Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (born 1939) was a highly regarded American composer who received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra). Her style of composition is lyrical, well-constructed, and appealing, combining modern tonal language with older compositional devices.

Zwilich was born in Miami, Florida, in 1939 and began writing music when she was ten years old. She received her B.M. in 1956 and her M.M. in 1962 from Florida State University and then went to New York to attend the Juilliard School. While there she studied under Elliot Carter and Roger Sessions and in 1970 was the first woman to receive a doctorate in composition from the school. She also studied the violin under Richard Burgin and Ivan Galamian, and her ability as a violinist earned her a place in the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. This experience as an orchestral player affected her...