Kurt Rohde

Artistic Director, violist and composer Kurt Rohde is a recipient of the Rome and Berlin Prize, Radcliffe Institute and Guggenheim Fellowships, Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Hanson Foundation Commission awards, and funding from the NEA, Chamber Music America, NewMusic USA, and Creative Capital. Recent projects include works for the Lydian Quartet and Grossman Ensemble, and new works for Departure Duo, ekmeles, Brightwork, Hidejiro Honjoh, and duoJalal. Rohde is former Artistic Advisor with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, a San Francisco based new music ensemble Kurt founded in 1992, and was its violist and Artistic Director for over 20 years. Rohde is Professor of Composition & Music Theory at UC Davis. Kurt is the 2024 recipient of a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission in Memory of Andrew W. Imbrie from The Library of Congress.

Kurt has spearheaded initiatives to help create opportunities for composers: Pathways provides gifted young composers without access, to skills-based, respectful, informed instruction and performance opportunities, access to a fully-funded engagement in a long-term intensive student/mentor/performer workshop; The Commission Fund is a commission project supporting composers at different stages of their creative life; The Farewell Tour Project – PARTS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 targets underappreciated creative voices in the new music community.