Wuorinen wrote more than 250 compositions. His late works included Time Regained, a fantasy for piano and orchestra for Peter Serkin, James Levine and the MET Opera Orchestra, Eighth Symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metagong for two pianos and two percussion, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, based on the novel of Salman Rushdie and premiered by the New York City Opera in 2004. His operatic treatment of Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, to a libretto by the author, was premiered at the Teatro Royal of Madrid in 2014.
An indication of Wuorinen's historical importance can be seen in the fact that in 1975, Stravinksky's widow gave Wuorinen the composer's last sketches for use in A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky. Wuorinen was the first composer commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi (Movers and Shakers); and likewise the first to compose for Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony (Bamboula Beach. Fractal geometry and the pioneering work of Benoit Mandelbrot played a crucial role in several of his works, including Bamboula Squared and Natural Fantasy, a work for organ.
His works have been recorded on nearly a dozen labels including several releases on Naxos, Albany Records (Charles Wuorinen Series), John Zorn's Tzadik label, and a CD of piano works performed by Alan Feinberg on the German label Col Legno.
He was the author of Simple Composition, used by composition students throughout the world.
An eloquent writer and speaker, Wuorinen lectured at universities throughout the United States and abroad, and served on the faculties of Columbia, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the University of Iowa, University of California (San Diego), Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Rutgers University.
Wuorinen was also active as performer, an excellent pianist and a distinguished conductor of his own works as well as other twentieth century repertoire. His orchestral appearances included the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the American Composers Orchestra.
In 1962 he co-founded the Group for Contemporary Music, one of America's most prestigious ensembles dedicated to performance of new chamber music. In addition to cultivating a new generation of performers, commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works, the Group has been a model for many similar organizations which have appeared in the United States since its founding.
Wuorinen was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
