Born in 1910 Samuel Barber was the most naturally gifted American composer of his generation and is best known for his Adagio for Strings and Violin Concerto. Barber’s American musical accent had more of a European flavour, yet he never felt entirely comfortable in the public eye, and suffered periods of agonising self-doubt. At 14 he became one of the first pupils at the new Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He won a Pulitzer Fellowship and the American Prix de Rome in quick succession. The Adagio for Strings, arranged for string orchestra at the request of the conductor Arturo Toscanini. During 1939 Barber returned to the Curtis Institute, this time as a member of staff lecturing on orchestration and composition. He stayed there for three years, and then in 1942 joined the Army Air Corps. Barber won a second Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his masterly Piano Concerto.