Student conductor, brown hair in a bun, black button up collared shirt, directing concert ban with baton against dark background.

Kurt Rohde

Smiling middle-aged man with glasses and knit cap, brown jacket outdoors

Professor of Music
(On Sabbatical Fall 2026)

  • Music
he/him/his/they/them
Room 1109, Music Annex

A native of the Hudson Valley, musician Kurt Rohde lives in San Francisco with spouse Tim and dog Hendrix on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Kurt is the founding Artistic Director and violist of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Artistic Director of the Composers Conference, and is a Professor of Music Composition at UC Davis. Kurt has received the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, fellowships from the Radcliffe-Harvard Institute for Advanced Study and Guggenheim Foundation, and awards from American Academy of Arts and Letters, Barlow, Fromm, Hanson and Koussevitzky Foundations, New Music USA, Chamber Music America, National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital. Kurt’s current projects are a constellation of new works written for friends, ranging from music for solo piano to a duo for violin and cello, an evening length work for small mixed ensemble and voice to a work for virtuoso a cappella voices, a chamber concerto for harp and large ensemble to a double concerto for viola and alto saxophone. 

Professor Rohde’s teaching philosophy reflects the symbiotic relationship between scholarship and practice—the connections between how one composes, performs, investigates, and communicates. He is committed to the practice of diversity and equity in the field of music and the academic community at large, and believes that the pluralism of our society and culture is a strength that must be nurtured and explored.

Google Map Link to Rohde's Office

Awards and Honors

  • SEED Grant from UCD Global Affairs, 2024-2025
  • Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress Commission Award, 1999, 2024
  • New Music USA Creator Fund, 2017, 2024
  • San Francisco Arts Commission, New Creative Opportunities Grant, 2023
  • National Endowment for the Arts Commission Award, 2022
  • Creative Capital Award, 2022
  • Chamber Music America Classical Commission Award, 2018
  • Fromm Foundation of Harvard University Commission Award, 1999, 2015
  • Academy Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2015
  • Barlow Endowment for Music Composition Commission Award, 2001, 2007, 2012
  • Radcliffe-Harvard Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, 2012–13
  • UC Davis Jan & Beta Popper Fellowship, 2014–2017
  • UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellowship, 2012–16
  • Lydian String Quartet Commission Prize, 2012
  • Meet the Composer Commissioning Music/USA Commission Award, 2011
  • American Academy in Rome, Elliott Carter Rome Prize in Music Composition, 2008–09
  • Charles Ives Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2008
  • Walter Hinrichsen Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2003
  • Berlin Prize Fellowship, American Academy in Berlin, 2003
  • Hanson Institute for American Music Commission Award, 2002
  • Guggenheim Fellowship, 2000
  • First Prize, Lydian String Quartet Composition Contest, 1999