David Ludwig (composer)

David Ludwig (composer)
David Serkin Ludwig (born 1974, Bucks County, Pennsylvania) is an American composer, teacher, and Dean of Music at The Juilliard School. His uncle was pianist Peter Serkin, his grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin, and his great-grandfather was the violinist Adolf Busch. He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. His choral work, The New Colossus, was performed at the 2013 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
Ludwig has held residencies with Meet the Composer, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MacDowell and Yaddo, and the Marlboro Music School and has held residency and faculty positions at Yellowbarn, the Ravinia Festival Steans Young Artist Program, the Atlantic Music Festival, Curtis Institute Young Artist Program, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival, Mostly Modern Festival, Shanghai International Music Festival, and the Seoul National University Studio 20/21 Ensemble.
Ludwig has received commissions and notable performances from many of the most recognized artists, ensembles, and venues of our time, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, David Shifrin, eighth blackbird, the Dover Quartet and Borromeo String Quartet, and the PRISM Quartet.
In 2022 Ludwig was awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the largest of its kind for chamber music. He received the prestigious 2018 Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship, as well as the First Music Award, and is a two-time recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career
Grant, and awards from New MusicUSA, The American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, Detroit Chamber Winds, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ludwig joined the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music as of the 2010–2011 academic year, and was the Artistic Director of the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Dean of Artistic Programs. He has also composed for films such as Cymbeline. After twenty years on the faculty of the Curtis Institute culminating as Artistic Advisor to the President and Chair of Composition, Ludwig was appointed Dean and Director of Music at The Juilliard School in May 2021
Education
Ludwig attended Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, originally intending to take a degree in art history, but eventually taking a music degree. His teachers included Richard Hoffmann. He spent one year studying at the University of Vienna. After that, he received his M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. He completed additional post-graduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, and Ned Rorem, and at the Juilliard School with John Corigliano. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the George Crumb Fellow, with his "Sonata for Violin and Piano" as his dissertation.
Awards
In 2023 Ludwig was given the award in music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2022, he was awarded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Stoeger Prize for outstanding contributions to Chamber Music. In 2016, Ludwig won the A.I. du Pont Award for his "significant contribution to contemporary classical music" and in 2018 received the 2018 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship in the Arts. Ludwig was a winner of the First Music Award, a two-time recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, and awards from New Music USA, the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, Detroit Chamber Winds, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Choral Arts Philadelphia honored Ludwig as a City Cultural Leader in 2009.
Personal life
Ludwig is married to violinist Bella Hristova.
Compositions
Source:
Orchestral
Les Adieux Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra (2020)
Bleeding Pines oratorio for chorus and orchestra (2020)
Pangæa (2017) concerto for piano and strings
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2015)
Saturn Bells (2014) for solo violin and orchestra
Pictures from the Floating World (2013) for solo bassoon and orchestra
Virtuosity (2013), Five Micro-Concertos for String Orchestra
Seasons Lost (2012) for two solo violins and string orchestra
Fanfare for Sam (2011)
La Follia (2011) for string orchestra
Symphony No. 1 "Book of Hours" (2009) for solo soprano and orchestra
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (2008)
Hanukkah Cantata for vocal soloists, SATB chorus, brass, and strings
Concertino for solo violin and orchestra (2005)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2004)
Radiance, serenade for oboe and strings (2003)
NightVision (2001)
Chamber
Seven Circles (2019) for violin and clarinet
Prima Variations (2019) for guitar and string trio
Nigunim (2019) for flute, violin, and piano
Paganiniana (2018) for solo violin, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion
Spiral Galaxy (2017) for violin, cello, and piano
Three Pictures from the Floating World (2017) for bassoon, violin, viola, and cello
Titania's Dream (2015) for piano trio
Rule of Three (2015) for two violins and viola
with the lilies and the song and the stars (2014) for Dizi (or alto flute), string quartet, and piano
Pale Blue Dot (2014) for string quartet
Aria Fantasy (2013) for piano quartet
Kantigas (2013) for Arabic violin, guitar, and Arabic percussion
Josquin Microludes (2012) for saxophone quartet
Piccola Musica Notturna (2011) for English horn, harp, string quartet
Three Yiddish Dances (2010) for piano trio
Sonata for Flute and Piano No. 2 "Canzoniere" (2010) for flute and piano
Flowers in the Desert (2009) for clarinet, viola, and piano
From the Rubayaat of Omar Khayyam (2008) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
Aigaios (2007) for string quartet
A Modern Psalm (2007) for jazz trio: piano, bass, drum set
Lamentations (2006) for clarinet, harp, bass, and percussion
Divertimento (2006) for violin, viola, cello, bass, piano
Haiku Catharsis (2004) for Pierrot ensemble
Four Japanese Folk Songs (2003) for euphonium and string quartet
The Catherine Wheel (2002) for oboe quartet
April Variations (2002) for violin, guitar, and cello
Autumn Variations (2002) for violin, guitar, cello
Dances of Light (2000) for string trio
Poems from Antiquity (1998) for clarinet and string quartet
Vocal
Songs from the Spirit of Turpentine (2019) for baritone and piano
Songs from the Bleeding Pines (2016) for soprano and piano
O Clavis David (2015) for soprano and SATB choir
Still Life (2013) soprano and piano
Four Ladino Folk Songs (2012) for SATB choir
Our Long War (2011) for soprano, violin, and piano
Ewigkeit (2011) for baritone and chamber ensemble
From the Rubayaat of Omar Khayyam (2008) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
Hannukah Cantata (2007) for SATB choir + soloists, cornetto, 3 sackbuts, organ, and baroque strings
Four Hanukkah Songs (2007) for SATB choir and piano
Kaddish (2006)
The Choir (2004) for SATB choir
Whitman Songs (2002) for baritone and piano
The New Colussus (2002) for SATB choir
Ave Maria (2000) for SSAA
Things to Do in a Park (2000) for children's choir & string quartet
Solo
All The Rage (2020) for solo violin
Moto Perpetuo (2016) for solo violin
Swan Song (2013) for violin and piano
Five Ladino Songs (2012) for violin
Lunaire Variations (2012) for piano
Five Bagatelles (2011) for piano
Sonata for Flute and Piano No. 2 "Canzoniere" (2010)
Density 15.1 (2010) for solo tenor saxophone
Scenes from Childhood (2009) for cello and piano
Six Haikus (2008) for horn and piano
Dante Microludes (2008) for cello
Three Chansons (2007) for cello and piano
Pleiades (2005) for oboe and piano
Three Portraits of Isabella (2003) for solo piano
Sonata No. 1 for Flute and Piano (2002)
Large ensemble
The Anchoress (2018) for soprano, saxophone quartet, Renaissance winds, and percussion
Missa Brevis (2008) for wind ensemble
References
External links
Official David Ludwig website
Curtis Institute of Music faculty page on David Ludwig
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Music, 'Penn Ph.D.s in Composition'
Instant Encore
Vermont Symphony Orchestra interview with Ludwig
The Bulletin Newspaper
world of music blog, 29 August 2009
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Oberlin College alumni
Manhattan School of Music alumni
Curtis Institute of Music alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Living people
1974 births
Musicians from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
Classical musicians from Pennsylvania
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
Curtis Institute of Music faculty