David Ludwig

David Serkin Ludwig’s first memory was singing Beatles songs with his sister; his second was hearing his grandfather perform at Carnegie Hall; foreshadowing a career of collaboration. His choral work “The New Colossus,” opened the private prayer service for President Obama’s second inauguration. The next year NPR Music named him in the world’s “Top 100 Composers Under Forty.” He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad.

Ludwig has received commissions and performances from many of the most recognized artists and ensembles of our time, including the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and National Symphony Orchestras, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, David Shifrin, eighth blackbird, the Dover and Borromeo Quartets, and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet.

Ludwig received the prestigious 2018 Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship, as well as the First Music Award, the Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, and awards from New Music USA, the American Composers Forum, American Music Center, and the NEA.

Ludwig served on the composition faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music for nearly two decades. He was recently appointed Dean and Director of the Juilliard School music division. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their beloved cats.