Sherwood Shaffer

Sherwood Shaffer (b. November 15, 1934, Bee County, Texas) has composed over 150 works, extending from chamber to choral, symphonic, and operatic compositions. He has been composed for and/or been commissioned by the Clarion Woodwind Quintet, the Winston-Salem Symphony, saxophonist James Houlik, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, New World String Quartet, percussionist Christopher Deane, New Century Saxophone Quartet, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and pianist Max Lifchitz, whose recording of his Lines From Shelley earned a Grammy nomination. Mr. Shaffer earned degrees from the Curtis Institute and the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Bohuslav Martinu and Vittorio Giannini. He is a charter faculty member of the North Carolina School of the Arts where he taught from its founding in 1965 until 2000. In 1992 he received the O. Max Gardner Award of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, the highest faculty award granted by the 16-university system, and the first musician to be granted the award since its inception in 1949. He has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, North Carolina Arts Council, and Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, and is recorded on the Vienna Modern Masters, Opus One, Centaur, Channel Classics, and Aerophon labels. -- Text from Edward B. Marks Music Company website ( http://www.ebmarks.com/composers/sherwood-shaffer/ )