Korf has drawn inspiration from a remarkable array of composers and musical idioms, though these influences are seldom detectable in his music. His life-long passion for jazz and popular music, for example, lends an unmistakably American flavor to his work, though only rarely does their vernacular pedigree surface.

As early as Korf’s  Symphony No. 2 “Blue Note,” from 1987, New Yorker critic Andrew Porter perceived this vanguard spirit in the “imaginative sounds and striking ideas” resulting in “the impression of a composer finding his own way, pursuing a personal vision, following his own ear.”

Korf has been commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Koussevitsky Music Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 and a Godard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1988.

A leading figure on the New York music scene for more than thirty years, Korf founded the acclaimed contemporary chamber ensemble Parnassus, which he led as artistic director and conductor for 27 years. He currently serves as Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence for Riverside Symphony which he co-founded with conductor George Rothman in 1981. Korf resides in New York City.

“By Parnassus performances and Parnassus commissions, Korf has put New York and the musical world in his debt. He has gathered some of the most brilliant players in the country and forged them into an ensemble. He has championed composers whose works need virtuoso performance and has interpreted them with passion and precision.”

Andrew Porter
THE NEW YORKER

“Mr. Korf’s conducting met a hellishly difficult job with confidence and skill…[He] probably served music for this hour before this audience of a few hundred, better than many of our better-known touring maestros during a career.

Bernard Holland
THE NEW YORK TIMES