ABSTRACT
This chapter examines three successful young composers working in the US who are credited with destroying classical music's boundaries: Missy Mazzoli, Judd Greenstein, and Mason Bates. Commentators describe each of these artists as boundary-breaking in many different senses, but the boundary they are perhaps most applauded for transgressing is the one that supposedly separates "pop" and "classical" music. In the US, funding organizations, traditional classical music institutions, and the arts press routinely imply that the best new music is that which breaks down musical boundaries in some way. However, the press releases, reviews, and award announcements that promote boundary-breaking works are frustratingly vague. Neoliberalism insists on lifting restrictions and regulations that inhibit an individual's or a firm's ability to adapt to a constantly changing market; thus, the "boundaryless career" has been a focus of managerial literature and training, as well as of academic career studies.
