Jonathan Berger (born 1954) is an American composer. His works include opera, orchestral, chamber, vocal, choral and electro-acoustic music. He has been commissioned by major ensembles including the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

, the

St. Lawrence String Quartet The St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) is a Canadian string quartet. History In 1989, at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, violinists Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violist Lesley Robertson, and cellist Marina Hoover established the ...

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music in New York City and around the world. It is the largest organization of its kind in the country for chamber m ...

, and the Scharoun Ensemble of the

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

. Commissions include the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Spoleto Festival USA Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due ...

, Harris Theatre, the Bourges Festival,

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

Chamber Music America Chamber Music America (CMA) is an American non-profit organization that provides small ensemble professionals with access to a variety of professional development, networking, and funding resources. CMA's regular initiatives include grants, awards, ...

, among others. In addition to composition Berger is an active researcher with publications in a wide range of fields relating to music, science and technology. Berger lives in California where he is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Berger was born in New York. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a 2016 recipient of the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Recipients must be American citizens. Prizes have been aw ...

. Berger's operas
Visitations
with libretti by playwright and poet

Dan O'Brien Daniel Dion O'Brien (born July 18, 1966) is an American former decathlete and Olympic gold medalist. He won the Olympic title in 1996, three consecutive world championships (1991, 1993, 1995), and set the world record in 1992. Early life ...

, premiered in New York in 2014 and has received subsequent performances in Rome and Boston. His chamber opera, My Lai was performed at the 2017 NextWave Festival in New York, by Rinde Eckert, Van Anh Vo, and the

and subsequently toured in Asia and the United States. The work was recorded fo
Smithsonian/Folkways
Berger's opera
The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist
with libretto by poet

Vievee Francis Vievee Elaure Francis () is an American poet. She is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. She earned an MFA from the University of Michigan in 2009, and she received a Rona Jaffe Award the same year. Viev ...

is a reaction to the murder of

Eric Garner On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man, was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while a ...

. His works can be heard on the Smithsonian/Folkways, Eloquentia, Naxos, Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi, Centaur, Neuma, CRI, and CCRMA labels.

External links

Berger's HomepageStanford University - The Human Experience - Music Expert Jonathan Bergerearplay new chamber music - Jonathan Berger
1954 births 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians American opera composers Living people American male opera composers Stanford University Department of Music faculty Brahms scholars {{US-composer-20thC-stub