Lawrence Dillon@Sequenza21.com

"There are no two points so distant from one another that they cannot be connected by a single straight line -- and an infinite number of curves."

Composer Lawrence Dillon has produced an extensive body of work, from brief solo pieces to a full-length opera. Three disks of his music are due out in 2010 on the Bridge, Albany and Naxos labels. In the past year, he has had commissions from the Emerson String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, the Daedalus String Quartet, the Kenan Institute for the Arts, the University of Utah and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra.

Although he lost 50% of his hearing in a childhood illness, Dillon began composing as soon as he started piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, and was shortly thereafter appointed to the Juilliard faculty. Dillon is now Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has served as Music Director of the Contemporary Ensemble, Assistant Dean of Performance, and Interim Dean of the School of Music. He was the Featured American Composer in the February 2006 issue of Chamber Music magazine.


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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
another frustrated young composer

Last Thursday, President Obama attended a performance by the Lincoln Trio in Springfield, Illinois for the Lincoln Bicentennial. On the program? My piece The Better Angels of Our Nature.

At least that was the way it was supposed to work out. Then the Secret Service made a little switcheroo at the last minute, and the trio was consigned to the lobby area, while the president spoke inside.

Probably all for the best – one can’t be too careful when it comes to exposing the President of the United States to the music of a Sequenza21 blogger. I think we can all breathe a little more easily, knowing that his saturated mind and ears have been spared.

In any case, the trio has thirty-three performances in eleven cities over the next two months on this tour (photos and info here). That's a lot more Dillon than anyone should be expected to digest.

My three-year-old son’s response: “Daddy goes to concerts and people play his music. Music comes out of Daddy’s head. Music comes out of my head, too, but nobody plays it.”

Been there, buddy.

Things can turn anytime, any direction – I could be there again in the time it takes the Secret Service to clear a band off its stand.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy every near-miss I get.