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• Erika Johnson - [email protected]

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• Department of Music

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Two faculty members and two alumni from the University of California San Diego Department of Music have received fellowships and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a prestigious honor society that recognizes exceptional achievement among contemporary composers, writers, visual artists and architects.

Distinguished Professor of Music and Conrad Prebys Presidential Chair Rand Steiger received the Otto and Catherine Brunson Luening Award. The $20K award honors Otto Luening, a composer and conductor who founded one of the first electronic music studios in the U.S. and Catherine Brunson, who founded the instrumental music department at The Spence School in Manhattan and taught piano to hundreds of young women.

"This is a deeply meaningful award; it is an honor to be selected by a panel of Academy members who are all distinguished composers," said Steiger. "Luening was just as devoted to teaching, performing the music of his peers and making contributions to the profession as to creating his own music. That is the kind of career to which I have aspired. I'm humbled to receive an award that bears his name."

Steiger is a contemporary classical composer whose work often mixes orchestral instruments with live electronic sound processing to create new sound textures. Over the past decade, he composed a trilogy of string quartets with electronics for the JACK Quartet, performing the complete cycle with the ensemble at the Time:Spans Festival in New York City in 2025.

"These pieces examine inner emotional states through musical expression and are my most personal compositions to date," shared Steiger, who added that a recording of these pieces was recently released on the Kairos label. "It has been one of the most exciting and satisfying projects of my career."

The Luening Award was also presented to Music alumnus Steven Kazuo Takasugi, MA '89, DMA '00, whose boundary-pushing works often challenge conventional ideas of musical performance. He is currently composing a percussion trio for Louise Devenish, Kaylie Melville and Eugene Ughetti of Melbourne-based Speak Percussion. Developed in collaboration with the Percy Grainger Museum, the work combines sampled sounds from the museum's instrument collection with deeply personal "autobiographical" instruments selected by each performer. The world premiere will take place at the Donaueschingen Music Days in Germany on Oct. 17, 2026.

Professor of Music Karola Obermüller has received the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award. The $10K grant recognizes experienced composers for their artistic excellence and contributions to the field of music.

Obermüller composes in search of the unknown, with layers upon layers of obscured material buried deep beneath a surface that is sometimes sumptuous, sometimes bristling with rhythmic energy. Her music has been described as "hyperkinetic," "completely radical," forming "dream-like tableaus of sound," featuring energetic, layered sound shaped by global influences.

"This award makes me especially happy since I immigrated to the U.S. almost 23 years ago, and getting acknowledged by the American Academy of Arts and Letters makes me feel warmly welcomed as a composer in my adopted home," shared Obermüller. "It always makes me happy when people find value in the music I compose. Making the listening experience a meaningful moment for them is very important to me."

Obermüller just finished a large opera project that she co-composed with partner Peter Gilbert. "Malina" is an adaptation of Ingeborg Bachmann's landmark novel, a foundational work of German feminist literature. "Trying to render Bachmann's beauty and horror and deeply philosophical poetry into music and sound for the stage is both a great challenge and an honor," she said.

Another American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Charles Ives Fellowship, was presented to Music alumnus Alex Stephenson, DMA '23. The $15K fellowship recognizes young composers who demonstrate extraordinary gifts.

A contemporary classical composer who is assistant professor of music theory and composition at Illinois State University, Stephenson is known for blending lyrical beauty with sonic invention.

His work combines a lyrical sensibility with a fascination for sound perception and a deep appreciation for music across eras and traditions. He intertwines these diverse influences in novel ways, curating sonic worlds that feel simultaneously fresh and familiar.

Founded in 1966, UC San Diego's Department of Music is internationally recognized for innovation in composition, performance, music technology and interdisciplinary research. The department offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs while presenting nearly 200 concerts, lectures and performances annually in world-class venues and research facilities.