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Associate Professor of Composition Xi Wang is one of 15 composers nationwide selected to receive a 2019 commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. The prestigious award includes $12,000 for the composer and a subsidy for the ensemble that will perform the premiere of the commissioned work.

The Fromm commissions are awarded yearly to composers in a wide range of musical styles, including classical, jazz, hybrid, electronic and more. Through its commissions, the foundation seeks to support new compositions and to bring contemporary concert music closer to the public.

Xi Wang will write a chamber piece for the Díaz Family Ensemble, which includes Andres Díaz, international concert artist and professor of cello at SMU Meadows; brother Roberto Díaz, Grammy-winning violist and president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music; sister Gabriela Díaz, a violin instructor at Wellesley College and member of numerous new music ensembles in Boston; and percussionist Jeff Means, assistant professor of conducting at Berklee College of Music. The work is expected to premiere in the 2022-23 season.

“I am thankful to receive this commission,” said Xi Wang. “It is my privilege to write for the all-star Díaz Family Ensemble. I appreciate the support and partnership of my wonderful colleague, Andres Díaz. We hope to provide a positive educational impact and contribution to the contemporary musical repertoire through this commission.”

Xi Wang’s music has been performed and commissioned by notable orchestras and ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, and Voices of Change, among others. She is the recipient of a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a MacDowell Colony residency, awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, and the American Music Center, and seven prizes from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Her music education started at the age of five. She received her B.M. from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, M.M. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and D.M.A. from Cornell University. She joined the faculty at SMU in 2009 and received the Rotunda Award for Outstanding Teaching.

The Fromm Music Foundation was founded by the late Paul Fromm in 1952. Since 1972, it has been located at Harvard University, where it has operated in partnership with the Harvard University Music Department. Over the course of its existence, the Fromm Foundation has commissioned over 400 new compositions and their performances. The Fromm Foundation has also sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series, among them Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music, American Composers Orchestra, and the Fromm Concert Series at Harvard.

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