Donald Crockett, conductor, is the recipient in 2013 of an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for outstanding artistic achievement, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. He has received grants and prizes from the Barlow Endowment, Bogliasco Foundation, Copland Fund, Copland House, Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, and many others. His music is published by Keiser Classical and Doberman/Yppan and recorded on the Albany, BMOP Sound, CRI, Doberman/Yppan, ECM, Innova, Laurel, New World, Orion, and Pro Arte/Fanfare labels. Donald Crockett has been very active over the years as a composer and conductor with the venerable and famed Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles. As conductor of the USC Thornton Symphony’s annual New Music for Orchestra series, Donald Crockett has premiered over 125 new orchestral works by outstanding Thornton student composers. His recordings as a conductor can be found on the Albany, CRI, Doberman/Yppan, ECM and New World labels. Donald Crockett is professor and chair of the composition program, director of Thornton Edge new music ensemble and assistant dean for faculty affairs at the USC Thornton School of Music, as well as senior composer-in-residence with the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. The residency of Donald Crockett is made possible by an endowment gift from Susan and Ford Schumann.