Donemus Webwinkel — Nielson, Lewis

Lewis Nielson (b. 1950) studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, Clark University in Massachusetts and the University of Iowa, receiving a Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition in 1977. His music appears through Subito Music Corp., American Composers Edition, and Donemus, and recordings from Albany, ACA Digital Recordings, Capstone, Centaur, Innova, and Mode Recordings. He has received numerous grants and awards for his works, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Delius Foundation, Meet the Composer, NewMusic America, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Groupe de Music Expèrimentale de Bourges in France, the Ibla Foundation, Sicily, and the International Society of Bassists. More recently he received the 2007 Cleveland Arts Prize, in 2010-11 was a prize winner in the BCMCC, the PAS Society, and the Boston Modern Competitions. Recent commissions include from the JACK Quartet, the Formalist String Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, red fish blue fish, Trio Enid, Duo Echoi, Florilegium, Fluidot, Opera Cabal, Ensemble sans maître, counter)induction, Fonema Consort, Oerknal, Talea, and percussionist Steven Schick. His works have been performed extensively throughout the Western Hemisphere and in Europe, including recent appearances at the American Music Festival, Washington, DC (JACK Quartet), a recent Portrait Concert at the Monday Evening Concert Series at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, CA, several performances by the new music ensemble Oerknal in Den Haag and Amsterdam, NL, and the premiere of his work Those Who Do Not Move for chamber ensemble and live electronics by the Bodø Sinfonietta, Bodø, Norway. He served as Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Georgia, where he directed the University of Georgia Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, for 21 years. In 2000, he joined the composition faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he was Professor of Composition and chair of the Composition Department until his retirement in 2015. In addition to composing, he now teaches music and does counseling at two prisons in Vermont.