Howard Pollack is John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Music at the University of Houston, where he has taught since 1987. He is the author of five books, including Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man (1999), which received the Irving Lowens Award from the Society for American Music and a Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP, and which the New York Times deemed "the definitive study of Aaron Copland's life and work;" and George Gershwin: His Life and Work (2006), which also received a Deems Taylor Award as well as an Award from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, and which has been called "endlessly fascinating" (New York Times) and "a gripping read" (Charleston News and Courier), with "some of the best musical analysis you're likely to find anywhere" (Toronto Globe and Mail). His biography of Marc Blitzstein is due out in 2012.