He is a former distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and part of the composition faculty at the Juilliard School.

Corigliano first came to prominence in 1964 at the age of 26 when his Sonata for Violin and Piano (1963) was the only winner of the chamber-music competition of the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

Mercury Records wanted the classical and popular divisions to work together and after a meeting with Joe Bott, Scott Mampe and Bob Reno, it was decided to proceed with the project.

He composed for flutist James Galway his third wind concerto, titled Pied Piper Fantasy, which premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1982).

Portions of the score were used in his violin concerto (2003), written for Joshua Bell, who premiered it on September 19, 2003, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In 2011, Corigliano's song cycle One Sweet Morning premiered at Avery Fisher Hall by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and the New York Philharmonic, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

3 Circus Maximus (2004) for the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, STOMP (2011) written for the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia, and Conjurer (2008) commissioned by an international consortium of six orchestras for percussionist Evelyn Glennie and winning him his fifth Grammy Award.

[15] Among Corigliano's students are David Sampson, Eric Whitacre,[16] Elliot Goldenthal, Edward Knight, Nico Muhly,[14] Roger Bergs, Michael Gilbertson, Gary Kulesha, Scott Glasgow, John Mackey, Michael Bacon, Avner Dorman, Mason Bates, Steven Bryant, Jefferson Friedman, Jamie Howarth, Dinuk Wijeratne and David Ludwig.

He has written symphonies, as well as works for string orchestra, wind band, concerti, chamber and solo pieces, opera, as well as for film.

He currently divides his time between homes in Manhattan and Kent Cliffs (in the Hudson Valley of Upstate New York) with his husband, the composer-librettist Mark Adamo.

[21] The two were married in Santa Cruz, California, by the conductor Marin Alsop during the 2008 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.