Aaron Copland

Hello, my name is Aaron Copland, and I was a composer, which is a person who writes music. I was born on November 14th, 1900, in a very busy place called Brooklyn, in New York City. My parents were not musicians, but our home was right on top of their music store! That meant I was always surrounded by beautiful sounds. One day, I heard piano music coming from a neighbor’s window, and right then, I knew I wanted to make music, too. My wonderful older sister, Laurine, was my very first teacher. She helped me take my first steps on my big musical adventure.

As I grew up, I knew I needed to learn even more about music. So, in the year 1921, I packed my bags and traveled across the big ocean to Paris, France. It was a beautiful city! In Paris, I studied with an amazing teacher named Nadia Boulanger. She was very smart and taught me so many things about writing music. She also gave me the most important advice. She told me to write music that sounded like me and my home country, America.

I listened carefully to my teacher's advice. I wanted to write music that sounded like the big, open fields and tall mountains of America. I wrote music for ballets, which are stories that are told with dancing instead of words. In 1942, I wrote a ballet called Rodeo, and it has music that sounds just like cowboys galloping on their horses. That same year, in 1942, I also wrote a powerful song called Fanfare for the Common Man. It uses trumpets and drums to celebrate all the everyday heroes in the world. A couple of years later, in 1944, I wrote the music for another ballet called Appalachian Spring. It tells a gentle and hopeful story about a young couple building their first home. I was so happy when that music won a special award called the Pulitzer Prize in 1945.

Writing music was my favorite thing to do, but I also loved to teach. I helped many young musicians learn how to write music that sounded special and unique to them, just like my teacher had helped me. I also became a conductor. A conductor is the person who stands in front of a big orchestra and waves a little stick called a baton. It helps all the musicians play together perfectly. It was always so exciting to hear my music come to life!

I lived to be 90 years old, and my life was full of wonderful music. I passed away on December 2nd, 1990. Even though I am not here anymore, my music is! You can still hear it today. Orchestras play it in big concert halls, you can hear it in movies, and it is played at special celebrations all around the world. I hope that when you hear my music, it makes you think of the beautiful and exciting sounds of America.