Lewis Nielson (b. 1950) studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, Clark University in Massachusetts and the University of Iowa, receiving a Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition in 1977. His music appears through American Composers Edition and CDs of his music are available from Albany, MMC, Capstone, Centaur, and Innova Recordings. He has received numerous grants and awards for his works, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Delius Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Groupe de Music Expèrimentale de Bourges in France, the Ibla Foundation, Sicily, the International Society of Bassists, and the Ohio Arts Council. He has received many commissions, and his works have been performed throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. Among the more notable performances of his large works he has received have been performances by the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the American Composer’s Orchestra, the Fresno (CA) Philharmonic; and recent CD recording/performance projects with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bratislava, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Symphony of Moscow Radio. Recent commissions include his recent works USW (music theatre) from Chicago and New York based Opera Cabal, Tocsin (percussion sextet) from red fish blue fish in San Diego, and Le Journal du Corps from the JACK String Quartet. He was honored recently as the 2007 Cleveland Arts Prize laureate. He served as Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Georgia, where he directed the University of Georgia Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, for 21 years. In 2000, he joined the composition faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he is currently Professor of Composition and chair of the Composition Department.