The work of composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom (b. 1980) has been honored with first prizes in the international composition competitions of the UK’s Delius Society, the American Viola Society, the Chinese Fine Arts Society, and has been further recognized through awards and grants from institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship, Charles Ives Scholarship), Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (Pew Fellowship), New
Music USA, S&R Foundation (Grand Prize, Washington Awards), Meet the Composer, the American Composers Forum, the Académie musicale de Villecroze, and the Sigurd and Jarmila Rislov Foundation, among many others. The
Music Teachers National Association named him its 2005 MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year.
Recent commissions have come from the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Tanglewood Music Center, the New York Youth Symphony Chamber
Music Program, Lake George Music Festival, Music From Angel Fire, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, International Opera Theater, the Lyra Society, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and the Cavatina
Duo, among others.
Djupstrom’s music continues to receive local Philadelphia performances by Network for New Music, Dolce Suono, and Lyric Fest, by ensembles across the country including Music from Copland House, the Definiens Project,
Dinosaur Annex, Juventas, Sounds New, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and has been heard abroad at concerts and broadcasts in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Canada, South
Africa, Chile, Colombia, Taiwan, China, and Japan. In recent seasons, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, Symphony in C, Shasta Symphony, and
International Opera Theater have presented his works for larger forces.
As a pianist, Djupstrom has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia-based new music ensemble Relâche. His interest in chamber music led to national tours as a founding member of the Phoenix Trio and
concerts for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, the British Library, S&R Foundation, Astral Artists, and many other presenting organizations. His festival appearances include Hong Kong’s
“Intimacy of Creativity,” Music From Angel Fire, Tanglewood, Brevard, and the Académie musicale de Villecroze, and he has performed in major metropolitan cities throughout the world, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Detroit, Washington DC, Houston, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Tokyo, Shenzhen, and Aix-en-Provence. He has recorded for American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” Radio Television Hong Kong’s Radio 4, and the
Equilibrium, American Modern, and Meyer Media labels.
An active and committed teacher, Djupstrom directs the composition seminar, is Coordinator of the composition department, and is a member of the Musical Studies faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. He previously taught
piano at Settlement Music School, theory and orchestration for Boston University, and ear training at the University of Michigan and has been a guest teacher and presenter at Rice University, Westminster Choir College, Montana State
University, Rowan University, Shasta Community College, the International School of Brussels, the Paris Conservatory, and Yichao Music Training Center in Shenzhen, China.
Djupstrom received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with composers Bright Sheng, Susan Botti, William Bolcom and Karen Tanaka. Djupstrom pursued further studies in Paris
with Betsy Jolas, whom he later worked for as assistant. He also holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of Jennifer Higdon and Richard Da
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