It’s not every day you meet someone who has won both a Nobel Prize and an Academy award.

Although both are prestigious awards, they make up only a small portion of the awards held by composer John Corigliano. Corigliano’s works stretch to include many facets of classical composing. He has written music for orchestra, chamber, opera and even films. Although he has been composing for more than 40 years, it has only been within the later part of his career that he has gained international notoriety.

“There is so much stuff out there; you have to get into your 40s before people start to recognize you,” Corigliano says. “You need more works and venues, and that takes time. It’s not like dancers who reach their peaks in their 20s and are done by their 40s. With composers, it’s the opposite.”

While fame may not strike a composer until later in life, Corigliano says what a composer learns early on is most important. For that reason, Corigliano travels to campuses all over the country doing in-house residencies, coaching students on how to improve their playing. This week, he will be at Iowa State.

“[The students] get to meet a living composer and see that he’s a human being, not a European relic that’s 200 years old.” Corigliano says. “I get to coach them because they can’t exactly be coached by Beethoven.”

Music students are not the only ones who will benefit from Corigliano’s visit. In addition to coaching students, there will be two performances of his work during his residency, the first by the ISU Symphony Orchestra, the ISU Wind Ensemble, the Iowa State Singers, ISU Dance and the Concert Choir of the Ames Children’s Choirs. The second performance will feature Corigliano’s “Gazebo Dances,” “Phantasmagoria,” “Three Irish Folk Settings” and select scenes from Corigliano’s opera, “The Ghost of Versailles.”

Through the performances, Corigliano hopes new audiences will begin to listen to and appreciate classical music.

“Classical music has an unfortunate name: classical,” Corigliano says. “I don’t think that young composers think they are writing classical music. There is a gap because most people grow up and never know that there is such a thing as contemporary classical music.”

Corigliano feels the gap could be attributed to fewer schools teaching classical music, when only 100 years ago, most music was classical music.

“When I was younger, CBS would play classical music; now CBS wouldn’t even think of it,” Corigliano says. “PBS probably wouldn’t even put it on.”

Although times have changed for classical music, Corigliano does think modern times will help new composers struggling to get their music into the commercial world.

“When I was a kid, you’d go to a record store and see like 10 labels, and a young composer couldn’t get on one of those labels,” Corigliano says.

Now Corigliano says the Internet, as well as an abundance of smaller labels willing to put out the works of young composers, have made it easier to make music available.

Even though he might not have to rely on small labels or the Internet to get his music recorded, Corigliano says he is looking forward to a return to composing, which was put on hold to give him time to travel. Although it is strenuous, he still enjoys the rewards of his work.

“I hate composing because it’s really frightening, because you have to face your inadequacies all the time,” Corigliano says. “But when you finally get moving, you get enthusiastic about it.”

This correction was printed on April 6, 2004:

Due to a reporting error, the April 2 article “Corigliano combats classical’s unfortunate moniker” John Corigliano was incorrectly identified as a Nobel Prize winner. He is actually a Pulitzer Prize and Grawmeyer Award winner.