College of Musical Arts

Director of New Music Ensemble; Christopher Dietz holds a Ph.D. in composition and theory from the University of Michigan as well as degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Wisconsin. He was previously a faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory and Hillsdale College. Christopher’s music has been recognized by honors and awards from the Camargo Foundation, the Banff Centre, Copland House, the Mizzou New Music Initiative, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, the League of Composers/ISCM Orchestral Competition, the Riverside Symphony Composer Reading Project (NYC), North/South Consonance (NYC), the Chicago Ensemble’s Discover America competition, the Utah Arts Festival’s Orchestral Commission Prize, New Music Festival at Bowling Green State University, the Music08 festival at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the NewMusic@ECU festival, the Society of Composers Inc., and several other institutions. Commissions include works for the Mellon Foundation, the Toledo Symphony, the Utah Arts Festival Orchestra, TACTUS (NYC), the Actors Company Theater (NYC), the Palomar Ensemble (Chicago), the Aeolus New Music Festival, the Toledo Clarinet Quartet, members of the Detroit Symphony, the Eero Trio, Atalanta (punk band), the Milwaukee Young Artists Festival, the Wisconsin State Honors Project, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the Madison Children's Choir, among others. Recent activities include premieres by Alarm Will Sound and the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble.