 1938). American composer. He studied at Columbia and with Giannini and Creston, then worked in radio and television. His works, in an accessible romantic style, with tonal harmony and brilliant orchestration, include The Naked Carmen (1970), an ‘electric rock opera’ after Bizet, orchestral music (notably a Clarinet Concerto, 1977), vocal music and film scores. In his most ambitious project to date, The Ghost of Versailles (1991), an opera commissioned by the Met, the music parodies classical composers as well as using 12-note techniques and quarter-tone dissonances. His father John (1901-75) was a violinist, mostly in New York.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.