David Ludwig (b. 1974 USA) is a composer. His music has been called “entrancing,” and that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this generation” (Philadelphia Inquirer). It has further gained recognition for its “expressive directness” (The New York Times) and has been noted for “a yearning, poetic quality” (Baltimore Sun). The New Yorker magazine calls him a “musical up-and- comer.” He has had performances in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and his music has been played on PBS and NPR's Weekend Edition.

Ludwig has written for many prominent artists and ensembles, including soloists like Jonathan Biss and Jaime Laredo, ensembles such as Eighth Blackbird and Network for New Music, and orchestras including the Minnesota and National Symphonies. He has held residencies with Meet the Composer and with summer festivals including the Marlboro Music School, and the MacDowell and Yaddo artist colonies. He has won numerous awards and honors from nationally recognized arts organizations.

Born in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig holds degrees from Oberlin, MSM, Curtis, and Juilliard, as well as a PhD from University of Pennsylvania. Ludwig is on the composition faculty of the Curtis Institute where he serves the Artistic Chair of Performance and as the Director of the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble. He lives and works in Philadelphia.

Over the month of March in 2003, David Ludwig worked on a new composition for string quartet entitled, The Catherine Wheel that premiered at the Museum in two parts in October. On Saturday October 18, Ludwig gave an introduction to the piece, illustrating its motivating ideas with live examples by musicians. The piece was played in full the next day as part of the Gardner’s Sunday Concert Series and was followed by a Q&A with the composer.

David Ludwig also worked with a class of fifth graders from the Tobin School and fourth graders from the Farragut School in October 2003. Students began in the classroom painting and drawing in response to four pieces of music Ludwig selected. Though not yet revealed to the students, each was selected based on connections to works in the collection. The following day the students visited the museum. Unprompted, students made connections between what they were looking at and what they had heard the following day.

The true magic of this program was David's visit to the group's classroom, accompanied by a violinist and a bassoonist. Using a simple graphical system David had devised for young students to write music, every student had the opportunity to compose music for the musicians to play and also to conduct. The students were ecstatic at hearing their own compositions played by live musicians right there in their classroom. By linking the explorations of works of art, discussions of the musical selections, and systems for composing and conducting music through visual systems, David crafted opportunities for meaningful multi-sensory experiences for each student. By the end of the session with the musicians, students were asking for autographs.

In April 2005, Three Portraits of Isabella, a composition that Ludwig wrote after his residency, premiered at the museum. The piece is a collection of portraits of portraits with each movement inspired by a painting of the patron herself. The two outer movements represent works by John Singer Sargent and the middle represents a work by Anders Zorn. Ludwig’s goal was to capture the essence of Isabella Stewart Gardner as a reflection of these artists’ work. Ludwig explains “In the first movement, Mrs. Gardner is a young woman—formal, but radiant with life. The second, she is in Venice—older, but illuminated from below to show the spirit in her face. In the last movement, Gardner is just a few years from passing, wrapped in white shrouds as if already a ghost in the world, with colors of lightness all around her.” Three Portraits of Isabella was written for pianist Jeremy Denk. A CD of Denk’s performance and booklet about the work was included in the museum’s 2003-2004 Centennial Report.