Delight of the Muses

This ballet is set to a score commissioned by New York City Ballet as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Wuorinen has used fragments of two early Mozart piano sonatas (K.231 and K. 283), and part of the stage music from Don Giovanni as the inspiration for this tribute to the great composer.
 
Charles Wuorinen was born in New York City in 1938. At the age of sixteen he won the Composer's Award of the New York Philharmonic. He studied at Columbia University, and was the founder and co-director of the Group for Contemporary Music. He works include symphonies, chamber music, concerti, and electronic music. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1986. He composed the music for Five for New York City Ballet's American Music Festival in 1988.