Composer Spotlight: David Crumb
Born in Boulder, Colorado, May 21, 1962; now living in Eugene, Oregon
David Crumb has no need to invoke his famous father to command respect and recognition, for he is a composer of the front rank with a raft of prestigious commissions, performances and awards to his credit. David’s musical education took place at the Eastman School of Music (B.M. in composition, 1985), and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (M.A. in composition, 1991; Ph.D. in 1992). He spent the year 1989-90 at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, Israel, where he studied composition and conducting. Crumb is an accomplished cellist as well, having studied with members of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony. In 1997 he joined the music faculty at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he is still a member of the composition department. The following year he won a Guggenheim Fellowship.
September Elegy was Crumb’s intensely emotional response to 9/11 and is dedicated to the victims of that attack. “It reflects the underlying feelings of sadness and uncertainty that I experienced following that tragic event,” writes the composer. “I tend to experience the conceptualization and ultimate realization of my music as a nonlinear and rather mysterious process.”
David Crumb will join the Utah Symphony at Ancient Voices of Children on March 13.
Posted in Composer Spotlight, Uncategorized, Utah Symphony
