David Ludwig's music (website) has been
performed internationally by leading musicians of our time in some of the
world's most prestigious locations. His music has been called
“entrancing,” and that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this
generation,” (Philadelphia Inquirer). It has further gained recognition
for its “expressive directness” (The New York Times) and has been noted for “a
yearning, poetic quality” (Baltimore Sun). His works have been performed
in such venues in the United States as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the
Library of Congress, and have been heard on PBS and NPR's Weekend Edition.
Ludwig has received commissions from many prominent artists
and ensembles. The Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird ensemble premiered his
new work Haiku Catharsis at the Kimmel Center in 2004. In 2005, Ludwig wrote a new work for
violinist Jaime Laredo that he conducted in a dozen concert halls around
Vermont. His Concertino was one of
the top ten most frequently performed orchestra works by a living composer that
year according to the American Symphony Orchestra League. He joined the Curtis On Tour Ensemble
in 2009 for a tour with his song-cycle From the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayám in a season that also featured
performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony, and the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Other commissions have been received from important
musicians like Jonathan Biss, Jeffrey Khaner, Soovin Kim, Michael Tree, and
Jason Vieaux. The past season
featured commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, Concert Artists Guild, the
University of Michigan Wind Ensemble, and a double concerto for violinist Jaime
Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson that was premiered in January of 2009 by the
Vermont Symphony.
Recipient of the First Music Award, an Independence
Foundation Fellowship, and a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, Ludwig
has been twice nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Stoeger Award. He has a three-year residency with the Vermont Symphony
Orchestra funded by the prestigious Meet The Composer “Music Alive!”
program. This year he won the 2009
award as a Philadelphia Cultural Leader in Choral Music from the Choral Arts
Society of Philadelphia.
Ludwig was the Young Composer in residence at the Marlboro Music
School for three consecutive years. In addition to Marlboro, he has been
in residence at the Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies and the Isabella
Gardner Museum. He is further the
director of the contemporary music programs at The New York Summer Music
Festival, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Rocky Ridge Music
Festival in Colorado.
Born in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig received a B.M. from the
Oberlin Conservatory studying with Richard Hoffmann and his M.M. from The
Manhattan School of Music. He continued post-graduate work at The Curtis
Institute with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem, and at the
Juilliard School with John Corigliano. He holds a PhD from the University
of Pennsylvania where he was the George Crumb Fellow. Ludwig joined the faculty of Curtis in 2002 where he serves
on the composition faculty, as the acting chair of musical studies, and as the
artistic director of the 20/21 Contempoary Music Ensemble.