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Performing Arts Library Special Collections in Performing Arts ABA Research Center 
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Ostwald Award Archives
Winner 1990: Gregory Youtz, Fire Works
Biography:
Gregory Youtz was born in 1956 in Beirut, Lebanon. He received his B.M. in composition from the University of Washington in 1980 and his D.M.A. in composition from the University of Michigan in 1987. His principal teachers have included Leslie Bassett, William Bergsma, William Bolcom and William Albright.He was awarded a Charles Ives Award in 1984 from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and his Scherzo for a Bitter Moon for band won the 1984 National Bandmasters Association contest. A choral work If We Sell You Our Land based on a speech by Chief Seattle was the subject of a story on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in 1987. His opera Songs from the Cedar House based on the history and legends of Native American and Immigrant cultural interaction in the Pacific Northwest premiered in February of 1991 at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. His other compositions include works for orchestra, band, choir, voice, chamber ensembles, and a one-act opera.
A native Pacific Northwesterner, Youtz is presently Professor of Music on the faculty at Pacific Lutheran University where he teaches composition, theory, history and ethnomusicology.
Source: Correspondence with the composer.
