American. Born July 3, 1926 in New York City to eastern European Jewish parents. A prolific composer, he has an impressive output of work in all forms: 7 operas, 12 symphonies, 9 ballets, 7 string quartets, 10 concertos and hundreds of chamber works. His father Elias was a baker, and his mother Fanny had worked in the mills and factories of Kansas. The family settled in Brooklyn, forced on a constant move by the Depression. His father added singer and entertainer and his mother became a seamtress in NY. At 5 he started violin but gave it up. At ten he started clarinet in school. He became fascinated with composition and learned piano, allowing him to work as a young jazz musician in clubs and bars in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn. He received his education in theory, chamber ensemble and orchestral music at the High School of Music and Art, and also studied at Queens College. “As a young composer still in his twenties, Kupferman because Professor of Composition and Chamber Music at Sarah Lawrence College in 1951. He continued as member of the faculty until his retirement forty three years later in 1994. Mr. Kupferman has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Library of Congress, the US State Department and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He is a virtuoso clarinetist who has premiered over sixty solo and chamber works composed especially for him and his  Music By My Friends ensemble…. his strong interest in jazz has been abundantly shown by such  classical-jazz compositions as Concerto for Cello and Jazz Band, Sonata on Jazz Elements, Tunnels of Love, Adjustable Tears, Jazz Infinities Three, Jazz Sting Quartet and Moonflowers, Baby!” Information for this bio written by Valentine Fabian. For more information on Meyer Kupferman and his works, visit the website:
http://www.jamesarts.com/MKBIO2000.htm