Lawrence Dillon

Lawrence Dillon (born July 3, 1959) is an American composer, and Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His music has a wide range of expression, generally within a tonal idiom notable both for its rhythmic propulsiveness and a strong lyrical element. He is noted for creating works that connect past and present in attractive and unexpected ways.

Dillon was born in Summit, New Jersey. He was the youngest of eight children raised by a widowed mother. He lost 50% of his hearing in an early childhood bout with chicken pox. Intrigued by his siblings' piano lessons, he began his own at age seven, and developed a habit of composing a new work each week. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, winning the Gretchaninoff Prize upon graduation. He studied privately with Vincent Persichetti, and in classes with Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, David Diamond, and Roger Sessions. Other teachers have included Edwin Finckel and James Sellars. As a student, he won an ASCAP Young Composers Award and first prize in the annual CRS New Music Competition. Upon graduation, he was appointed to the Juilliard faculty.

In 1990, Dillon was offered the position of Assistant Dean at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he is now Composer in Residence. His works are recorded on the Bridge, Naxos and Albany labels and published by American Composers Editions, a subdivision of BMI. In recent years, he has received increasing recognition for music that Gramophone called "arresting and appealing." Since 2007, his compositions have been commissioned and performed by the Emerson String Quartet, Lauren Flanigan, Le Train Bleu, the Ravinia Festival, the Daedalus String Quartet, the Lincoln Trio, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Cassatt String Quartet, Danielle Belén, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, Wintergreen Summer Arts Festival, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Quartetto di Sassofoni d'Accademia, the University of Utah and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra. He is involved in a long term project, the Invisible Cities String Quartet Cycle.

...
Wikipedia