David Ludwig (Composer) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Biography

David Ludwig is a descendant of many generations of musicians. His uncle is pianist Peter Serkin

Peter Serkin

-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...

, his grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....

and his great-grandfather, the violinist Adolf Busch

Adolf Busch

Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch was a German-born violinist and composer.Busch was born in Siegen in Westphalia. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Willy Hess and Bram Eldering...

.
Ludwig has written music for many musicians and ensembles, including Jonathan Biss

Jonathan Biss

Jonathan Biss is an American classical pianist.Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians, which includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova , as well as his parents, the Israeli-born violinist Miriam Fried and the violist Paul Biss...

, André Watts

André Watts

André Watts is a classical pianist and professor at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University.-Life and early performances:...

, Jaime Laredo

Jaime Laredo

Jaime Laredo is a violinist and conductor. Currently the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, he began his musical career when he was five years old. In 1948 he came to North America and took lessons from Antonio DeGrass...

, eighth blackbird

Eighth blackbird

eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...

, Jennifer Koh

Jennifer Koh

Jennifer Koh is an American violinist, born to Korean parents in Glen Ellyn, IL.Jennifer Koh earned a B.A. in English Literature from Oberlin College, as well as a Performance Diploma from the attached Oberlin Conservatory. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute and was silver medalist in...

, Network for New Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

and the Minnesota and National Symphonies. Ludwig has held residencies with Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...

, the Isabella Gardner Museum, the MacDowell and Yaddo artist colonies and the Marlboro Music School. He was the composer-in-residence with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Vermont Symphony Orchestra

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in, and supported in part by, the U.S. state of Vermont. It is a 501 corporation. It is one of the few, and the oldest, state-supported symphony orchestras in the United States....

from 2006-2009.
He is currently on the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music

Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...

and is the Artistic Director of the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Education

Ludwig attended Oberlin Conservatory for his undergraduate degree where he was a student of Richard Hoffmann and received his M.M. from The Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

. He completed additional post-graduate work at The Curtis Institute with Richard Danielpour

Richard Danielpour

Richard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...

, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem, and at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

with John Corigliano

John Corigliano

John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...

. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

where he was the George Crumb Fellow.

Orchestral

"Fanfare For Sam" (2011)
Symphony No. 1 "Book of Hours" (2009)
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (2008)
"Compose Yourself!" (2007)
Concertino for solo violin and orchestra (2005)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2004)
Radiance serenade for oboe and strings (2003)
NightVision (2001)

Chamber

"Piccola musica notturna" (2011) for EH, hrp, string quartet
"Three Yiddish Dances" (2010) for vln, vcl, pno
"Flowers in the Desert" (2009) for cl, vla, pno
"From the Rubayaat of Omar Khayyam" (2008) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
"A Modern Psalm" (2007) for jazz trio: pno, bass, drum set
"Lamentations" (2006) for clar, hrp, cb, perc
"Divertimento" (2006) for vln, vla, vcl, cb, pno
"Haiku Catharsis" (2004) for flt, cl, vln, pno, perc
"Four Japanese Folk Songs" (2003) for euphonium and string quartet
Oboe Quartet "The Catherine Wheel" (2002) for oboe and string trio
"Autumn Variations" (2002) for vln, gtr, vcl
"Dances of Light" (2000) for string trio
Clarinet Quintet "Poems from Antiquity" (1998) for cl and string quartet

Vocal

"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) SATB choir + soloists, cornetto, 3 sackbuts, organ and baroque strings
"Kaddish" (2006)
"The Choir" (2004) SATB choir
Whitman Songs (2002) baritone and pno
"The New Colussus" (2002) SATB choir
Ave Maria (2000) SSAA
Things to Do in a Park (2000) children's choir & string quartet

Solo

"5 Bagatelles" (2011) piano
"Canzoniere" (2011) flute and piano
"Density 15.1" (2010) solo tenor saxophone
"Scenes from Childhood" (2009) cello and piano
Six Haikus (2008) horn and piano
"Three Chansons" arrangements and responses to G. Dufay" (2008) cello and piano
"Pleiades" (2005) oboe and piano
"Three Portraits of Isabella" (2003) solo piano
Sonata for Flute and Piano (2002)
Star Cycles (1999) harp

Large Ensemble

La Follia (2011) - string orchestra
"Missa Brevis" (2008) - wind ensemble
Eastern Light (2000)
The Seven Ages of Man (1999) string nonet