Walter Ross (b. 1936), professor of composition at the University of Virginia and former chairman of the music department there, has also served as president of the Southeastern Composers’ League. He has written over eighty works, most of them for wind instruments in a variety of combinations, including two trombone concertos along with ten other concertos for wind instruments, a symphony for chorus and orchestra, a one-act opera, and many songs. His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Terzak Verlag (Germany) and Dorn Publications (Massachusetts). Eleven compositions have been recorded commercially on CRI, Golden Crest, MMC, and Crystal among other labels. In 1972, Boosey & Hawkes nominated Ross for a Pulitzer Prize.
Ross was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1936. He began his musical studies on the French Horn at the age of twelve. His first four years at the University of Nebraska were in mechanical engineering, but after working in machine design for a short time, he returned to the University to study musical composition under Robert Beadell. He went to Buenos Aires in 1965 with a fellowship from the Organization of American States to study under Alberto Ginastera at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella. Upon returning to the United States, he finished his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Cornell University, where his composition teachers were Karel Husa and Robert Palmer. He also studied briefly with Roger Sessions and Mario Davidovsky.
He has received several awards and prizes for his music, including annual awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers since 1972, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to write A Jefferson Symphony for the national bi-centennial, a Consortium Commission from the National Endowment at the request of the Clarion Quintet, the Aspen Quintet, and the Soni Ventorum, two fellowships from the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Virginia, a grant from the Virginia Commission on the Arts, and recently, First Prize from the International Trombone Association contest for a work for trombone ensemble. Also recently, Akihiko Ito of the University of Tokyo completed a thesis on Ross’ music.
Ross has had two residencies at the MacDowell artists colony and as an American composer he has served as judge at international competitions for new chamber works. He has been featured composer at several contemporary music festivals at various universities and on national and international radio broadcasts. |
