John Corigliano, American composer and son of the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, was born on February 16, 1938 in New York City. His compositions have brought him several prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and an Academy Award for the score to François Girard’s film, The Red Violin. He also wrote an opera, The Ghosts of Versailles (1987) which was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1991.