Pascal Le Boeuf Awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship In Music Composition  ​   

Pascal Le Boeuf, an accomplished and incredibly versatile composer, pianist, and electronic artist, is among 171 recipients of the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, which this year honors the achievements and "exceptional promise" of writers, scholars and artists across 48 fields. Le Boeuf, who recently received his second GRAMMY nomination for his piece "Snapshots" (for bass clarinet, cello, and piano) is among 10 individuals to win the prestigious fellowship in the Music Composition category. Past Music Composition Fellows have included Aaron Copland, Geri Allen, Meredith Monk, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Miguel Zenon, Joan Tower, Thelonious Monk, Gil Evans, Jennifer Higdon, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and many others.

Initially funded in 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation seeks to assist a diversity of scholars and artists to engage in research and creation "under the freest possible conditions." With the support of the fellowship, Le Boeuf shares his excitement to "create new orchestra music in a production-based environment" and to engage with "improvisers, notation-based musicians, and recent studio technologies to recast the modern orchestra in a new form."

Over the course of two decades Le Boeuf has made a powerful mark across the worlds of jazz, improvised music, contemporary classical music, and indie-rock, building an accomplished roster of collaborators along with a unique set of ongoing projects. He played as support for D'Angelo's Black Messiah Tour, released Pascal's Triangle, a dynamic trio album featuring the powerful duo of bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Justin Brown, and co-leads the eclectic Le Boeuf Brothers Quintet, lauded by the New York Times for "clearing their own path."

His equally ambitious compositional endeavors include his recent "Triple Concerto" which features Barbora Kolářová and the percussionists of Arx Duo along with a full orchestra. In 2024 he is set to release "Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?" a piece for the Akropolis Reed Quintet, drummer Christian Euman and Le Boeuf himself on piano. The San Francisco Chronicle praised his work for displaying "an impressive level of sophistication. Textured harmonies and shifting time signatures are handled with aplomb."

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Le Boeuf is dedicated to reimagining the role of the orchestra in contemporary music, pushing the boundaries of a classic instrumentation and centering production as a compositional tool. He believes "there are many creative choices that transcend page and performance" and that "every stage of the production process is a part of composing the music."

Though Le Boeuf sees the modern orchestra as a "gold standard in contemporary music [that] will continue to be so in the future," he believes it is "intimidating, financially inaccessible, and...difficult to approach creatively" for many living composers. Through a set of new production-based orchestra compositions and recordings supported by the fellowship, Le Boeuf hopes to "create a blueprint" that will give more creative musicians access to writing for orchestra.

As a composer, producer, improviser, and performer in myriad settings, it is unlikely Pascal Le Boeuf will be slowing down anytime soon. His newest album with Le Boeuf Brothers, the quietly compelling HUSH, will be available April 21st, 2023.

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