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About Morten Lauridsen

MORTEN LAURIDSEN
a man, an island...and music that moves the world

Named as an 'American Choral Master' in 2006 by the National Endowment for the Arts, Lauridsen received the 2007 National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide."

His musical approaches are very diverse, ranging from direct to abstract in response to the texts he sets. His Latin sacred settings, such as the Lux Aeterna and motets, often reference Gregorian chant plus Medieval and Renaissance procedures while blending them within a freshly contemporary sound while other works such as the Madrigali and Cuatro Canciones are highly chromatic or atonal. His music has an overall lyricism and is tightly constructed around melodic and harmonic motives.

His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations, including O Magnum Mysterium by the Tiffany Consort, A Company of Voices by Conspirare, Sound The Bells by The Bay Brass and two all-Lauridsen discs entitled Lux Aeterna by the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Paul Salamunovich and Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton.

A recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and commissions, Lauridsen chaired the Composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music from 1990-2002 and founded the School's Advanced Studies program in Film Scoring. He has held residencies as guest composer/lecturer at over seventy universities and has received numerous honorary doctorates including Westminster Choir College and King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Lauridsen now divides his time between Los Angeles and his summer residence on a remote island off the northern coast of Washington State.

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