While Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is now widely hailed as the Dean of
American Composers, he had to fight the musical establishment to gain
recognition for his work. As an artist, he came of age during his
1922-1925 sojourn in Paris, under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger, and
in the company of such American expatriates as Ernest Hemingway and
Gertrude Stein. He returned to America as a talented young composer of
a modernist style, but found no appreciative public for such work.
Yaddo played an instrumental role in establishing his career, not only
by repeatedly providing him a retreat in which to work, but by
sponsoring, and allowing Copland to direct, a series of "Festivals of
Contemporary American Music" that from 1932- 1952 realigned the
American music scene.