Kurt Rohde, UC Davis professor of music, is known for playing the viola, teaching, and even composing. He has recently received a 2024 commission from the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in memory of Andrew W. Imbrie (1921–2007) to write a new work for Brightwork New Music. The commission was made possible by Barbara Cushing Imbrie and Andrew Philip Imbrie, and is sponsored by Brightwork New Music. Andrew Imbrie, a talented composer during the 20th century, also used to teach at UC Davis. This commissioned work, Rohde’s second Koussevitzky Foundation commission, is set to take place in 2026 and is titled and we are forever elsewhere, specifically composed for the full Brightwork Ensemble. 

Rohde is artistic advisor with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, artistic director of the Composers Conference, and teaches Music Composition and Theory at UC Davis. He has received awards and recognition such as the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, fellowships from the Radcliffe-Harvard Institute for Advanced Study and Guggenheim Foundation, and other awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Barlow, and Fromm Foundations

Read more about Kurt Rohde's commission here in a story by Michael G. French: Rohde Awarded Commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation in the Library of Congress - UC Davis Arts