Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was an American classical composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers". In the 1960s, however, Copland turned more to simply conducting rather than composing. He also became more outspokenly anti-Communist after years of Communist sympathies.

Copland died in 1990 of Alzheimer's and respiratory failure.

Aaron Copland in The War That Came Early
In the aftermath of the "big switch" of 1940, when Britain and France aligned with their former enemy Germany against the Soviet Union, Peggy Druce realized she couldn't hear the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, or Aaron Copland for that matter, without thinking "Oh, yeah. He's a Red".