Dalit Warshaw

A prolific composer and active performer since childhood, Dalit Warshaw’s works have been performed by over twenty-six orchestral ensembles, including the New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras (Zubin Mehta conducting), the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Y Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony.

Born in 1974, Ms. Warshaw began her piano studies at age three with her mother, Ruti Hadass Warshaw. She began composing one year later, writing her first orchestral work at age 8, for which she became the youngest winner of the BMI Award. In 1985, Zubin Mehta conducted her second orchestral work, In the Beginning, with both the New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. She continued to study piano, musicianship and composition with Ruti Warshaw until the age of seventeen.

Ms. Warshaw went on to receive degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where she obtained her doctorate in music composition in May 2003. Significant teachers from that time include Milton Babbitt, David Del Tredici and Samuel Adler. Important awards and distinctions include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, five Morton Gould ASCAP Foundation grants, two BMI Awards and a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel.

As a pianist, Ms. Warshaw has performed widely as both soloist and chamber player, in venues as diverse as Avery Fisher Hall, Miller Theater, Alice Tully Hall and the Stone, her repertoire ranging from the piano concertos of Mozart, Schumann and Grieg to her own compositions and improvisations.

Having studied with renowned thereminist Clara Rockmore from an early age, Ms. Warshaw has appeared with ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony.

Ms. Warshaw continues to cultivate a multi-faceted persona as composer, performer and educator. She currently serves on the composition faculty of the Boston Conservatory, previously she teaching orchestration (beginning and advanced levels) at the Juilliard Evening Division from 2000 to 2005. She was also a Visiting Professor at Middlebury College and a composer-in-residence at the Interlochen Arts Academy and at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Frequently inspired by themes gleaned from history, literature and visual art, Ms. Warshaw has addressed artists and writers ranging from Balthus to Irene Nemirovsky in her works, and has set texts by such diverse poets as Dorothy Parker, Langston Hughes, Hilan Warshaw, and the Song of Songs. Ms. Warshaw’s music has been widely praised for its lyricism, its unique orchestral palette, its distinctive harmonic vocabulary, its sense of drama and emotional intensity.

Her CD, Invocations, was released in January 2011 and is available on Albany Records.