Biography:  Normand Lockwood

     Normand Lockwood was born in New York City in 1906. His background includes a decidedly rich European perspective from both his mother’s and his father’s families. Above all, a love of the arts, and particularly of music, permeated the generations—giving Lockwood a legacy destined to include a passion for music.

     Lockwood studied with Italian composer Ottorino Respighi from 1924-1925 in Rome before traveling to Paris to spend the next three years studying with Nadia Boulanger. Lockwood then spent a short time in the U.S. before he returned to Rome, this time as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, having won the prestigious American Prix de Rome in 1929.

     Returning to the US in 1932, Lockwood began his distinguished teaching career with the same zeal with which he approached composing. He continued to compose while teaching at, among other schools, Oberlin College, Columbia University, Yale University, Trinity University and the University of Denver (DU). Lockwood retired from active teaching in 1974 as Professor Emeritus after a 13-year tenure at DU.

     Lockwood’s “retirement” has not slowed his musical expression as he has continued to compose works ranging from symphonies and concertos to choral and chamber works. He received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1974 and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Denver in 1979. He was the 1981 recipient of the National Academy of Arts and Letters’ Marjorie Peabody Waite Award in Music. The occasion of his eightieth birthday in 1986 was celebrated by all-Lockwood concerts in Denver and in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

     As biographer Kay Norton wrote in her book, Normand Lockwood—His Life and Music:

     “In his long life, Normand Lockwood has forged a style which is as wide-ranging and kaleidoscopic as his existence has been, and in fact, his constantly changing ‘modus operandi’ has allowed him to find success in many varied environments.”

 

Compositions by Normand Lockwood featured by Emerson Horn Editions:

Panegyric

Suite for Horn Octet

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