Michael Djupstrom

The work of composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom has been recognized through honors and awards from institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, the ASCAP Foundation, the BMI Foundation, the Chinese Fine Arts Society, the Académie musicale de Villecroze, and the Sigurd and Jarmila Rislov Foundation, among many others. The Music Teachers National Association named him the 2005 MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year for his work “Walimai,” an alto saxophone and piano duo that is quickly becoming part of the American classical saxophone repertoire. Djupstrom’s first work for wind ensemble, “Homages,” was immediately awarded prestigious national prizes from Ithaca College, ASCAP and the College Band Directors National Association, and is now published by Boosey & Hawkes. He has received commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center in collaboration with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and the Michigan Music Teachers Association, among others. Selected performers of his works include the American Composers Orchestra, Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Symphony in C, and various new music ensembles including Brave New Works, Composers, Inc., North/South Consonance Ensemble, Sounds New, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and the New Fromm Players at Tanglewood. As part of a team of eight composers, Djupstrom also provided music for a 2003 production of King Lear at Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Massachusetts.

As a pianist, Djupstrom has performed throughout the United States in traditional venues including Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as abroad at the Fondation des Etats-Unis in Paris and the Académie musicale de Villecroze (France). He has also presented many concerts in communities throughout the northeastern United States as a member of the Phoenix Trio, an ensemble that seeks to promote classical music beyond its conventional performance spaces and typical audiences. In August 2006, Djupstrom was invited to Yichao Music Training Center in Shenzhen, China, for a series of masterclasses and duo performances with pianist Wenli Zhou, a guest lecture, and to serve on the judging panel of the 2006 “Yipei” Cup Piano Duet Competition.

Djupstrom was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1980 and began piano studies at the age of eight. He continued his training at the University of Michigan with Lynne Bartholomew, Sergio de los Cobos and Katherine Collier, and began formal composition study with composers Bright Sheng, Susan Botti, William Bolcom and Karen Tanaka. As a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2002 and 2003, Djupstrom worked with composers Michael Gandolfi, Augusta Read Thomas, Osvaldo Golijov and George Benjamin, among others; at the 2005 Aspen Music Festival and School, his teachers were Robert Beaser and Christopher Rouse. After receiving a B.M. and M.A. in music composition from the University of Michigan, Djupstrom pursued further studies in composition and analysis in Paris as a student of Betsy Jolas. He currently lives in Philadelphia, where he teaches piano at Settlement Music School and courses in orchestration and music theory for Boston University’s online graduate programs in music.