Eastman School of Music Composition Department

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The Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, which is located downtown in Rochester, New York has been a major center for composition study and the performance of contemporary classical music and jazz since the school’s founding by George Eastman in 1921. In addition to being ranked the number one music school in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, Eastman is generally considered one of the leading music schools for composition study in the world. Many acclaimed and respected composers of the 20th century have served on the composition faculty of the school, including seven Pulitzer Prize winning composers and several Grammy Award winners.

The current faculty members of the composition department include David Liptak (Professor of Composition and Chair of the Composition Department), Robert Morris (Professor of Composition and affiliate faculty member of the Musicology and Music Theory Departments), Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez (Associate Professor of Composition), Allan Schindler (Professor of Composition and Director of the Eastman Computer Music Center), and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (Associate Professor of Composition).

Former composition faculty members have included Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Thomas Canning, Herbert Elwell, Dante Fiorillo, Sydney Hodkinson, Alan Hovhaness, Selim Palmgren, Burrill Phillips, Bernard Rogers, Christian August Sinding, Augusta Read Thomas, and Howard Hanson, to name a few.

Degrees offered are the B.M. in Composition, B.M. in Musical Arts with a concentration in Composition, M.M. in Composition, M.A. in Composition, Ph.D. in Composition and the D.M.A. in Composition. The Eastman School was the first music school in the United States to award the D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts) degree. In 1951, thanks to the efforts of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer and director of the Eastman School for more than 40 years, Howard Hanson, the National Association of Schools of Music approved the D.M.A. degree as a professional doctorate in music recognizing doctoral-level work in artistic attainment with an emphasis on performance and teaching.

The department is also dedicated to teaching non-composition majors to compose contemporary concert music. Eastman students who take the course "Composition for Non-Majors" are assigned to a private composition teacher for a half-hour lesson every week. Composition majors are taught through private lessons and master classes and students are exposed to a wide range of styles and techniques by working with the different composition faculty members on a rotating basis. A recent project initiated by Professor Allan Schindler coordinates collaborations between Eastman student composers and the Rochester Institute of Technology's film, visual studies and dance programs.

The department annually features many distinguished guest composers, who lecture and/or present master classes in the Composition Symposium. Recent guests have included John Adams, Stephen Albert, William Albright, Dominick Argento, Milton Babbitt, William Bolcom, Benjamin Boretz, Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, George Crumb, David Del Tredici, Jacob Druckman, Donald Erb, Morton Feldman, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Alun Hoddinott, Karel Husa, Leon Kirchner, Barbara Kolb, Alvin Lucier, Donald Martino, Per Norgard, Pauline Oliveros, Krzysztof Penderecki, Vincent Persichetti, Bernard Rands, Steve Reich, George Rochberg, Gunther Schuller, William Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Steven Stucky, Toru Takemitsu, Virgil Thomson, Joan Tower, Richard Wernick, John Williams and Charles Wuorinen.

Contents

[edit] Current Faculty

[edit] Notable composition alumni

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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