Pulitzer prize-winning avant-garde composer Elliott Carter dead at 103

Avant-garde composer Elliott Carter, who won the Pulitzer Prize twice in a career spanning nearly eight decades, has died in New York at the age of 103, a music publisher said.

Carter had composed 158 works, from early pieces like Symphony No. 1 (1942) and Holiday Overture (1944) to this year's Dialogues II, which premiered last month in Italy, and Instances, which is set to debut in February.

Born in New York City on December 11, 1908, Carter first pursued classical music under friend and mentor Charles Ives and later studied under Walter Piston at Harvard University and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Carter won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for String Quartet No. 2 (1960) and String Quartet No. 3 (1973) as well as Germany's Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize and the Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award.

He was also the first composer to receive the US National Medal of Arts, in 1985.

Carter celebrated his 100th birthday at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2008, where a new work of his was played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

"The great range and diversity of his music has, and will continue to have, influence on countless composers and performers worldwide," music publisher Boosey & Hawkes said in a statement announcing his death Monday.

"He will be missed by us all but remembered for his brilliance, his wit and his great canon of work."

The publisher said Carter is survived by son David and grandson Alexander.