Edward Knight (composer)

He excelled at trumpet; as a teenager, he toured three summers with Musical Youth International, performing in Russia, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and several European capitals.

[5] Knight came to national attention with four large-scale orchestral works in the late 1980s and early 1990s: Of Perpetual Solace, Total Eclipse, Granite Island, and Big Shoulders.

[7] The 11-minute piece was selected for the New York Philharmonic's Horizons '90: New Music for Orchestra concert, by a committee headed by Lawrence Leighton Smith and David Del Tredici.

[8] The 1994 winner of ASCAP's Rudolf Nissim Prize for best new orchestral work, Big Shoulders was commissioned by ASCAP/Meet the Composer and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the CSO's centennial.

[9] John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune called the 10-minute piece "visceral in its excitement" and noted: "Knight appears to know his way around the Windy City, for his score persuasively catches our town's jumpy, clashing cadences.

[12] Critic Timothy Mangan of the Los Angeles Times noted: "Its originality stems form the composer's canny combination of steady meter with atonal lyricism, a waltz-like lilt with expressionist angst; as such, it sounds like Schoenberg's 'La Valse'.

Soprano Marnie Breckenridge's vitality brought the piece to life...she delivered the scat-like cadenza with perfectly nuanced blue notes and a wonderful sensitivity to expressive timing.

The school is home to the Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company, and alma mater to musicians including Mason Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara,[21] Chris Merritt, Leona Mitchell and Sarah Coburn.

The work set attendance records and was noted for its “jazzy, bluesy undertones that blur the lines separating opera, music theater and song cycle.

[32] He toured China with the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra as it performed a program of American music including his work and compositions from his students.

In addition to the Sir Arthur Bliss Award from London's Royal College of Music and ASCAP's Rudolf Nissim Award for best new orchestral work, Knight has won the San Francisco Song Festival's American Art Song Competition, the Delius Composition Competition, Bergen Festival's Morton Gould Memorial, and Vienna Modern Masters.