About David Lefkowitz
Dr. David S. Lefkowitz, Ph.D.
Prof. of Music Composition and Theory
Chair of Music Composition and Theory Division
UCLA Department of Music
office: (310) 206-1003
email:
Office: 2410
Short Bio
Composer, music theorist, and professor David S. Lefkowitz, a native of New York City, holds degrees in music composition from Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester. He has won international acclaim, having works performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and Egypt. He has won national and international competitions, including the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP) Grants to Young Composers Competition. In addition, he has won prizes and recognition from the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the Guild of Temple Musicians, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Washington International Competition, Society for New Music’s Brian M. Israel Prize, the ALEA III International Competition, and the Gaudeamus Music Week. He has also been a Meet-The-Composer Composer in Residence.
Recent commissions include works for Irina Donskaia of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Grace Cloutier of the Hartford Conservatory, Melia Watras of the Corigliano Quartet, ’cellist Elinor Frey and pianist David Fung, violinist Petteri Iivonen, soprano Ursula Kleinecke and Colloquy, harpist Grace Cloutier, quintets for Pacific Serenades and the Synergy Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cantor Joseph Gole and the Cantor’s Assembly, the Harvard Westlake Orchestra, the Beijing National Opera and Dance Drama Theatre Company, and by the Beijing City Opera Company. He has had music published by MMB Music, Yelton Rhodes Music, Zen-On Music, Pacific Serenades Music, and Fatrock Ink. He has recordings available or soon to be available on Yarlung, Fatrock Ink, Klavier, Japanese Victor, Yamaha, and Albany record labels.
Dr. Lefkowitz is also in demand as a guest lecturer, having given lectures or presentations in Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Israel, and in Colorado, Texas, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont, Ohio, and California. He is a professor of music theory and composition at UCLA.
Medium Bio
Composer, music theorist, and professor David S. Lefkowitz was born in New York City, where as a child he studied clarinet, bassoon, and piano. He holds degrees in music composition from Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester.
David S. Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and Egypt. He has won national and international competitions, including the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition (twice), and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP) Grants to Young Composers Competition. In addition, he has won prizes and recognition from the National Asso-ciation of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the Guild of Temple Musicians, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Washington International Competition, Society for New Music’s Brian M. Israel Prize, the ALEA III International Competition, and the Gaudeamus Music Week. He has also been a Meet-The-Composer Composer in Residence.
Recent commissions include works for Irina Donskaia of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Grace Cloutier of the Hartford Conservatory, Melia Watras of the Corigliano Quartet, ’cellist Elinor Frey and pianist David Fung, violinist Petteri Iivonen, soprano Ursula Kleinecke and Colloquy, harpist Grace Cloutier, quintets for Pacific Serenades and the Synergy Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cantor Joseph Gole and the Cantor’s Assembly, the Harvard Westlake Orchestra, the Beijing National Opera and Dance Drama Theatre Company, and by the Beijing City Opera Company (China’s largest and best Beijing Opera company) to write the music for a thirteen-minute solo dance-drama; the resulting work for small chamber orchestra has been well received by audiences and artists on both sides of the Pacific. He has had music published by MMB Music, Yelton Rhodes Music, Zen-On Music, Pacific Serenades Music, and Fatrock Ink. He has recordings available or soon to be available on Yarlung, Fatrock Ink, Klavier, Japanese Victor, Yamaha, and Albany record labels.
As a music theorist Dr. Lefkowitz has researched “meta-theoretical” issues such as the process of segmentation (a component of post-tonal analysis) and the internal structure of set-classes, and he has written extensively on Schoenberg’s piano music. He has also done work on music theory pedagogy, culminating with his textbook Music Theory: Syntax, Function, and Form which is expected to be published by Schirmer Books soon.
Dr. Lefkowitz is also in demand as a guest lecturer, having given lectures or presentations in Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Israel, and in Colorado, Texas, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont, Ohio, and California. He is a professor of music theory and composition at UCLA.
Extended Bio
Composer, music theorist, and professor DAVID S. LEFKOWITZ holds degrees in music composition from Cornell University (BA), University of Pennsylvania (MA), and The Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester (Ph.D.). His composition teachers include Pulitzer Prize winners George Crumb, Joseph Schwantner, Karel Husa, Richard Wernick, and Yehudi Wyner.
Dr. Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Austria, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the Ukraine, and throughout the United States. He has won national and international competitions, including the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition (twice), and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP) Grants to Young Composers Competition. In addition, he has won prizes and recognition from the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the Guild of Temple Musicians, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Washington International Competition, Society for New Music’s Brian M. Israel Prize, the ALEA III International Competition, and the Gaudeamus Music Week. He has also been a Meet-The-Composer Composer in Residence.
Recent commissions include White Clouds, Sash-Like, Wrap Mountain Waists for James Buswell and the Baroque Camerata of the National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan), Four Rubáiyát for the Cornell University Glee Club, and works for Melia Watras of the Corigliano Quartet, ’cellist Elinor Frey and pianist David Fung, violinist Petteri Iivonen, soprano Ursula Kleinecke and Colloquy, harpist Grace Cloutier, quintets for Pacific Serenades and the Synergy Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cantor Joseph Gole and the Cantor’s Assembly, the Harvard Westlake Orchestra, the 2010 Avrom Sutzkever Festival, and by the Beijing City Opera Company (China’s largest and best Beijing Opera company). His Lincoln Echoes, for narrator, tenor and baritone soloists, choir, and orchestra was commissioned by the Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutitions inaugural event in November, 2009, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. He is currently composing a major work for oud, ney, and chamber ensemble, for performance at the Listening to the Other: Mideast Musical Dialogues festival in Los Angeles in December, 2013.
Recent and upcoming performances include his Snows Sing a Farewell for soprano and chamber ensemble by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Moscow Philharmonic’s Tchaikovsky Hall; White Clouds, Sash-Like, Wrap Mountain Waists for violin solo and string orchestra in Klaipeda, Lithuania, by the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra with concertmaster Linas Valickas; Prayer Before Sleep, for children’s choir, on tour with the Glorystar USA Children’s Chorus in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic; Surfer’s Guide for the Perplexed (or: Jonah on the Raging Sea) by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble at the 25th International Sound Ways Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; Dreams: All of a Peace by Herzen University faculty and students at the 25th International Sound Ways Festival and at Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and a commissioned work for performance by harpist Grace Cloutier at Carnegie Hall in June, 2014.
Prof. Lefkowitz is in demand as a teacher and lecturer. He has given presentations, lectures, or taught classes at the Rimsky-Kosakoff St. Petersburg State Conservatory, the St. Petersburg Composer’s Society, the Russian Composer’s Society (Moscow), the College of the Moscow Conservatory (Russia); Freie Universität Berlin (Germany); Yonsei University, Ewha National Woman’s University, Hanyang University (Seoul, South Korea), Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, National Kaoshiung Normal University, National Sun-Yat Sen University, National Chiao-Tung University (Taiwan); Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), and others.
Prof. Lefkowitz’s extensive efforts in international exchange have recently culminated in visits to the United States by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in November, 2012, and Prof. Alexander Radvilovich of the Rimsky-Korsakoff St. Petersburg Conservatory in April, 2013, and in travel to Russia in January, 2012 by Prof. Lefkowitz and one of his graduate students for concerts, lectures, and radio, internet, and television interviews.
As a theorist Lefkowitz has researched “meta-theoretical” issues such as the process of segmentation (a component of post-tonal analysis) and the internal structure of set-classes, he has written extensively on Schoenberg’s piano music, and also has done work on music theory pedagogy, culminating with his textbook Music Theory: Syntax, Function, and Form which is expected to be published soon with Schirmer Books/Cengage.
He has recordings available on Yarlung, Fatrock Ink, Klavier, Japanese Victor, Yamaha, and Albany record labels. A CD completely devoted to his music for harp will soon be released on Albany Records, coinciding with the publication of his complete harp music catalog with Fatrock Ink.
He is a professor of music composition and music theory at UCLA, where he has also served as the Chair of the Division of Composition
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