April 21, 2023

Congratulations to three MSM alumni who have each been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition.

Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those in mid-career “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

The awardees may receive grants of a value up to an estimated $50,000 to use on their professional projects, as they choose.

The MSM alumni awarded this year in music composition are:

Pascal Le Boeuf (BM ’07, MM ’10), pianist and composer
Eun Young Lee (MM ’01), composer
Donald Vega (MM ’07), jazz pianist and composer

MSM alumni alumni recipients:

PASCAL LE BOEUF (BM ’07, MM ’10)

Pascal Le Boeuf is a Grammy-nominated composer, jazz pianist, and electronic artist whose works range from modern improvised music to hybridizing notation-based chamber music with production-based technology.

As a keyboardist, Pascal has played as support for D’Angelo’s Black Messiah tour and Clean Bandit’s Rather Be tour with Australian pop artist Meg Mac. He actively performs with Le Boeuf Brothers, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, jazz vocalist Allan Harris, and his piano trio “Pascal’s Triangle.”

Pascal was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition; he is Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music and Technology at Vanderbilt University and is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University.

Eun Young Lee (MM ’01), Composition

Eun Young Lee is a Korean-American composer who is an associate professor of composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston.

She began her formal study of composition during graduate studies at Manhattan School of Music. She won the first prize in 2006 Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition with the work “Nok-du-kkot (Mung-bean flower).”

Eun Young Lee has worked with many ensembles including New York New Music Ensemble, eighth blackbird, Pacifica String Quartet, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Geum-Pa Flute Ensemble. Her instrumental pieces, computer music, multimedia pieces, and film music have been featured in festivals and concerts in many countries.

Donald Vega (MM ’07), Jazz Piano

Donald Vega was trained classically in piano in his native Nicaragua. He emigrated to the United States at age 14. He currently performs internationally as the pianist for world-renowned bassist and MSM alumnus Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio with whom he has recorded several albums.

Mr. Vega is also a professor at The Juilliard School and Hofstra University and sits on the board of BackCountry Jazz, a non-profit organization which provides music education programs and performances to underprivileged youth.