Profile

David Crumb is a professor in composition and theory and has been a member of the UO faculty since 1997. Prior to UO, he served as visiting professor at Duke University, UCLA, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and West Chester University.

Born in 1962 into a musical family, Crumb studied both cello and piano from an early age. His father is world-renowned composer George Crumb, and his sister Ann Crumb is well known as a singer and actress who has performed extensively on Broadway.

Crumb holds degrees in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and the Eastman School of Music, where he also studied cello. His principal composition teachers were Mark Kopytman, Jay Reise, Richard Wernick, and Samuel Adler. During these formative years, he also studied with Chinary Ung, Lukas Foss, Joseph Schwantner, Stephen Albert, and Stephen Jaffe.

Crumb’s music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad. His orchestral music has been programmed by the Baltimore Symphony, Utah Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and Chicago Civic Orchestra. Chamber works have been presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Orchestra 2001, Cassatt Quartet, Parnassus Ensemble, Voices of Change, Music at the Anthology, The Chicago Ensemble, Nextet, Musiqa, Bent Frequency, Network for New Music, Percussion Plus Project, Cafè MoMus, and Quattro Mani.

Crumb is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Residency Award (Yaddo Artist Colony), an Aaron Copland Award, a Los Angeles Symphony "L.A. Composers Project 2" Award, and an Aaron and Abby Schroeder Fellowship/Margaret Lee Crofts Fellowship (Tanglewood Music Center). He has also received grants from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition.

Crumb has been commissioned by Cassatt in the Basin, Chintimini Chamber Music Festival, University of Houston Moores School Percussion Ensemble, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Third Angle, Orchestra 2001, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group.

CDs that include Crumb’s music, and are currently available: Everywhere Entangled (Albany), ‘Round Midnight (Stradivarius), New Voices (Capstone), Harmony for a New World (Innova), Old News (Equilibrium), Chant der Rochers (CRI/New World Records).

• PhD 1992, Composition,  University of Pennsylvania
• MA 1991, University of Pennsylvania
• BMus 1985, Composition and Cello, Eastman School of Music

HONORS 

• Guggenheim Fellowship
• MacArthur Foundation Residency Award
• Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard Commission
• Barlow Endowment for Music Composition Commission
• Aaron Copland Award
• Yaddo Colony Artist Residency
• MacDowell Colony Artist Residency
• L.A. Composers Project 2 Prize
• American Composers Forum Encore Grant
• Chicago Ensemble Discover America Award