Harold Meltzer was born in New York. Three recordings, released on Naxos, Open G Records, and Bridge, are devoted to his music; two of them made The New York Times best 25 discs of the year lists, for 2010 and 2018. His sextet, Brion, was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009, and he has been awarded the Rome Prize, the Barlow Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and both the Academy Award and the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is working on concertos for piano and cello.