Candace DiCarlo "Some of my influences had to come from the Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel," says classical composer Jennifer Higdon. Click photo for larger image. Related Story: Higdon poured grief into 'blue cathedral'

An unusual "instrument" got the ball rolling for composer Jennifer Higdon's career:

Chinese health reflex balls, also known as Chinese reflex bells -- those golfball-sized chrome spheres you twirl around your palm as they ring with a bright bell-like tone.

You are more likely to see them in a Chinatown than in a concert hall, but Higdon's hugely successful piece, "blue cathedral," calls for the musicians to shake them at the end.

"I was looking for a sound I couldn't replicate in the orchestra," she says, "Someone had given me a box of them. I bumped into them at home and said, 'That's it!' "

The rest is history-in-the-making.

"Last year 'blue cathedral' was the most performed orchestral work by a living American, and it is looking like it will be next year," says Higdon, 42.

Fifty-four groups have performed "blue cathedral" since the Curtis Symphony Orchestra premiered it in 2000, 43 by professional orchestras. By comparison, the typical number of repeat performances of an orchestral work by a contemporary composer is zero. New works simply don't often get additional performances in today's musical landscape.

"I am as baffled as others," says Higdon about her stunning success. The latest was garnering four nominations for a recording of her Concerto for Orchestra at last spring's Grammy Awards.

	PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY Andrey Boreyko, conductor; Andre Watts, piano. Where:Heinz Hall, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $17-$69; 412-392-4900.

"How the heck did this happen?" she says. "It blows my mind."

Higdon's career is almost the antipode of other composers. Only a few of Higdon's works have not received additional performances, despite the fact that she doesn't have a major publisher and doesn't advertise. "My philosophy is that the music should sell itself," she says.

Her music did just that in a high-profile coming-out concert in 2002. Although "blue cathedral" was picking up steam, Higdon was still flying under the radar of the national scene. That changed when her biggest work to date, Concerto for Orchestra, was commissioned for the centennial celebration of the Philadelphia Orchestra in its newly opened Kimmel Center. As if the stakes needed to be raised, the American Symphony Orchestra League was holding its annual conference there.

"There were 3,000 orchestra managers out there," Higdon says. "If it worked, things were going to go great for the rest of my life, if not it was going to be bad."

Well, it worked. Not only has Concerto for Orchestra gone on to 14 additional performances, it catapulted Higdon into the spotlight as a composer who can bridge the gap between audiences and new music. It's a major reason that the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has named her its composer of the year for this season. In addition to performing "blue cathedral" and Concerto for Orchestra, the PSO has commissioned a Higdon trombone concerto for principal trombonist Peter Sullivan.

		PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA COMPOSERS OF THE YEAR 2005-06 Jennifer Higdon 2004-05 Christopher Rouse 2003-04 Krzysztof Penderecki 2002-03 Michael Hersch 2001-02 Rodion Shchedrin

"Higdon has written music that is approachable without being dumbed-down, and both modern and romantic without descending into pastiche," critic Raymond Tuttle says of Higdon's compositional style in Fanfare Magazine.

Perhaps her ability to set up shop in what is typically the no man's land of contemporary composition is that Higdon wasn't a prodigy -- or even a fan -- of classical music early in life.

"I didn't grow up with classical music," she says. "When I started college I didn't even know the symphonies of Beethoven. Some of my influences had to come from the Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel. My dad would play Bob Marley and East Tennessee bluegrass."

While Brooklyn-born, Higdon lived most of her life in the South. Her accent reflects her time spent in Georgia and Tennessee. There, she taught herself how to play the flute at 15, becoming proficient enough to get a degree in flute performance from Bowling Green.

She matriculated to the Curtis Institute and then studied composition at the University of Pennsylvania. Her teachers have included George Crumb and Ned Rorem, but it's pretty clear she has gone her own way. Whether using parallel fifths, mixing of tonal and octatonic scales, drawing on her background as a flutist or using found instruments such as the Chinese reflex balls or crochet hooks, Higdon has a language all her own.

"I am not interested in following anyone, I want to make it interesting," says Higdon, who also says she "loves melody." "I find that my sound world changes from piece to piece, it keeps it interesting for me."

"Her music is vividly one of a kind," wrote critic John Fleming of the St. Petersburg Times.

These days, Higdon can barely keep up with all the commissions coming her way. In addition to the concerto for Sullivan, concertos for oboist Kathryn Greenbank and percussionist Colin Currie premiere this season. She also is finishing concertos for Hillary Hahn and Lang Lang, both of whom she taught at Curtis. "Those are huge, they are above the cloud," she says.

Inevitably, with such a short ride in her fast machine to the top, Higdon has ruffled some feathers.

"There is automatic skepticism at the amount of success I have had," she says. "I totally understand that. The trick is to be true to myself, but the big reward is to see that my music seems to say something. If you can get people excited about new music, it can't be all bad."