April 30, 1998 Contact John R. Crosiar (541) 346-3135 EUGENE--Composer David Crumb, a University of Oregon assistant professor of composition and music theory, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 1998. Crumb is the only UO faculty member to receive a Guggenheim award this year. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Committee of Selection chose 168 artists, scholars and scientists from more than 3,000 applicants for fellowship awards totaling $5,376,000. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of unusually distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. "This is a real watermark award for composers," Crumb says. Crumb will use the fellowship to work on two new musical works. His main project is a piece he is composing for the Seattle Symphony to be performed in 1999 with conductor Gerard Schwartz. "The piece will be for chamber orchestra," explains Crumb. "It is pretty challenging to write for so many parts." The second composition Crumb will work on will be premiered as part of the UO School of Music's "Music Today Festival" in 1999. This composition is for the Quatromani, a group of duo-pianists. Much of Crumb's work is award-winning and has been performed by prestigious groups and ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Baltimore Symphony and the Voices of Change ensemble. Crumb holds degrees in composition and cello from the Eastman School of Music and a doctorate in composition from the University of Pennsylvania. He spent one year in Israel, where he studied composition and counterpoint with Russian-born composer Mark Kopytman and conducting with Mendi Rodan, music director of the Jerusalem Symphony. This is Crumb's first year at the University of Oregon, where he teaches composition and is director of the Oregon Composer's Forum, an organization devoted to the performance of students' works. During 1997, he was in residence at the Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies, where he exchanged ideas with artists in other disciplines, including prominent writers and visual artists. -30- #G-2207/Local,A&E/eb