2009-02-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

Born in Washington, D.C. in 1955, composer Jeffrey Mumford has received numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions.

Awards include the "Academy Award in Music" from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Fellowship to the Composers' Conference, Johnson, Vermont and an ASCAP Aaron Copland Scholarship. He was also the winner of the inaugural National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition.

Other grants have been awarded by the Ohio Arts Council, Oberlin College, the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities (funded through the NEA), the Minnesota Composers' Forum, the American Music Center, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Meet the Composer, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music Inc. , the ASCAP Foundation, and the University of California.

Mumford's most notable commissions include those from the Cincinnati Symphony, the National Gallery of Art/Contemporary Music Forum VERGE Ensemble, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Ole Bohn, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt (Vienna), the Network for New Music, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a consortium of presenters consisting of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Chamber Music Columbus (OH.) and Omus Hirshbein (New York) (for the Pacifica Quartet and pianist Amy Dissanayake), Cleveland radio station WCLV, violist Wendy Richman, the Nancy Ruyle Dodge Charitable Trust (for the Corigliano Quartet), a consortium of presenters consisting of the Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), Miller Theatre (New York) and the Schubert Club (St. Paul, MN.) (for pianist Margaret Kampmeier), the Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, D.C. and Philip Berlin, Sonia and Louis Rothschild (for the Opus 3 Trio), the Theatre Chamber Players, the Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA program (for the CORE Ensemble), the National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati radio station WGUC, 'cellist Joshua Gordon, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation , the Fromm Music Foundation, the Amphion Foundation (for the Da Capo Chamber Players), the New York New Music Ensemble, the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, the Aspen Wind Quintet, and 'cellist Fred Sherry.

Mumford's works have been extensively performed both in the United States and abroad, including Paris’ Theatre Dunois, Miller Theatre, the Library of Congress, the Aspen Music Festival, the Bang On A Can Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, San Migel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, London's Purcell Room, Finland's prestigious Helsinki Festival, the Musica nel Nostro Tempo Festival, in Milan and the Musikverein in Vienna. His works have been performed by such major orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National, Detroit and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the American Composers' Orchestra. His chamber works have been performed by major ensembles such as the Pacifica, Corigliano, Maia and Borromeo Quartets, the Mann Duo, the CORE Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Network for New Music, Imani Winds, the Amelia Piano Trio, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Ensemble, Voices of Change, the New Music Consort, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Aspen Wind Quintet, the Group for Contemporary Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players. Among the prominent soloists who have performed his music have been violinists Ole Bohn and Lina Bahn, 'cellists Frances-Marie Uitti, Joshua Gordon and Fred Sherry, violist Misha Amory, Wendy Richman, and Eliesha Nelson and pianists Amy Briggs, Lura Johnson, Jenny Lin, Tuyen Tonnu Shannon Wettsein, Eliza Garth., Margaret Kampmeier and Sarah Cahill. Mumford is also a composer-member of the Washington, D.C. based Contemporary Music Forum, which has performed his music many times.

Recent and forthcoming performances include a celebration of Elliott by pianist Winston Choi as part of his fall 2009 tour, a garden of flourishing paths (mixed quintet) by the VERGE Ensemble, in soft echoes . . . a world awaits (string trio), by members of the Cleveland Orchestra, the play of intervening objects by Imani Winds, the comfort of his voice, (a work commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King and which commemorates Severance Hall) by the Cleveland Orchestra, within a cloudburst of echoing brightness by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, verdant and shimmering air: four views of a reflected forest by the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, undiluted days (piano trio) Contemporary Music Forum in Paris, a landscape of interior resonances (solo piano) by Jenny Lin, the promise of the far horizon by the Artis Quartett in Vienna, billowing pockets brightly layered by ‘cellist Darrett Adkins and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. In addition, the CORE ensemble will also give several performances nationwide of a window of resonant light (‘cello, piano, percussion) as part of their touring program entitled “Of Ebony Embers”.

Mumford’s music has also been presented as part of Miller Theatre’s “Composer Portraits” series in New York City.

Current projects include a new work for solo violin for the award winning Dutch violinist Frederieke Saeijs, new solo cello pieces for the Icelandic ‘cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir and the American ‘cellist Ani Aznavoorian, just-completed two rhapsodies for ‘cello & strings, a newly commissioned violin concerto by the Argento Chamber Ensemble and violinist Miranda Cuckson, a new chamber concerto for piano and mixed ensemble for Winston Choi and ensemble dal niente, a consortium commission for a set of piano pieces entitled of ringing and layered space for pianists Amy Briggs, Lura Johnson, Jenny Lin, Pallavi Mahidhara, Tuyen Tonnu, and Shannon Wettstein, Recent CDs featuring Mumford's works include the promise of the far horizon, containing five recent chamber works, issued on the Albany Records label (TROY 698) and Telling Tales (on Capstone Records and sponsored by the Cleveland Composers Guild) which includes pianist Tuyen Tonnu's performance of barbaglio dal manca.

His a focused expanse of evolving experience (2003) (fl., vln., vla., vlc., piano) was selected for inclusion and performed as part of the 2005 NEO Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mumford was selected for a residency with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra as part of the Meet-the Composer/American Symphony Orchestra League “Music Alive” program.

He was recently (2008) Composer-in Residence at the Alba (Italy) Music Festival and The Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East (Bennington, VT). As well, his program notes (commissioned by the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood) for three works of Elliott Carter were published as part of a celebration of Mr. Carter’s music.

Mr. Mumford is published by Theodore Presser Co. and Quicklight Music.

jeffrey mumford