Discipline: Music Composition

Tamar Diesendruck

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Arlington, MA
MacDowell fellowships: 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000

Tamar Diesendruck’s favored compositional medium for many years has been virtuosic chamber music; in recent years, her focus has shifted, and she has embraced opportunities to compose for larger ensembles. In addition to mixed chamber ensemble, string quartet, duos and trios, she has also composed solo, orchestral, choral, wind ensemble and vocal works. Her works have been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, in the Middle East and Asia, and include Strange Parade for large wind ensemble and percussion and Still Telling (2010).

Diesendruck’s important recognition, awards and honors include: the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome; Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study; the Guggenheim Fellowship; a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Composition at NYU; the Bunting Fellowship; the Ives Fellowship, Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as grants from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Meet the Composer and ASCAP. She has been awarded residencies at the leading artist colonies and foundations in the US and Europe: MacDowell, Yaddo, Copland House, Djerassi Foundation, Bellagio Center, Bogliasco Foundation, Camargo Foundation, Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation. Currently Diesendruck is on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music.

Studios

Kirby

Tamar Diesendruck worked in the Kirby studio.

Erected in memory of Sarah L. Kirby, who had left a bequest to MacDowell, this studio was the first — and remains the only — brick building on the grounds. Built by local mason Augustus Beaulieu, the load-bearing masonry walls rest on a fieldstone foundation. The design of the boxlike building is simple and compact…

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