George Lewis
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.
Upcoming Performances
6 September 2024 Ein Teufel im Dom – Festival Ensemble, Vimbayi Kaziboni (cond.), Musikfest Bern (world premiere)
5 October 2024 Your Network is Unstable – ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Roland Kluttig (cond.), ORF Musikprotokoll, Helmut List Halle, Graz (world premiere)
18 October 2024 The Reincarnation of Blind Tom – SWR Sinfonieorchester, Susanna Blumenthal (cond.), Donaueschinger Musiktage (world premiere)
22 October 2024 Emergent – Tokyo
1, 2, 3 November 2024 The Comet – Curtis Opera Theater, Philadelphia
