David Leo Diamond
David Leo Diamond, a famous composer, was born in Rochester, New York
on July 9, 1915. He studied at the Cleveland Institute in the Eastman School
with Bernard Rogers (1933-1934). He went to France for lessons with Boulanger,
another famous composer. He received three Guggenheimer Fellowships awards
(1938, 1942 and 1958) and many other awards and commissions from other institutes.
In 1936, he began work on full-length ballet named "TOM",
to be a scenario by Cummings and was sent to Paris by a private patron to
do the score in association with Leonide Massine. His first successful orchestral
piece " Palms," was written there that summer, winning the Julliard
Publication Award, the next year. He was appointed Fulbright professor at
the University of Rome in 1951. Following that, he settled in Florence,
in 1953, where he stayed until he came back to the United States for his
50th birthday.
He conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RP0) and other ensembles.
He taught at Salzburg, Harvard Seminar in American Studies, SUNY at Buffalo
(as Slee Professor 1961 and 1963), at the Manhattan School (1967-1968 as
chairman of the composition department), and from 1973 at the Julliard School.Because
of the quality of his work as a composer, he was granted the William Schuman
Award in 1985.
By Michael and Andrew
Ms. Mahar's Room
