Dede
Mozart. He wrote great music and all of his music was unique. he started composing his music at the age of 5, and wrote his own requiem. his operas are still famous today, like Don Quitox, and The magic flute.

Ryan K
John Adams, because he took a basic concept, minimalism, and from it he has created music that is completely unique amongst all current composers. Like the great composers in classical music, you can immediately identify a John Adams piece. He was one of the first composers to embrace the concept of making classical music enjoyable while those left over from the modern era were too worried about making it more complex and mathematical. And unlike plenty of other contemporary composers, he is able to make his music enjoyable without sacrificing the overall quality of the music. He is also becoming more and more known not only for his symphonic works, but his opera as well. And I think the biggest part of it all is that his music is played quite often by some of the best orchestras in the world. A lot of current composers will have their piece played once in its debut, and that will be the end of it as far as major performances go. But with Adams, a lot of his music has become part of the standard orchestral repertoire. Including Harmonium, his Violin Concerto, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and excerpts from his operas, among other pieces. And on top of all that, he recently won a Pulitzer Prize for On the Transmigration of Souls, his emotional "musical memorial" to the 9/11 attacks. And um DeDe...you might want to take another look at the question. I'm pretty sure that Mozart isn't alive today...

musicbethefruitoflove
Hahaha.....Mozart isn't ALIVE. I'm going to go with John Corigliano. Everything I've played of his and have heard give me chills...and not much does that to me. I'm not the biggest fan of the whole "modern" music thing, so I like how he keeps it traditional, yet CURRENT at the same time.

Patrick D
John Williams, he took the classic technique of getting a marvelous melody and orchestrating it to its peak of prefection. my brother always says to me "the thing that makes people love a song is the melody" and i completely agree. John Williams melodies are great, and he has the ability to orchestrate them to the point where you hear a song by him, and see absolutely no room for improvement

del_icious_manager
This is a toughie because there is never any such thing as 'best'. How do you judge who or what is 'best'. What are the criteria? I don't think I could name just one, but I would propose for consideration: Kalevi Aho - Finnish composer who magically combines a wholly fresh and modern style of writing with a strong, clearly identifiable personality and an ability to communicate directly with the listener. John Corigliano - I couls almost write the same for Corgliano as I did for Aho but, of course, his style is quite different. Perhaps slightly more immediately accessible to the inexperienced listener. John Woolrich - a British composer very aware of the past. He has paid hommage to composers such as Monteverdi and Mozart in his music and has a unique style of composition which 'reaches' people.

Jane L
Probably Hans Zimmer, Lloyd Webber or Thomas Newman. Hans zimmer composed and was nominated for : 1989: Rain Man 1995: The Lion King (won) 1997: The Preacher's Wife 1998: As Good As It Gets 1999: The Prince of Egypt 1999: The Thin Red Line 2001: Gladiator. I love the music deep with feeling, not like John Williams who composed the world's most annoying theme song 'star wars'. Lloyd Webber did the famous Phatom of the Opera, Cats. his ballads are so lyrical and makes me relax more. Thomas Newman only reason was he composed the music for Shawshank Redemption and American Beauty. Made me cry at the end. the music was so beautiful.