Two-Time Pulitzer Winning American Composer Elliot Carter Dies at 103

Elliot Carter, a classic American composer died on Monday in New York City, just a month prior to his 104^th birthday. The cause of death is not known. He composed 158 works, including several at over 100 years of age. One composition for chamber orchestra is scheduled for a world premier in February.

His music publishing company, Boosey and Hawkes, called him an "iconic American singer". The prolific composer has written scores of works for solo voice, chorus, large orchestra and small ensemble. He continued writing almost until his death.

Carter won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1960 for his Second String Quartet; his second award was in 1973 for his Third String Quartet. The Juilliard String Quartet chose to mark its 45th anniversary in 1991 with a concert of all four Carter string quartets. A fifth quartet came out in 1995. In 2006, his "Boston Concerto" was nominated for a Grammy Award as best classical contemporary composition.

He was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 1998 and celebrated his 100th birthday at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2008 with a new work performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In a 1992 Associated Press interview, Carter described his works as "music that asks to be listened to in a concentrated way and listened to with a great deal of attention."

"It's not music that makes an overt theatrical effect," he said then, "but it assumes the listener is listening to sounds and making some sense out of them."

Carter was born in New York in 1908. As a young man he became acquainted with composer Charles Ives, who encouraged his ambitions. He studied literature at Harvard and then studied music in Paris under famed teacher Nadia Boulanger, who also guided Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Virgil Thompson.