Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe << ZWIHL ihk, EHL ehn tayf >> (1939-…), an American composer, became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. She won the 1983 prize for her Symphony No. 1 (originally titled Three Movements for Orchestra, 1982). Zwilich writes skillfully for individual instruments, and her works have a clear structure. Her other orchestral compositions include Prologue and Variations (1983), Celebration for Orchestra (1984), Symphony No. 2 (1985), Symbolon (1988), Symphony No. 3 (1992), Symphony No. 4 (1999), and numerous concertos. She has also written chamber music and vocal music.
Ellen Taaffe was born on April 30, 1939, in Miami, Florida. She studied at Florida State University and then moved to New York City, where she played violin in the American Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1972. In 1969, she married Joseph Zwilich, a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. She then studied at the Juilliard School, where her teachers included the composers Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions. Zwilich received a doctorate in 1975, the first woman to receive such a degree from the school.
