Composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom's work captured first prizes in the international composition competitions of the UK’s Delius Society, the American Viola Society, the Chinese Fine Arts Society, and has received awards from prominent institutions including the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship, Charles Ives Scholarship), Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (Pew Fellowship), New Music USA, S&R Foundation (Grand Prize, Washington Awards), Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, Music Teachers National Association, Académie musicale de Villecroze, and the Sigurd and Jarmila Rislov Foundation, among many others. In 2017, the MacDowell Colony awarded him one of its prestigious artist residencies for the composition of his String Quartet No. 2.

Recent commissions have come from the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, National Cherry Blossom Festival, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Great Falls Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Tanglewood Music Center, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, Music From Angel Fire, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, International Opera Theater, Lyra Society, Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and the Cavatina Duo, among others.

Djupstrom’s chamber music is presented regularly across the USA by ensembles including the Dover Quartet, Network for New Music, Dolce Suono, Lyric Fest, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Music from Copland House, ensemblenewSRQ, Definiens Project, Sound Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Juventas, Sounds New, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and his works have been performed and broadcast in the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, Austria, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Chile, Colombia, Taiwan, China, and Japan. In recent seasons, his special interest in Romanian classical music led him to present at the 2017 George Enescu Festival of McGill University and to pursue advanced language study in summer 2019 with the assistance of a Romanian government scholarship; in November 2019, he presented a recital highlighting contemporary Romanian and American works at the annual Meridian Festival in Bucharest. A 2020 grant from the S&R Foundation aims to share this passion for Romanian music through the creation of a new concert series at the Hanifl Center for Performing Arts in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

As a pianist, Djupstrom has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia-based new music ensemble Relâche. His passion for chamber music has led to concerts for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, the British Library, S&R Foundation, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Astral Artists, Yale University, and many other presenting organizations. His festival appearances include Hong Kong’s “Intimacy of Creativity,” Music from Angel Fire, Tanglewood, Brevard, and the Académie musicale de Villecroze; he has performed in major metropolitan cities throughout the world, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington DC, Houston, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Madrid, Bucharest, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Montréal, and Aix-en-Provence. He has recorded for American Public Media's popular "Performance Today" radio program, Radio Television Hong Kong's Radio 4, and the Equilibrium, American Modern, and Meyer Media labels. As a music educator, Djupstrom has taught composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, theory and orchestration for Boston University, ear training for the University of Michigan, and piano at Settlement Music School. He has been a guest teacher and presenter at Rice University, Westminster Choir College, Montana State University, Rowan University, Shasta Community College, National University of Music of Bucharest, International School of Brussels, Paris Conservatory, and Yichao Music Training Center in Shenzhen, China.

Djupstrom received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with composers Bright Sheng, William Bolcom, Susan Botti, Karen Tanaka, and Eric Santos. Djupstrom pursued further studies in Paris with Betsy Jolas, whom he later worked for as an assistant. He also holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of Jennifer Higdon and Richard Danielpour. He lives in Philadelphia. For more information about Michael Djupstrom please visit his website: michaeldjupstrom.com

The master class with Composer-in-Residence Michael Djupstrom features music by undergraduate and graduate composers who are enrolled in the composition program of the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (SOMD), which offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. During their studies at SOMD, each composer studies with Robert Kyr, Professor of Composition & Theory and Department Chair, and David Crumb, Professor of Composition & Theory, both of whom are the faculty mentors for the works featured on both master classes.

In addition to a rigorous academic curriculum, including the “Oregon Composers Forum Seminar,” the composition program offers students numerous opportunities to hear their music performed. Moreover, each student performs in their own works and the music of their colleagues through the Oregon Composers Forum and the Music Today Festival, and through concerts given by seven student-run new music ensembles. The composition program also offers the bi-annual Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium (Robert Kyr, founder and director), which brings 90-100 composers and performers from around the world to the UO School of Music to hear their music performed by a roster of renowned guest artists and by the participants themselves, as members of the American Creators Ensemble (ACE).

The UO composition program is nationally recognized as one of the top programs in the country, as demonstrated by the fact that its graduates are accepted into the major composition programs in the United States. Currently, its recent graduates are pursuing further study at Harvard University, Brandeis University, Indiana University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of British Columbia, among others. The program’s past graduates hold major faculty positions throughout the country (many of them tenure-track), and have received top awards in the field of composition, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the Charles Ives Living Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gaudeamus International Composers Award (Gaudeamus Foundation, Amsterdam), Aaron Copland Award (Bogliasco Foundation; Liguria, Italy), and the Jacob Druckman Prize (Aspen Music Festival), among others.