thumb|roger sessions roger huntington sessions (december 28, 1896march 16, 1985) was an american composer, critic, and teacher of music. ==life== sessions was born in brooklyn, new york, to a family that could trace its roots back to the american revolution. his mother, ruth huntington sessions, was a direct descendent of samuel huntington, a signer of the declaration of independence.olmstead 2008, 7. roger studied music at harvard university from the age of 14. there he wrote for and subsequently edited the harvard musical review. graduating at age 18, he went on to study at yale university under horatio parker and ernest bloch before teaching at smith college. his first major compositions came while he was traveling europe with his wife in his mid-twenties and early thirties. returning to the united states in 1933, he taught first at princeton university (from 1936), moved to the university of california, berkeley, where he taught from 1945 to 1953, and then returned to princeton until retiring in 1965. he was elected a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences in 1961. he was appointed bloch professor at berkeley (1966â67), and gave the charles eliot norton lectures at harvard university in 1968â69. he continued to teach on a part-time basis at the juilliard school from 1966 until 1983.olmstead 2001. for a list of his notable students,  sessions won a special pulitzer prize in 1974 citing "his life's work as a distinguished american composer.""special awards and citations". the pulitzer prizes. retrieved december 3, 2013. in 1982 he won the annual pulitzer prize for music for concerto for orchestra, first performed by the boston symphony orchestra on october 23, 1981."music". the pulitzer prizes. retrieved december 3, 2013. he died at the age of 88 in princeton, new jersey. ==style== his works written up to 1930 or so are more or less neoclassical in style. those written between 1930 and 1940 are more or less tonal but harmonically complex. the works from 1946 on are atonal, and beginning with the solo violin sonata of 1953, serial. ==major works== *symphony no. 1 (1927) *the black maskers orchestral suite (1928) *piano sonata no. 1 (1930) *[[violin concerto (sessions)|violin c
1896_births 1985_deaths 20th-century_classical_composers American_classical_composers American_music_theorists American_people_of_French_descent Black_Mountain_College_faculty Fellows_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences Guggenheim_Fellows Harvard_University_alumni Kent_School_alumni Opera_composers Princeton_University_faculty Pulitzer_Prize_for_Music_winners Pulitzer_Prize_winners Pupils_of_Edward_Burlingame_Hill Pupils_of_Ernest_Bloch Pupils_of_Horatio_Parker Rome_Prize_winners Smith_College_faculty Twelve-tone_and_serial_composers University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni Yale_School_of_Music_alumni