Discipline: Music Composition

David Rakowski

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Maynard, MA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1990, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2025

David Rakowski is a composer who has written seven symphonies, ten concertos, 200 piano études and préludes, chamber music, vocal music, and music for children. He's been a Pulitzer finalist twice, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He is the recipient of the 2004-2005 Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as the Chevillion-Bonnand Composition Prize from the Concours International de Piano d'Orleans. He was also named the Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Composition at Brandeis University. He was recently a Maurice Abravanel Distinguished Visiting Composer at the University of Utah and was given a teaching award at Brandeis University.

Throughout his residencies at MacDowell, he has written the piano etudes "Luceole #35, on ascending 2nds and 3rds," and "Purple, #36, on a chord"; three (of five) movements of a horn concerto for Daniel Grabois, commissioned by Sequitor; "Dream Symphony" for premiere by the New England String Ensemble; his 72nd piano etude "Dorian Blue" (for Donald Berman); three movements of a piano concerto for Marilyn Nonken and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project; a large piece for wind ensemble commissioned by the Barlow Foundation; five wind ensembles that would premiere in 2008; and began and finished a substantial work for mixed sextet called "Zyg Zag" commissioned by the Cygnus Ensemble of New York.

During his 2025 residency, Rakowski wrote a solo piano piece, Penalty Box 2, and a duo for violin and cello. Penalty Box was premiered and recorded by Holly Roadfeldt, for whom both Penalty Box pieces were written. He recently had a birthday concert with three of his pieces and 12 pieces written by colleagues and former students.

Studios

Monday Music

David Rakowski worked in the Monday Music studio.

Given to the residency by the Monday Music Club of Orange, NJ, Monday Music Studio is sited next to an enormous boulder deposited by glaciers thousands of years ago. A small dormer once pierced the east slope of the roof, but after damage suffered in the 1938 hurricane, the roof was rebuilt without the dormer. The interior…

Learn more