Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
Date | Event |
---|---|
1910 March 9 | Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania |
1917 | Began composing |
1919 | Began studying piano with William Hatton Green |
1924 | Began studying piano, composition, and voice at the Curtis Institute |
1926 | Graduated from West Chester High School |
1928 | Met partner Gian Carlo Menotti while attending the Curtis Institute Won the Joseph H. Bearns award for Sonata for Violin and Piano |
1934 | Graduated from the Curtis Institute |
1935 | Made national solo singing debut on NBC Music Guild radio series Awarded first Pulitzer traveling scholarship |
1936 | Awarded second Pulitzer traveling scholarship |
1938 November 5 | Radio broadcast performance of Essay for Orchestra no. 1 and Adagio for Strings by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini |
1939-1942 | Taught composition at the Curtis Institute |
1941 February 7 | Public premiere of Concerto for Violin by violinist Arthur Spalding and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy |
1942-1945 | Served in the United States Army Air Force |
1943 | Barber and Menotti purchased "Capricorn," their home in Mount Kisco, New York |
1946 May 10 | Premiere of Martha Graham's ballet Cave of the Heart, choreographed to music from Medea |
1948 April 9 | Premiere of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by soprano Eleanor Steber and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky |
1950 January 11 | Premiere of Sonata for Piano, commissioned by Richard Rogers and Irving Berlin for the League of Composers, by Vladimir Horowitz |
1953 October 30 | Premiere of Hermit Songs, commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, at the Library of Congress by soprano Leontyne Price with Barber at the piano |
1958 | Premiere of Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera; awarded the Pulitzer Prize |
1962 March | Attended the Congress of Soviet Composers in Moscow |
1963 | Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Concerto for Piano, no. 1 |
1966 Sept. 16 | Premiere of Antony and Cleopatra at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House |
1971 September 22 | Premiere of The Lovers by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy |
1973 | Capricorn sold |
1981 January 23 | Died in New York City |