Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Appalachian Suite • Clarinet Concerto

Born in Brooklyn, the fifth and youngest child of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Aaron Copland was introduced to music by one of his sisters. He soon learned not only the rudiments of playing the piano, but found a world ranging from ragtime to grand opera. He began attending New York Symphony concerts and saw performances by Paderewski, Isadora Duncan, and the Dyagilev ballet. After his graduation from high school he studied harmony, counterpoint, and sonata form under Rubin Goldmark, who tried to keep his young student from becoming "contaminated" by the new music of Scriabin, Scott, and Ives——to no avail. By the age of twenty, Copland h