Piano Forza

Frederick Lesemann is a distinguished professor emeritus of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. Frederick Lesemann is a composer living in La Crescenta, California, the small town near Los Angeles where he grew up. He is an emeritus professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he at various times served as chair of the composition program and directed the electronic music studio. His degrees are from USC, where he received a doctoral degree and was a student of Ingolf Dahl, and the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Richard Hoffmann. Lesemann has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer, Centrum Center for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, ASCAP, the USC Zumberg Faculty Research and Innovation Fund and the Thornton School itself. He has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, The Colonial Symphony, the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, Southwest Chamber Music, USC, Piano Spheres and several individuals. His works, which employ a wide range of media, have been performed by such groups as the Kronos Quartet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Buffalo Philharmonic and Southwest Chamber Music, and at such places as the Kennedy and Lincoln centers, Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Ojai Music Festival and the Arnold Schoenberg Institute. Recordings of his work are found on Doberman/Ypann, Town Hall, Cambria and Crystal record labels.