“For nearly 60 years, Kirchner, 88, has whacked his own path through the modernist forest, writing music of brawny expression, vivacious energy, theatrical gestures and dark passions. But despite a fast start to his career in the late ’40s and early ’50s, a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 and some starry champions along the way like cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who studied with him at Harvard, Kirchner never quite shed his reputation as an academic composer. He had the misfortune of becoming highly respected and perennially underrated at the same time.” video