One of two “composers of extraordinary gifts” to receive Goddard Lieberson Fellowship
Pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is one of two “composers of extraordinary gifts” awarded with the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Shawn Okpebholo also received this fellowship as part of the seventeen 2025 Awards in Music honoring both established and emerging composers.
Since 1942, music awards have been selected annually by Arts and Letters members to recognize and support fellow artists. The 300 members nominate candidates for the awards, and a rotating committee of composers selects the winners. This year, the award committee members were Christopher Theofanidis (chair), Libby Larsen, Annea Lockwood, Shulamit Ran, David Sanford, Wadada Leo Smith, and Melinda Wagner.
The music awards will be presented alongside the architecture, art, and literature awards at the American Academy of Arts and Letters’s annual Ceremonial in May.
Aruán Ortiz
Aruán Ortiz is an award-winning composer and pianist whose work seamlessly blends contemporary classical music, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, spontaneous composition, and improvisation. Recognized as “one of the most creative and original composers in the world” (The Art Music Lounge), Ortiz has received prestigious honors, including the 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Impact Award (2014), and the 2024 Hermitage Fellowship. His compositions span chamber ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, and film, continuously pushing musical boundaries while embodying and redefining the intersection of contemporary classical, creative music and Afro-diasporic traditions.
Ortiz’s multidisciplinary artistic vision has led to the premiere of projects such as Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now at Constellation in Chicago (2024), Flamenco Criollo at the Flamenco Biënnale Nederland (2021), and Pastor’s Paradox at the Latino Theater in Dallas (2022). He has released several albums with Intakt Records, including his solo effort Cub(an)ism (2017), awarded five stars by DownBeat Magazine, and Inside Rhythmic Falls (2020), featuring master drummer Andrew Cyrille, praised as “a narrative of deep human emotion” (Morning Star Online).
His works have been performed internationally at renowned venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, and Southbank Centre (UK). Key chamber works include Episodes in an Unforeseen Departure (2023), premiered by the Harlem Chamber Players at the Schomburg Center, and Piedras de Ida y Vuelta (2023), commissioned by the Contemporary Music Ensemble Ipse. Ortiz’s music is lauded for its structural complexity and its innovative fusion of serialism, aleatory techniques, and avant-garde improvisation.
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society of artists, architects, composers, and writers who foster and sustain interest in the arts. Their 300 members distribute over 70 awards annually; fund concerts and new works of musical theater; purchase and commission contemporary art for donation to museums across the country; and present exhibitions, talks, and events for the public at our historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.