Morten Lauridsen, Part 1: American Composer, Educator and National Medal of Arts Recipient

Anthony Plog on Music

Morten Lauridsen has written choral music that has deeply moved people around the world. As one of America’s most beloved and also most performed composers, he received the National Medal of Arts in 2007. His works O Magnum Mysterium, Dirat-on, O Nata Lux, and Sure On This Shining Night have become the all-time best selling choral octavos distributed by Theodore Presser Music. Not only a composer but also a teacher, he taught at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for 52 years (!), was head of the composition department from 1990-2002, and founded the school's Advanced Studies in Film Scoring program, now one of the most important film scoring programs in the world.
Early in his life, Morten Lauridsen was a fire fighter in the Pacific Northwest, so I ask him how his 10 weeks alone in a lookout tower pointed him in the direction of music. From there he discusses his studies at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl, two giants in the world of music. And then we begin our discussion of his composing career with a deep dive into perhaps his most famous work, O Magnum Mysterium.

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