Composer, music theorist, and professor David S. Lefkowitz was born in New York City, where as a child he studied clarinet, bassoon, and piano. He holds degrees in music composition from Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester.

David S. Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and Egypt. He has won national and international competitions, including the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition (twice), and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP) Grants to Young Composers Competition. In addition, he has won prizes and recognition from the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the Guild of Temple Musicians, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Washington International Competition, Society for New Music’s Brian M. Israel Prize, the ALEA III International Competition, and the Gaudeamus Music Week. He has also been a Meet-The-Composer Composer in Residence.

Recent commissions include works for Irina Donskaia of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Grace Cloutier of the Hartford Conservatory, Melia Watras of the Corigliano Quartet, ’cellist Elinor Frey and pianist David Fung, violinist Petteri Iivonen, soprano Ursula Kleinecke and Colloquy, harpist Grace Cloutier, quintets for Pacific Serenades and the Synergy Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cantor Joseph Gole and the Cantor’s Assembly, the Harvard Westlake Orchestra, the Beijing National Opera and Dance Drama Theatre Company, and by the Beijing City Opera Company (China’s largest and best Beijing Opera company) to write the music for a thirteen-minute solo dance-drama; the resulting work for small chamber orchestra has been well received by audiences and artists on both sides of the Pacific. He has had music published by MMB Music, Yelton Rhodes Music, Zen-On Music, Pacific Serenades Music, and Fatrock Ink. He has recordings available or soon to be available on Yarlung, Fatrock Ink, Klavier, Japanese Victor, Yamaha, and Albany record labels.

As a music theorist Dr. Lefkowitz has researched “meta-theoretical” issues such as the process of segmentation (a component of post-tonal analysis) and the internal structure of set-classes, and he has written extensively on Schoenberg’s piano music. He has also done work on music theory pedagogy, culminating with his textbook Music Theory: Syntax, Function, and Form which is expected to be published by Schirmer Books soon.

Dr. Lefkowitz is also in demand as a guest lecturer, having given lectures or presentations in Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Israel, and in Colorado, Texas, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont, Ohio, and California. He is a professor of music theory and composition at UCLA. Composer’s website: davidlefkowitz.com.