Composer Kechley Snags Two Music Awards
WILLIAMSTOWN - David S. Kechley, professor of music at Williams College, has won an ASCAPlus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in addition to an Aaron Copland Award composer residency from Copland House.ASCAP, an alliance of U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers, offers the ASCAPlus Awards to established writers whose main activity is outside of broadcast media. ASCAPlus judges consider "the unique prestige value" of each applicant's catalog of original compositions, and pay special attention to recent performances. Kechley won his award in the 2007-08 Concert Music Division.
Kechley was also one of eight composers nationwide to receive the coveted Aaron Copland Award composer residency in 2007. Copland House is a creative center based in the prairie-style house where Aaron Copland lived from 1960 to 1990. Set on three rustic acres in New York's Hudson Valley, the house has been preserved as a historic site and as an inspiration for today's musicians. In August, Kechley will spend a month living and working at Copland House, all-expenses-paid.
At Williams since 1986, Kechley has taught courses in music theory, advanced composition, and orchestration, and is currently department chair.
His 78 major compositions have been performed nearly 1,200 times around the world, by the Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, U.S. Military Academy Band, and the Kronos Quartet, among many others.
Kechley's work has been featured at national and international music conferences, including the American Society of University Composers and the Music Educators National Conference. He has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous ASCAP awards, and commission grants from the Barlow Foundation, New England Orchestra Consortium, and the American Composers Forum.
Kechley's new piece, "Colliding Objects: Interactions for Piano and Percussion," was performed for the first time in New England by the Williams Chamber Players on Feb. 15, after it was previewed on the Bargemusic series in Brooklyn last fall.
Another Kechley piece, "Wakeful Visions/Moonless Dreams: A Symphony in Four Movements," will premiere on Friday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m. in Chapin Hall on the Williams campus. It will be performed by the Berkshire Symphony and conducted by Ronald Feldman.
Kechley received his B.A. and M.M. from the University of Washington and his doctorate in composition jointly from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University.
