Daniel Asia, professor emeritus of music, was named a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, recognition of distinguished contributions to human learning.
Asia joined the University of Arizona School of Music in 1988 and retired earlier this year. He was a professor in the Department of Composition, Musicology and Theory and head of the music composition program. His numerous honors include a United Kingdom Fulbright award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation to those who have “demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”
The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences and learned professions.
“I am very gratified to be included among this august group of scholars,” said Asia.
Asia was honored alongside other new members at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., last month in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. This year the Academy also awarded the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom to Sir Salman Rushdie (2023) and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (2024).
Daniel Asia bio
Daniel Asia is emeritus professor of composition at the University of Arizona School of Music. He has received a UK Fulbright award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Meet the Composer grants, DAAD, MacDowell and Tanglewood fellowships, ASCAP and BMI prizes, Copland Fund grants, and Fromm and Barlow Foundation commissions, among numerous others. He was honored with a Music Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
From 1991-1994 he was the Meet the Composer Composer-in-Residence of the Phoenix Symphony. His Fifth Symphony, commissioned for the Tucson and Jerusalem symphony orchestras in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, is based on the poetry of the Jewish-American writer Paul Pines, the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, and Psalms. His orchestral works have been commissioned or performed by the symphony orchestras in many U.S. cities, including Seattle, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Columbus, Ohio, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Tucson; and the Brooklyn, Colorado and Pilsen (Czech Republic) philharmonics. Asia’s works have been performed by many renowned conductors.
After receiving his BA degree from Hampshire College, Asia received his MM from the Yale School of Music.