Stephen Jaffe, Mary and James H. Semans professor of music composition, will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May.
Jaffe is one of 10 new members to be inducted into the 250-person organization, according to a Duke news release Wednesday. As a classical composer, Jaffe’s music has been featured at major concerts and festivals across the world, and Bridge Records has issued three discs of his music.
“My first reaction to learning of this was complete surprise,” he said in the release. “This was followed by the still not-quite-believable realization that people are paying attention, not just to one work but to what you’ve been doing over a creative life! I am humbled to be in the company of such great artists, writers and composers—and looking forward to meeting some of those whose books I have read, or whose buildings I have marveled at and to having some great conversations.”
The academy is charged with sustaining an interest in literature, music and the fine arts by supporting individual artists. Induction into the academy is considered the highest formal recognition of artistic merit in the nation, according to the academy’s website.
Other inductees this year include artists Robert Gobert and Lynda Benglis and writers Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen among five others. There are also two foreign honorary members: Indian-born sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese composer Jo Kondo.
At Duke, Jaffe directs the contemporary music concert series Encounters: with the Music of Our Time. His works have won numerous awards, including the Koussevitsky International Recording Award in 2004 for his piece “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.”
His latest compositions include “Light Dances (Chamber Concerto No. 2)” and two orchestral works—”Poetry of the Piedmont” and “Cithara mea (Evocations): Spanish Music Notebook for Orchestra”—both written for the North Carolina Symphony.
Past faculty members who have been elected into the academy include the late Reynolds Price and Robert Ward, professor emeritus of music.
“To spend your life working to make real and tangible music—to attempt to make something necessary and beautiful, yet unsaid, inspires me,” Jaffe said in the release.
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