George Lewis

b. 1952

American

Summary

George E. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, Lewis’s other honors include a MacArthur Genius Award (2002), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), a United States Artists Walker Fellowship (2011), an Alpert Award in the Arts (1999), and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Most recently Prof. Lewis received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2018). Lewis has been selected as a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and will be in residence at Reid Hall in Paris for Fall 2024.

Critical Acclaim

George Lewis is one of the most formidable figures in modern music: a composer of international renown, a legendary improvising trombonist, a computer-music pioneer, a professor at Columbia, a stalwart of the Black avant-garde collective known as the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

- Alex Ross, The New Yorker

Biography

George Lewis is an American composer, musicologist, and trombonist. He is Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music and Area Chair in Composition at Columbia University, and currently serves as Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Lewis has been selected as a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and will be in residence at Reid Hall in Paris for Fall 2024. A 2020-21 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin,  Lewis is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, Lewis’s other honors include the Doris Duke Artist Award (2019), a MacArthur Fellowship (2002), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015).   A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work is presented by ensembles worldwide. A Yamaha Artist, Lewis is widely regarded as a pioneer in the creation of computer programs that improvise in concert with human musicians. Lewis holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, New England Conservatory, New College of Florida, and Birmingham City University, among others (https://music.columbia.edu/bios/george-e-lewis).

News

Performances

5th October 2024

PERFORMERS
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
CONDUCTOR
Roland Kluttig
LOCATION
Helmut List Halle, Graz, Austria

18th October 2024

PERFORMERS
SWR Symphonieorchester
CONDUCTOR
Susanne Blumenthal
LOCATION
Baarsporthalle, Donaueschingen, Germany

25th October 2024

PERFORMERS
Klangforum Wien
CONDUCTOR
Vimbayi Kaziboni
LOCATION
Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria

Features

  • 2024 Opera Highlights
    • 2024 Opera Highlights
    • Ahead of Opera America’s 2024 Opera Conference and the World Opera Forum, Wise Music Classical invites you to explore new highlights from our opera catalogue. Across major premieres, new productions, and first recordings, our composers and their collaborators explore both timely issues and the timeless themes of love, desire, and belonging.
  • Independent Repertoire: American History and Politics
    • Independent Repertoire: American History and Politics
    • The rich, complex, and often tumultuous history of American politics has been a key concern for many American composers. Their political engagement ranges from earnest celebration of national triumph to sobering investigations of the painful past. These works help us better understand our current realities through the sounds of our history.
  • The Best Recordings of 2023 from Wise Music Classical

Photos