Eric Ewazen


Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher.

Biography

Ewazen studied composition under Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson, and Eugene Kurtz at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School. He has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1980, and has been a lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series. He has also served on the faculties of the Hebrew Arts School and the Lincoln Center Institute. He served as Vice President of the League of Composers – International Society for Contemporary Music from 1982–1989, and was also composer-in-residence for the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Music

Ewazen's compositions have been performed by numerous ensembles and orchestras around the world, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, and at festivals such as Woodstock, Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, Tidewater, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. In recent years, he has increasingly written for brass instruments. Many of these works are performed regularly.
His works have been commissioned and performed by organizations such as the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Greenwich Symphony, Fairfield Chamber Orchestra, American Brass Quintet, Borealis Wind Quintet, Bellevue Philharmonic, Detroit Chamber Winds, Western Piedmont Symphony, School for Strings, L'Amore di Musica, New York State Council on the Arts, the Philip-Morris Companies, Jerome Foundation, University of Arizona, University of Oklahoma, Music Academy of the West, and by soloists such as Julius Baker, Mindy Kaufman, Philip Smith, Joseph Alessi, and Eugene Becker, Toni Lipton and Scott Brubaker, Olegna Fuschi, Rebecca Scott, James Houlik, Linda Strommen, and Leon Russianoff, among others. The third movement of his Symphony in Brass is used as the theme music for National Public Radio's political coverage.

Recordings

Among his recorded works are the "Ballade for Clarinet, Harp & String Orchestra" ; "Colchester Fantasy" ; "Sonata for Viola and Piano", "Symphony in Brass" ; "The Tiger", "The Diamond World", and Well-Tempered Productions has released an all-Ewazen disc of "Frost Fire", "...to cast a shadow again", "Quintet for Trumpet and Strings", "The Palace of Nine Perfections", and "Sonata for Horn & Piano" featuring the American Brass Quintet, Chamber Ensemble of St. Luke's and Grammy winner William Sharp. In the fall of 1996, the principal chairs of the New York Philharmonic recorded a disc of Mr. Ewazen's music for Cala Records. There are three discs dedicated to his music on the Albany Records label: "Sejong Plays Ewazen" with the International Sejong Soloists, "Orchestral Music and Concertos" with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Polivnick, and "Bass Hits," a collection of concert pieces for bass trombone and various ensembles.

Partial list of works

For a more complete list of works see List of compositions by Eric Ewazen.

For orchestra or wind ensemble