Composers' Workshop: Josh Levine

Josh Levine (b. 1959) is an American composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. His work explores the unity of memory and imagination through interlaced processes that lead recurring musical materials into ever-new relationships. Characterized by visceral gestures and subtly nuanced textures, his pieces are inspired by being in the world and contemplating change.               

Levine earned post-graduate degrees in composition from the University of California, San Diego following classical guitar studies in Basel, Switzerland. His compositions have been commissioned and performed worldwide by prominent new music soloists, ensembles and conductors in venues ranging from IRCAM and the Cité de la Musique in Paris to Merkin Hall in New York, from festivals in Melbourne and Los Angeles to the World New Music Days in Stockholm. A devoted educator, he has served on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory, San Francisco State University, and the University of Iowa. He has also taught composition at UCSD, as guest faculty at Stanford and Harvard, and at summer festivals including soundSCAPE in Italy, June in Buffalo, and the Delian Academy for New Music in Greece.

Photo by Dorian Levine