User:Keith Fitch/sandbox
Keith Fitch (born 1966) is an American composer, conductor, and teacher of contemporary classical concert music. He has taught at the Mannes College of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Bard College. He currently holds the Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he is also Head of the Composition Department and directs the CIM New Music Ensemble.
Biography[edit]
Keith Fitch currently heads the Composition Department and holds the Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he also directs the CIM New Music Ensemble. Called “gloriously luminous” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, his music has been consistently noted for its eloquence, expressivity, dramatic sense of musical narrative, and unique sense of color and sonority. Reviewing a performance of his work Totem by Wolfgang Sawallisch and The Philadelphia Orchestra (chosen by Maestro Sawallisch to celebrate the orchestra’s centennial), The Wall Street Journal praised “the sheer concentration of his writing, and its power to express a complex, unseen presence shaping the course of musical events.” The American Academy of Arts and Letters has said, “[his] music reveals an individual landscape that concentrates on unusual textures and sounds – all within a strong narrative that drives towards a rich and powerful conclusion.”
His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia by such ensembles and soloists as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the League of Composers Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the Colorado Quartet, the Da Capo Chamber Players, guitarist Jason Vieaux, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and many others. His music has been heard at the Mostly Modern Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, June in Buffalo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls, among others.
A native of Indiana, Keith Fitch (b. 1966) began composing at age seven and began formal musical training on the double bass at age eleven. While still in high school (age sixteen), he received his first professional orchestral performance. He attended the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied composition with Frederick Fox, Eugene O’Brien, and Claude Baker, double bass with Bruce Bransby and Murray Grodner, and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky, founder of the Borodin Quartet. He also counts Donald Erb and Joan Tower among his compositional mentors. Among his many awards are three each from ASCAP and the National Society of Arts and Letters, an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Fromm Music Foundation Commission, two Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, a Copland House Residency Award, and the 2016 Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has enjoyed multiple residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as at Yaddo, The Charles Ives Center for American Music, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and he has twice served as Resident Composer and faculty at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East. 
Highly regarded as a teacher, chamber music coach, and conductor of new music, he has taught at Indiana University, Bard College, and for eleven years served on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York. From 2015-2017, he served as Composer-in-Residence and Director of the Young Artist Seminar in Composition at the Rocky Ridge Music Center.
He frequently appears as guest composer at colleges, universities, and summer festivals nationwide, and his students regularly win awards from such prestigious organizations as ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Fulbright Foundation, as well as attending leading summer festivals around the world.
A passionate advocate for new music, for five years, he curated a concert series at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and he has mentored such ensembles as Cleveland’s FiveOne Experimental Orchestra and Ars Futura ensemble, as well as individual members of leading new music ensembles throughout the country. Not one to avoid controversy, in 2014, he organized and co-authored an open letter that took to task The Cleveland Orchestra for failing to program works by American composers. That letter went viral, gaining national attention and re-igniting a conversation about the place of American music on our nation’s orchestral programs. Equally adept working behind the scenes, he also guided pianist Daniil Trifonov, the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition gold medalist, in the composition and world premiere of Trifonov’s first piano concerto.
His music is published by Non Sequitur Music and Edition Peters and appears on Azica Records and Naxos Digital. He joined the CIM faculty in 2008.
Education[edit]
Fitch attended the Indiana University School of Music, from which he received his Bachelor of Music with High Distinction in 1989 (Pi Kappa Lambda, 1987, Phi Eta Sigma, 1986), his Master of Music in 1992, and his Doctor of Music in 1995. While at Indiana, he studied composition with Frederick Fox, Claude Baker, and Eugene O'Brien. He also studied double bass with Bruce Bransby and Murray Grodner, and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky, founder of the Borodin Quartet. He holds doctoral minors in Music Theory and Twentieth-Century Art History. Outside of Indiana, he also worked with composers Donald Erb and Joan Tower.
Teaching[edit]
Keith Fitch has taught at many of today's leading music schools and summer festivals, including:
Cleveland Institute of Music, Head, Composition Department, Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition, 2008-present; Director, Young Composers Program, 2013-present
Rocky Ridge Music Center, Director, Young Artist Program in Composition, 2015-2017
Bard College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, 2006-2006, 2007-2008
Mannes College (now School) of Music, Composition and Chamber Music Faculty, 2000-2008
Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, Resident Composer and Chamber Music Faculty, 2002; Chamber Music Faculty, 2006
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, 2001
He has been guest composer at the Mostly Modern Festival, California Summer Music Festival, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, University of Missouri, Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Akron, among others.
Notable Students[edit]
Among his more notable students are Ryan Chase, Alex Cooke, Julián Fueyo, Arseniy Gusev, Nathaniel Heyder, Jack Hughes, Gabriel Novak, Joshua Rodriguez, Sami Seif, Sean Shepherd, Jiří Trtík, and Carlos Velez.
Watch Study with Keith Fitch at CIM.
Works[edit]
Orchestra and Large Ensemble[edit]
Alee (2019-2021, commission, Cleveland Institute of Music) (602)
In Memory (2013, commission, Orchestra of the League of Composers)
Summer and Shade: Three Dream-dances for Orchestra (2006/2008)
Totem (1993, commission, New York Youth Symphony, First Music 10)
The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1991)
Solo and Chamber Music[edit]
as Earth dreams (2020, commission, Yolanda Kondonassis) for solo harp
Echoes of Orpheus (2019) for solo violoncello, harp, piano, and two percussionists
Ruthless Voicings (2018-19, commission, No Exit Ensemble) for flute/alto flute, bass clarinet, viola, violoncello, and percussion
Three English Sonnets (2015-17) for solo flute/alto flute
Piano Quartet, “Last Words” (2014) for violin, viola, violoncello, and piano
Knock on Wood (2012) for guitar and harp
Cascade: A Fanfare (2012, commission, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland) for brass and percussion
Mean Fiddle Summer (2011) for solo violin
Midnight Rounds (2010) for flute/bass flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano/celesta
’Tho Night Be Falling (2009, commission, Fromm Music Foundation) for string quartet
Le tango maudit (2008, based on Le tango sinistre) for two pianos
This Rough Magicke (2008, commission, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble) for flute/alto flute, clarinet, viola, and double bass
Burnt Counterpoint (2007) for alto saxophone and percussion
Manhattan Rolls (2004, commission, James Preiss) for solo five-octave marimba
Dances for Tanja (2002/03) for solo piano [No. I Le tango sinistre; No. II The Last Waltz of Summer; No. III The Transcendental Fandango (Hommage à György)]
To sleep, to dream (2001, rev. 2004, commission, Swarthmore College) for violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and piano/celesta
Come soon, come soon (2000) for violoncello and piano
Dancing the Shadows (1994) for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano, and percussion
December Rhythms (1993, commission, Kevin Elmore) for oboe and string quartet
Todestanzen (1992) for viola and percussion
in the rain-darkness (1990) for violin and piano
Partita (1990) for saxophone quartet
Upon black winter mornings (1989, commission, the Christopher Quartet) for string quartet
Lamentations/diversions (1989) for solo violoncello
Cut River (1988, commission, Kevin Elmore) for solo oboe
where the winter ends... (1987-88) for piano, violin, and violoncello
Nightscape (1986) for flute, oboe, violin, and double bass
Vocal Music[edit]
The Range of Light (2016-18, commission, Rocky Ridge Music Center) for baritone, flute/alto flute/bass flute, clarinet, horn, violin, violoncello, and piano
The Imagined Garden (1999) for soprano and piano (texts by Hart Crane)
Two Love-Songs (1997) for soprano and piano (texts by e. e. cummings)
Three Poems of Paul Verlaine (1991) for soprano, violoncello, and percussion (texts by Paul Verlaine)
Songs of the Autumn Rain (1989) for mezzo-soprano and eight players (texts by e. e. cummings)
Honors, Commissions, Residencies[edit]
Commission, Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition, University of Chicago, 2022
Commission, Cleveland Institute of Music, 2021
ASCAP Plus Awards, 2017-2021
Individual Excellence Awards, Ohio Arts Council, 2018, 2012
Commission, No Exit New Music Ensemble, 2018
Resident Fellow, The Corporation of Yaddo, 2016
Walter Hinrichsen Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2016
ASCAP Plus (Standard) Awards, 1993-2014
Resident Fellow, The Copland House, 2016
Commission, Orchestra of the League of Composers, 2012
Commission, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, 2012
Second Place, Areon Flutes International Composition Competition, 2009
Commission, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, 2007
Resident Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002
Commission, Fromm Music Foundation, 2005
Finalist, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Composition Prize, University of Connecticut, 2002
Resident Fellow, The MacDowell Colony, 2001, 1998
Finalist, Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Composition Competition, 2000
Gilmore and Mary Stott Commission, Swarthmore College, 2000
Honorable Mention, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest, 1999
ASCAP Young Composer Awards, 1995, 1993, 1989
Individual Artist Fellowship, Indiana Arts Commission, 1994
Dean’s Prize for Composition, Indiana University, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1989, 1988, 1987
Commission, New York Youth Symphony, First Music 10 Competition, 1993
National Society of Arts and Letters Awards, 1993, 1992, 1990
Resident Fellow, Charles Ives Center for American Music, 1991
Resident Fellow, Atlantic Center for the Arts, 1989
External Links[edit]
Cleveland Institute of Music Faculty Page
Website: Keith Fitch | Composer
Publishers: Non Sequitur Music, Edition Peters