Shawn Crouch

About Me

Quote

“My life as a musician is balanced between being a composer and a conductor. I find it critical to maintain a direct connection with the act of making music as a performer. I see my compositions as the summation of all the parts of my life as a musician; a composer, conductor and educator. With each work I struggle to bring into new contexts the concepts of harmony, rhythm and melody. This is what I try to share with my students and to foster in their own music making”

Biography 

Shawn Crouch is Assistant Professor of Practice, Music Theory and Composition at the FROST SCHOOL OF MUSIC at the University, as well as the artistic director of the Ibis New Music Ensemble. He has received wide praise including “Music of gnarly energy”- New York Times and “A highly respected composer and conductor, he brings many years of experience and accomplishment to the classroom. A Gifted Composer”- Gramophone  Magazine. Professor Crouch’s Visions and Ecstasies, A Mass was chosen as “Best New Work” of 2016 by the South Florida Classical Review.

He has seen his works performed and commissioned by a significant number of leading ensembles in the United States, Canada and Europe, among them, the Cleveland Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, Cantori New York, California E.A.R. Unit, Chanticleer, Del Sol String Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, the Lunar Ensemble, the New Ear Contemporary Ensemble, the Phoenix Chorale, Prism Quartet, San Francisco Choral Artists, Santa Fe Chorale, Seraphic Fire, and Volti.

Aside from his live performance, Professor Crouch’s music has been commercially recorded and released by many notable artists and ensembles. His “Paradise,” a motet for 12 voices, was recorded by Volti for their This Is What Happened album. “Lullaby,” a selection from “Paradise,” can be found on The Best of Chanticleer on Warner Bros. Records. His composition, “Light of Common Day” was included on the Seraphic Fire album Reincarnations. Another of his efforts, “Pie Jesu” “rom “The Road from Hiroshima,” was one of the selections on Seraphic Fire's self-titled album. Shawn Crouch's instrumental compositions “City Columns” and “Adolescent Psychology” can be found on the Navona Records label. His music is published by G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard and HoneyRock Publishing.

In recognition of his efforts, Professor Crouch Shawn has received honors and awards from such prestigious institutions as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Prize, ASCAP, BMI, Yale University, the Society of Composers Inc., Meet the Composer and the Percussive Arts Society. In addition, he was the inaugural recipient of the Dale Warland Singers Commissioning Award given by Chorus America and the American Composers Forum.

Professor Crouch studied composition with Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Lansing McCloskey and Malcolm Peyton. He has also been the Wallace-Readers Digest Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and a composition fellow at the Norfolk Music Festival. He received his B.Mus. from the New England Conservatory, his M.Mus. from the Yale School of Music,and his D.M.A. from the University of Miami Frost School of Music.  Shawn Crouch serves on the board of Chorus America.