Born in Brooklyn, New York, Copland was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He studied music under R. Goldmark in new York and N. Boulanger in Paris. He is one of the most famous American composers, thanks to his operas, ballets, track musics, chamber music and choir music.

Copland was most certainly gay, although - like Leonard Bernstein - he married and had children. Like many of his contemporaries, he guarded his privacy, expecially in regard to his homosexuality, but was one of the few composers of his stature to live openly and travel with his lovers, most of whom were talented, much younger men.

Among Copland's love affairs, most of which lasted for only a few years yet became enduring friendships, were ones with photographer Victor Kraft, artist Alvin Ross, pianist Paul Moor, dancer Erik Johns and composer John Brodbin Kennedy. In 1931, Copland and young writer Paul Bowles took a house on the mountain overlooking Tangier Bay in Morocco. Thus they laid the foundation for the scene that made Tangier a gay literary nexus in the 1950s and '60s.

He composed film music, song cycles, ballet music, symphonies, chamber music, and other pieces (such as Fanfare for the Common Man). His themes ranged from the homespun to the exalted, as he captured an authentic American sound.

Copland won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Appalachian Spring, an Oscar for Best Dramatic Film Score in 1949 for The Heiress, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Johnson, Kennedy Center Honors in 1979, and the National Medal of Arts in 1986.

The Russian-born American composer Igor Stravinsky once remarked, "Why call Copland a great American composer? He's a great composer."