Donald Grantham

A headshot of Donald Grantham

Professor of Composition

Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professor of Music

Donald Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, First Prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony's Awards to American Composers, two first prizes in the William D. Revelli Competition, first prize in the Ostwald Competition, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and First Prize in the National Opera Association's Biennial Composition Competition. Dr. Grantham's music has been praised for its "elegance, sensitivity, lucidity of thought, clarity of expression and fine lyricism" in a Citation awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His works have been performed by the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta and the American Composers Orchestra among many others, and by wind ensembles all over the world.   He has fulfilled commissions in media from solo instruments to opera. Dr. Grantham's music is published by Piquant Press, Peer-Southern, E. C. Schirmer and G. Schirmer, and many of his works have been commercially recorded. With Kent Kennan, Professor Grantham is coauthor of The Technique of Orchestration (Routledge).

 

MUS 226J
Orchestration and Instrumentation

MUS 226G/K
Orchestration and Arranging

Individual Instruction in Composition

Chant and Hymn for Our Lady
for wind ensemble 

Circa 1600
wind ensemble 

Symphony No. 2 'after Hafiz'
wind ensemble 

The Contemplations of Hafiz
chorus and orchestra

So Long as Days Shall Be
chorus and orchestra

The War Prayer
baritone and orchestra 

Black-eyed Suzy
solo violin

Recent Recordings

Let Evening Come (wind ensemble). Mark Records. Mansfield University Wind Ensemble, Adam Brennan, conductor.

Concerto for Tuba and Symphonic Winds (version for Tuba and Piano). Mark Records. Justin Benavidez and Nick Weiser.

Symphony No. 2 "after Hafiz" (wind ensemble). GIA Wind Works. North Texas Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon, conductor.

Contact Information

Phone
512.471.0522

Campus location
MRH 5.130

Teaching Areas

Composition

Theory

Research Areas

Orchestration

Composition

Education

Doctor of Musical Arts
the University of Southern California

Master of Music
the University of Southern California

Bachelor of Music
the University of Oklahoma