Marvin Lamb, Henry Zarrow Presidential Professor of Music and Head of the Music Composition Area,
Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts
University of Oklahoma, Norman
Email Address: composercontact@marvinlamb.com
Bachelor of Music, Sam Houston State University, 1968
Master of Music, University of North Texas, 1972
Doctor of Musical Arts, University of Illinois/Urbana, 1977
Short Bio
Marvin Lamb (1946) is Henry Zarrow Presidential Professor of Music & Head of the Music Composition Program at the University of Oklahoma, where he served as Dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts from 1998-2005. His music has been performed widely in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America & Japan. In addition, his orchestral works have been performed by the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, St. Louis, Colorado, Honolulu, the Cabrillo Festival, & recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Symphony & the London Symphony Orchestra. He has multiple awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, & held a year long fellowship in orchestral composition awarded by the Tennessee Arts Commission. His publications & recordings number over forty & his principal publisher is Carl, Fischer, Inc.
Long Bio
Marvin Lamb (born 1946) received his Bachelor of Music & Master of Music degrees in theory and composition from Sam Houston State University and the University of North Texas. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in music composition & performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana/ Champaign. He has studied composition with John Butler, William P. Latham and Paul Martin Zonn, electronic music and computer techniques with Herbert Brun and John Melby and music theory and analysis with Robert Ottman and Ben Johnston. Lamb’s compositions have been performed widely in Europe (Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Serbia); in Argentina, Canada, Japan and Mexico; in New York (the Brooklyn Museum, the Cubiculo Theatre, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.) His music has been performed for over forty years in major international & national festivals and conferences such as the World Saxophone Congress, the Lieska World Brass days, the Ives Center Festival, the International Viola Congress Conference, the National Band Association Convention, Electronic Music Plus Festivals, the Cabrillo Music Festival and numerous major American universities and conservatories. His orchestral scores have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Dimension Series, the Syracuse Symphony and the Knoxville and Nashville (Tennessee), Haddonfield (New Jersey), Idaho Falls (Idaho) and Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Symphonies among others. He has received commissions from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Idaho Falls Symphony, the N.Y.U. Contemporary Chamber Players, James Houlik and Friends and the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. His wind band and chamber music has been performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony, the U.S. Army Band, Ensemble ACJW, the N.Y.U. Contemporary Chamber Players, Voices of Change, the Nashville Contemporary Brass Quintet, the Saturday Morning Brass Quintet and has been featured on P.B.S. broadcasts in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma. He was recipient from 1977-2013 of award grants and fellowships from the A.S.C.A.P ASCAPlus Awards, Mellon Foundation, Meet the Composer, Inc, the Texas Composers Forum, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Science Foundation and has twice received composition fellowships to the Charles Ives Center for American Music.
Lamb’s vocal, chamber, large ensemble & orchestral music has been published by Carl Fischer, Crucible Arts Magazine, Dorn Publications, Media Press, Medici Press, Shawnee Press, TRN Publishers, Wimbledon Music, Inc, the American Printing House for the Blind, and included in the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia. His recorded music is represented on The Saxophone Alone by concert artist Neal Ramsay, on Music From The Meadows (Redwood Records, Inc.), The University of New Mexico Brass Quintet (Crystal CD), Heavy Metal (Mark Records, Inc.), Paul Freeman Introduces… (Albany CD), Insight: New Music for Double Bass (Albany CD), Quadrants, Volume II (Navona Records), Los Angeles New Music Ensemble (Centaur CD), and Extended Horizon (Blue Griffin Recordings). Additionally, his articles concerning arts education policy, new music, and new music ensembles have appeared in Music Now, the NCMTA Music Teacher, the Guilford Review, the Chamber Music Quarterly, the Music Educators Journal, NASM Proceedings, and Design for Arts in Education.
He has served as an arts consultant and in a leadership capacity for educational organizations at the state, regional and national level including music advisory panel membership on the Southern Arts Federation, Meet the Composers/ Southeast, the Tennessee Arts Commission and as chair of the Texas Commission on the Arts music panel. He is a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools College Consulting Network, a consultant for the National Association of Schools of Music and has served as president for the Texas Association of Music Schools.
Lamb is a member of A.S.C.A.P., Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and the American Music Center/ New Music USA. He presently holds the position of Henry Zarrow Presidential Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma.