Born in 1970, James Matheson studied with Gerald Levinson at Swarthmore College, and later with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra. The New Yorker describes him as an “American composer who is ignoring style labels and writing synthetic, satisfying music that avoids the glib theatricality of postmodernism.” The Philadelphia Inquirer calls his music “stylistically unusual. For one thing, it isn’t afraid to be quiet. For another, it does not fear beauty.”

Though we don’t know if he meant it to be taken seriously, Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) seems to be about himself, with such sections labeled “The Hero's Adversaries,” “The Hero's Companion,” and “The Hero at Battle.”