Eric Whitacre, composer

Born: January 2, 1970

Formal training: didn’t begin composing until college, when he sang in a choir for the first time

Quick study: He earned a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, studying with John Corigliano

His recent musical: Paradise Lost, a cutting-edge work combining trance, ambient and techno electronica with choral, cinematic and operatic traditions, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award for most promising musical theater composer

Considered by many to be: one of the most popular choral composers of the last decade for works such as Water Night, Cloudburst, Lux Arumque, and Sleep

Other awards: his first recording, The Music of Eric Whitacre, was called one of the top 10 classical albums of 1997 by The American Record Guide; in 2001 he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association.