Steven Stucky’s music is known for combining clear forms with brilliant colours, especially in his music for orchestra. (Esa-Pekka Salonen has named him a "modern master of musical form"). Unusually for an American composer, his work celebrates the great European modernist traditions of the 20th century, with clear links to composers such as Ravel, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, and Ligeti. His Second Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Music, is among his best known works, alongside orchestral scores such as Dreamwaltzes (1986, Minnesota Orchestra), Son et lumière (1988, Baltimore Symphony), Pinturas de Tamayo (1995, Chicago Symphony), and Spirit Voices (2003, Singapore Symphony) for percussionist and orchestra, written for Evelyn Glennie.