Lavell Blackwell
Lavell Blackwell is a composer, teacher and singer whose work is performed all over the United States. His music combines diverse musical influences and techniques to create a singularly piquant and energizing sound. He currently serves on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA as part of
their Composition department, having previously taught at the University of New Hampshire and the New England Conservatory of Music. He earned his
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from New England Conservatory in May 2021, studying with Dr. Kati Agócs. His dissertation, The Long Walk for
orchestra with found objects, received the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation for the purposes of a professional recording. His most recent work was 2023's On the Impulse to Move, a co-commission led by Winsor Music, Inc., which included the following chamber groups: the Radius Ensemble, the Apple Hill Chamber Players, the Boston Chamber Music Society, Music from Salem, Castle of Our Skins, and the Boston Public Quartet, the Sphinx Organization, and the Coastal Carolina Music Festival. Other recent pieces include the piano trio Prelude and Counterpoint, written for James Vaughen, Mekhi Gladden and Jenny Chen and premiered at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2022, the solo oboe work Locrian Ambulations, which was commissioned by Nicholas Tisherman, Assistant Principal Oboist in the Colorado Symphony in Denver, and the suite for saxophone duet Biosongs commissioned by the Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet which received a world premiere as part of the Boston New Music Festival in November 2020.
