Joseph Schwantner, professor of composition at the School of Music, has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Membership in the academy is limited to 250 American artists, architects, writers and composers. Election to the organization is considered one of the highest formal recognitions of artistic merit in the nation. Names of nominees are first submitted to the members in their field of discipline; those who garner the highest number of votes from their peers are then placed on a ballot for election by the entire membership.

Schwantner is one of nine individuals to receive the honor this year. The other new electees are writers Robert Hass, Romulus Linney, George Plimpton and Edward Said; artists Richard Artschwager, Leon Golub and Catherine Murphy; and composer Christopher Rouse.

News of the Yale professor's election follows on the heels of the announcement that three current students and two alumni of the School of Music have won prestigious fellowships of $7,500 each from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. They and Schwantner will receive their honors at the academy's annual ceremony in May.

Schwantner has garnered many prizes and awards for his musical compositions, including two Gram-my nominations, two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His works have been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic; the Boston, Saint Louis and Dallas symphonies; the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and the American Composers' Orchestra. His compositions have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the United States, and by such acclaimed artists as Leonard Slatkin, Emanuel Ax, Dawn Upshaw, Pinchas Zukerman and John Williams, among others.

Schwantner served on the faculties of Skidmore and Ithaca colleges, the Juilliard School, and the Eastman School of Music, where he holds the position of professor emeritus of composition. He joined the Yale School of Music faculty in 1999.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 to "foster, assist, and sustain an interest in literature, music, and the fine arts." Yale English professor and poet John Hollander serves as secretary of the organization.

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