The Future of (High) Culture in America

Daniel Asia is Director of the University of Arizona Center for American Culture and Ideas, and a composer, conductor, educator, and writer. He has received grants from Meet the Composer, a UK Fulbright award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, MacDowell and Tanglewood fellowships, ASCAP and BMI prizes, and Copland Fund grants. He was recently honored with a Music Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1991 to 1994, he was Composer-in-Residence of the Phoenix Symphony. Asia’s five symphonies have received wide acclaim, and his Fifth Symphony was commissioned for the Tucson and Jerusalem symphony orchestras in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary. In the chamber music arena, he has written for, and been championed by, the Dorian Wind Quintet, American Brass Quintet, Meadowmount Trio, and Cypress Quartet, among others. Under a Barlow Endowment grant, he recently finished a new work for The Czech Nonet, the longest continuously performing chamber ensemble on the planet, founded in 1924. The recorded works of Daniel Asia may be heard on the labels of Summit, New World, Attacca, Albany, and Mushkatweek. His articles have appeared in Academic Questions, New Criterion, and the Huffington Post. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Arizona.