Widely recognized as one of America’s most highly-regarded composers, Pierre Jalbert writes vibrant, darkly intense, and superbly crafted scores in a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, including plainchant melodies, liturgical music, early pop and rock, and the natural world, his works have become fixtures on concert programs around the world, and at Carnegie Hall, by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras and Houston, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati Symphonies; the Ying, Borromeo, Enso, Escher, and Emerson String Quartets, Music from Copland House, and violinist Midori. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Stoeger Award, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is Professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and is an artistic director of Musiqa.