about the composer

Donald Erb (1927-2008) worked with extremes in his music, pushing the limits of instrumental possibilities, finding new orchestral sonorities, experimenting with electronic sounds, and exploring the relationships between these elements. His compositions are often dramatic, featuring violent outbursts and immense climaxes.

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Erb was influenced in his youth by jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins. In his teenage years he took up the trumpet and performed in a local dance band. During World War II Erb served as a radar operator in the US Navy; after the war he attended Kent State University in Ohio and continued to perform and arrange for dance bands. Erb moved into serious composition in 1949, studying with Marcel Dick at Cleveland Institute of Music in Ohio, Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and Bernhard Heiden at Indiana University in Bloomington. For over 40 years he taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and served as composer-in-residence there from 1966 to 1981. Other positions included residencies with the Dallas and St. Louis Symphonies, American Academy in Rome, University of Wollongong in Australia, and faculty positions at Indiana University and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Erb's music has been commissioned and performed by orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and in Europe and Australia. Among his orchestral works are ten concertos written for musicians including Stuart Dempster, Miriam Fried, Lynn Harrell, Richard Stoltzman, and the brass section of the Chicago Symphony. Festivals that have featured his work include Darmstadt, Tanglewood, and Warsaw Autumn. Erb received grants and fellowships from the Aaron Copland, Ford, Fromm, Guggenheim, Koussevitsky, and Rockefeller Foundations, among others. His music has been recorded on the aca Digital, Albany, Columbia, CRI, Crystal, Nonesuch, Koss Classics, Leonarda, New World, Summit, and Vox Turnabout labels.