Daniel Asia (born June 27, 1953) is an American composer. He was born in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, in the United States of America.
Biography
He received a B.A. degree from
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
and a M.M. from the
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
School of Music. His major teachers include
Jacob Druckman
Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia.
Life
A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1 ...
,
Stephen Albert
Stephen Joel Albert (6 February 1941 – 27 December 1992) was an American composer. He is best known for his Symphony No. 1 ''RiverRun'' (1983) and Cello Concerto (1990) written for Yo-Yo Ma, both of which won a Pulitzer Prize for Music. He d ...
,
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.
Biography and works
Early years
Schuller was born in Queens, New York City, ...
, and
Isang Yun
Isang Yun, also spelled Yun I-sang (17 September 1917 – 3 November 1995), was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany.
Early life and education
Yun was born in Sancheong (Sansei), Korea under Japanese rule, Chōsen ...
in composition, and
Arthur Weisberg
Arthur Weisberg (April 4, 1931 – January 17, 2009) was an American clarinetist, bassoonist, conductor, composer and author.
Biography
Weisberg was born in New York City. He attended The High School of Music & Art, majoring in bassoon and s ...
in conducting. Asia's works ranges from solo pieces to large-scale multi-movement works for orchestra, including five symphonies.
He served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music and Wind Ensemble from 1981 to 1986. In 1986–88, a UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to work in London as a visiting lecturer at City University. Since 1988, he has been Professor of Composition and head of the composition department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He conducts the New York-based contemporary chamber ensemble The Musical Elements, which he co-founded in 1977. Asia founded and directs the American Culture and Ideas Initiative.
As a blogger, Asia contributes articles on music and culture to ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''. In 2013, he gained notoriety after receiving international responses for an April 25 article entitled "Carter is Dead."
Awards
From 1991-1994, Asia was the Meet the Composer/Composer In Residence with the Phoenix Symphony. He has been the recipient of a Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Consortium Commission, United Kingdom Fulbright Arts Award Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four NEA Composers Grants, a M. B. Rockefeller Grant, an Aaron Copland Fund for Music Grant, MacDowell Colony and Tanglewood Fellowships, ASCAP and BMI composition prizes, and a DAAD Fellowship for study in the Federal Republic of Germany. Asia is the 2010 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award (2010).
Works
* 1973 – ''Sound Shapes'', for SSAATTBB chorus and pitch pipes
* 1974–75 – ''On the Surface'', for soprano, piano, harp, cello, and percussion
* 1975 – ''Dream Sequence I'', for amplified trombone
* 1975 – Piano Set I for solo piano
* 1976 – Piano Set II (or Popsicle Upside Down on the Pavement) for two pianos
* 1976 – String Quartet No. 1
* 1976 – ''Miles Mix'', for tape
* 1978 – Why (?) Jacob for chorus and piano
* 1979 – ''Orange'', for viola
* 1980–81 – ''Rivalries'', for chamber orchestra
* 1983 – Why (?) Jacob for solo piano
* 1984 – ''Three Movements'', for trumpet and orchestra
* 1985 – String Quartet No. 2
* 1987 – Scherzo Sonata for solo piano
* 1987 – Symphony No. 1
* 1988 – ''B for J'', for flute, bass clarinet, trombone, vibraphone, electric organ, violin, viola, and cello
* 1989 – Quartet for piano, violin, viola, and cello
* 1988–90 – Symphony No. 2 "Celebration" (''Khagiga: In Memoriam Leonard Bernstein'')
* 1990 – ''Black Light'', for orchestra
* 1991 – ''At the Far Edge'', for orchestra
* 1992 – Symphony No. 3
* 1993 – ''Gateways'', for orchestra
* 1993 – Symphony No. 4
* 1994 – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
* 1995 – ''Embers'', for flute and guitar
* 1997 – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
* 1998-99 – Piano Variations
* 1999 - Piano Trio
* 2001 – Sonata for Violin and Piano
* 2002 - "Momentary Lapses", for Ben Verdery (guitar and violin)
* 2004 – ''New Set'', for guitar and violin
* 2004 – Two Rages (Ragflections, No Time)
* 2006 – Why (?) Jacob for orchestra
* 2008 – Symphony No. 5
* 2011 – The Tin Angel (opera)
* 2016 – Divine Madness: An Oratorio
* 2017 – Iris for four-hand piano
* 2017 – Symphony No. 6 "Iris"
Articles
''Huffington Post''
* 2012 - "Breath in a Ram's Horn: Why Classical Music is Like Jewish Prayer"
* 2013 - "An Open Letter to a New University President"
* 2013 - "The Put On of the Century"
* 2013 - "Final Response on The Put On of the Century"
* 2013 - "Carter is Dead"
* 2013 - "A Short Musing on Schuller's Musings"
* 2013 - "A London Sojourn"
* 2014 - "Butterfly, Bach, and Breasts in the Windy City, Part 1"
* 2014 - "The Case for Barber and Britten"
* 2014 - "In the Windy City Part 2"
* 2014 - "The Last of the Midwest for Now"
* 2014 - "Betsey Johnson in Tucson"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Ligeti"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Steve Reich"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Glass"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Takemitsu"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Brown and Feldman"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Beaser"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: John Adams"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Frederic Rzewski"
* 2014 - "Tale of Two Concertos"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: John Corigliano and David Del Tredici"
* 2014 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Robert Dick"
* 2014 - "Tito Munoz and the Phoenix Symphony"
* 2014 - "Music in the Southwest Part 2: The Tucson Symphony Orchestra"
* 2015 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: Lerdal String Quartets 1-3"
* 2015 - "Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford"
* 2015 - "Music I (Mostly) Hold Dear: George Rochberg"
* 2015 - "Concertos of Jaffe, Tower, Albert, and Rouse"
References
* Chute, James. 2001. "Asia, Daniel". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...
and
John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Daniel Asia official sitePage at the University of ArizonaDaniel Asia at the HuffPost
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asia, Daniel
1953 births
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Hampshire College alumni
Living people
Musicians from Seattle
Yale School of Music alumni
Oberlin College faculty
University of Arizona faculty
Pupils of Jacob Druckman
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
Summit Records artists