Collection: Ultan, Lloyd

1929 - 1999

Lloyd Ultan (1929 - 1998) was an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Ultan received a bachelor's degree from New York University, a master's degree from Columbia University, and a doctorate from the University of Iowa. In 1971, he founded, and, from 1971 to 1974, served as Director of the Composer's Residency Program at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, Virginia.

Ultan served as chairman of the Department of Music at American University in Washington, D.C. for 13 years, and spent a year as Visiting Professor of Composition and Theory at the Royal College of Music in London. He has also lectured at Cambridge University and been a visiting composer on numerous college and university campuses in the United States.

He was a professor and chairman (and later emeritus professor and chairman) of composition, music theory, and electronic and computer music at the School of Music University of Minnesota, and also served as the Director of the Electronic/Computer Music Studio. He was responsible for founding the School of Music and served as its director from 1975 to 1986.

He composed over 60 works for a wide variety of genres including electronic music, solo and chamber works, and compositions for voice. His works have been performed and broadcast throughout the world, including in China and Taiwan. His works have been performed by the Tokyo String Quartet, the Pro Arte String Quartet, the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, William Blount, Alexander Braginsky, Young Nam Kim, Tanya Remenikova, and Thomas Murray. He has written numerous articles and a book, Music Theory: Compositional Problems and Practices in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (with an accompanying workbook/anthology).

Ultan's notable students include Edie Hill and Scott L. Miller.

Among his numerous fellowships, grants, and awards were a Rockefeller Foundation Residency Fellowship and three residencies at the MacDowell Colony, with a Norlin/MacDowell Outstanding Composer of the Year Award for 1982.

The 160-seat Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall at the University of Minnesota's School of Music (Donald N. Ferguson Hall) is named for him.