Today, the elder statesman of American music reaches the age of 103 and, as far as I know, is still composing (there have already been several new works from him this year). Although he's not the only composer to make it past his centenary (Ornstein and le Flem being two notable examples of others who did), he appears to be the only one in history who has continued to compose after it.
This being a piano forum, perhaps now might be a good opportunity to open up a discussion of his piano writing. Whilst he is not an inveterate piano composer such as Rachmaninov, Medtner, Sorabji or Finnissy, he has devoted a fair share of attention to the instrument. Aside from his two main solo works, the Sonata from the mid-1940s and Night Fantasies from almost 35 years later, there is now quite a clutch of miniatures for the instrument; in addition, what was for many years his only piano concerto (dating from the 1960s) has in recent years been followed up by quite a few more works for piano and orchestra or small ensemble, the most recent (at least as far as I now!) being Conversations, for piano, percussion and orchestra from last year. So - there's quite a lot to write about!
So let's raise our glasses to him and see who's going to start the discussion!...
Best,
Alistair
Happy Birthday Elliott Carter!