Last modified: Wednesday, March 2, 2011
IU Jacobs School Professor David Dzubay receives 2011 American Academy Arts and Letters Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- David Dzubay, professor and chair of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Department of Composition, has been awarded a 2011 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Music.
One of four composers to be recognized for outstanding artistic achievement, the award acknowledges "the composer who has arrived at his or her own voice." The award of $7,500 is matched by an additional $7,500 toward the recording of one work from each composer.
Other composers receiving the award this year are Karim Al-Zand, Steven Mackey and Lewis Spratlan.
David Dzubay was born in 1964 in Minneapolis, grew up in Portland, Oregon, and earned a D.M. in Composition at IU in 1991. Additional studies included a fellowship in composition at Tanglewood (1990) and two summers as co-principal trumpet of the National Repertory Orchestra (1988, 1989).
His principal teachers were the late Donald Erb, a distinguished professor of composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music; Frederick Fox, former professor of music at the Jacobs School and founder of the IU New Music Ensemble; Jacobs Professor Eugene O'Brien, executive associate dean of the school; the late Lukas Foss, a celebrated composer and conductor; Allan Dean, a professor of trumpet at Yale University (formerly of the Jacobs School); and former Jacobs Professor Bernard Adelstein, who served as principal trumpet with The Cleveland Orchestra.
Dzubay's music has been performed by orchestras, ensembles and soloists in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico and Asia. His music is published by Pro Nova Music, Dorn and Thompson Edition and is recorded on the Sony, Bridge, Centaur, Innova, Crystal, Klavier, Gia, First Edition and IU labels.
Recent honors include Guggenheim, MacDowell, Yaddo, Copland House and Djerassi fellowships, the 2010 Heckscher Foundation-Ithaca College Composition Prize, 2009 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival Composition Competition, 2007 Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition, 2005 Utah Arts Festival Commission and the 2004 William Revelli Memorial Prize from the National Band Association.
He is currently professor of music, chair of the Department of Composition and director of the Jacobs School's New Music Ensemble. Dzubay has conducted at the Tanglewood, Aspen and June in Buffalo festivals. He has also conducted the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Greater Dallas Youth Symphony Orchestra, Music from China and Dallas-based Voices of Change, among other ensembles.
From 1995 to 1998 he served as composer-consultant to the Minnesota Orchestra, helping direct the orchestra's "Perfect-Pitch" reading sessions. During 2005-2006 he was Meet The Composer "Music Alive" Composer-in-Residence with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra. Dzubay is joining the faculty of the Brevard Music Center as composer in residence during the summer of 2011.
The Academy
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 to "foster, assist, and sustain an interest in literature, music, and the fine arts." Each year, the academy honors more than 50 composers, artists, architects and writers with cash awards ranging from $5000 to $75,000. Other academy activities are exhibitions of art, architecture and manuscripts; purchases of art for donations to museums; publications on the academy's history and events; publications on the academy's history and readings and performances of new musicals. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is located in three landmark buildings designed by McKim, Mead & White, Cass Gilbert, and Charles Pratt Huntington on Audubon Terrace at 155 Street and Broadway.
