Martin Bresnick

(photo by Bridget Elliot)

Martin Bresnick was born in New York City in 1946. He was educated at the High School of Music and Art, the University of Hartford, Stanford University and the Akademie für Musik, Vienna. His principal teachers of composition include Gyšrgy Ligeti, John Chowning and Gottfried von Einem. He is currently Professor of Composition and Coordinator of the Composition Department at the Yale School of Music.

Mr. Bresnick's compositions cover a wide range of instrumentation, from chamber music to symphonic compositions and computer music. His orchestral music has been performed by orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Münster Philharmonic, Kiel Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Radio Televisione Italiana, Orchestra New England, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His chamber music has been performed by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae, Nash Ensemble, MusicWorks! and Zeitgeist. He has received many prizes, among them: Fulbright Fellowship (1969-70), three N.E.A. Composer Grants; A.S.C.A.P. Awards (1975-present); Rome Prize Fellowship (1975-76), MacDowell Colony Fellowship (1977), The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Elise L. Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music (1996), "Charles Ives Living" award, American Academy of Arts & Letters (1998), Composer-in Residence, American Academy In Rome (1999), the ASCAP Foundation's Aaron Copland Prize for teaching (2000) and Berlin Prize Fellow, American Academy in Berlin (2001).

Mr. Bresnick's music has been recorded by Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, New World Records and Artifact Music, and is published by Carl Fischer Music (NY), Bote and Bock, Berlin and CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven.