Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer and academic, currently affiliated with the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of California, Los Angeles.
[3] He joined the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music of the University of California Los Angeles in 2017.
In common with many other American composers of the post-war generation, Danielpour began his career in a serialist milieu, but rejected it in the late 1980s in favor of a more ecumenical and "humdrum" idiom.
He cites the Beatles—along with John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner—as influences on his more recent musical style.
Danielpour's notable works include First Light (1988) for chamber orchestra, three symphonies (1985, 1986, and 1990), four piano concerti (1981, 1993, 2002 and 2009), the ballet Anima mundi (1995), and the opera Margaret Garner (2005).