Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer and academic, currently affiliated with the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of California, Los Angeles. Danielpour received a nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards for his piece The Passion of Yeshua.
Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986. His primary composition professors at Juilliard were Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin.
Danielpour taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 1993 to 2017. He joined the faculty of Curtis Institute of Music in 1997. He joined the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music of the University of California Los Angeles in 2017.
In common with many other American composers of the post-war generation, Danielpour began his career in a serialist milieu, but rejected it in the late 1980s in favor of a more ecumenical and "humdrum" idiom. He cites the Beatles—along with John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner—as influences on his more recent musical style. Danielpour's notable works include First Light (1988) for chamber orchestra, three symphonies (1985, 1986, and 1990), four piano concerti (1981, 1993, 2002 and 2009), the ballet Anima mundi (1995), and the opera Margaret Garner (2005).
His students include Marcus Paus and Wang Jie.
Margaret Garner (libretto by Toni Morrison; 2005)
The Grand Hotel Tartarus (2024)
For the Pacific Northwest Ballet
For the New York City Ballet and choreographer Miriam Mataviani
Oratio Pauli (1982), for S.A.T.B. choir and string orchestra
Symphony No. 1 – Dona Nobis Pacem (1984)
Symphony No. 2 – Visions (1986), for soprano, tenor and orchestra
Cello Concerto No. 1 (1990), for cello and orchestra
Piano Concerto No. 1 – Metamorphosis (1990), for piano and orchestra
Symphony No. 3 – Journey Without Distance (1990), for soprano, S.A.T.B. choir and orchestra
Toward the Splendid City (1992)
commissioned by the New York Philharmonic
Piano Concerto No. 2 (1993), for piano and orchestra