Derek Bermel is the recipient of various awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Academy in Rome's Rome Prize awarded to artists for a year-long residency in Rome.
13 Facts About Derek Bermel
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Derek Bermel studied with Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam and Henri Dutilleux at Tanglewood.
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Derek Bermel's orchestral work A shout, a whisper, and a trace is a good example of this interplay, as it draws on Bermel's knowledge of the Thracian folk style and the work of fellow ethnomusicologist and classical composer Bela Bartok.
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Derek Bermel first came into the national spotlight with works like Natural Selection, a series of animal portraits for baritone and ensemble, and Voices, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra which he wrote for himself to perform.
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Derek Bermel is an accomplished clarinetist and plays both classical repertoire and rock and funk, performing with groups such as his own TONK.
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Derek Bermel has premiered and performed numerous pieces with large orchestras, including his own concerto Voices and John Adams Gnarly Buttons with the composer at the podium.
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Besides his work as a composer and performer, Derek Bermel is active as a teacher.
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Derek Bermel founded and served as director of the New York Youth Symphony's Making Score workshop for young composers.
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Derek Bermel conducts masterclasses at universities and music festivals such as the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Yale University, Peabody Conservatory, Bowdoin, Tanglewood, and Aspen.
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Derek Bermel's music is published by Peer Music Classical in the United States and is distributed in Europe, Australia and New Zealand by Faber Music.
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Derek Bermel began a three-year residency with the American Composers Orchestra in Fall of 2006 and currently serves on the ACO board.
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In 2009 Derek Bermel began his three-year tenure as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as well as his position as artist-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he currently lives and works.
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Derek Bermel has collaborated with the novelist Sandra Cisneros to adapt her work The House on Mango Street, first in 2017 as an orchestral suite with monologues and choreography, and then as an opera with Cisneros as librettist.