Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938 in New Rochelle, New York) is a contemporary American composer who spent much of her early life in South America. She became known for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia, a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant redwood from trunk to needles. Among her other prominent pieces are the Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, her two string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems.

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