Biography

Composer and theorist Richard Drehoff Jr.’s music has been commissioned by leading ensembles and organizations including the U.S. Library of Congress, the Durham Symphony Orchestra, and the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. His work has been premiered by Talea Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, oboist Andy Nogal, Bergamot Quartet, and Ensemble Paramirabo, amongst others. Other recent accolades include residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, a composition fellowship from the James Tenney Memorial Symposium, multiple grants from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and finalist awards from both the American Prize in Composition and ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer program.

As Co-Director of earspace, a chamber ensemble dedicated to the cultivation of immersive performances of contemporary compositions, Drehoff actively curates programs of modern repertoire, regularly collaborating with living composers. The ensemble has commissioned pieces by Luis Fernando Amaya, D. Edward Davis, inti figgis-vizueta, Maria Kaoutazni, Michal Massoud, and Elijah Daniel Smith, and the group regularly presents the work of today’s leading composers. Drehoff often performs with earspace as a pianist, presenting works by Hans Abrahamsen, Henry Cowell, Cody Criswell, George Crumb, Donnacha Dennehy, Simon Holt, and Kaija Saariaho. Recent and upcoming residencies include Duke University, Towson University, the University of North Carolina, and University of South Carolina.

Drehoff’s current research focuses on the listener perceptions of tension through comparative lenses timbre, harmonic roughness, and semantics to better understand how listener prioritize elements of music. His papers exploring timbre and the works of Pierre Boulez, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Chaya Czernowin from the vantage points of semiotics, perception, and timbre have been presented at annual meetings of the Society of Music Theory (2022), the International Conference on Timbre (2023), the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic (2019, 2021, 2023, 2024), and the Music Theory Society of New York State (2023).

Drehoff is an Assistant Professor of Ear Training in the Department of Music Theory at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Prior to his appointment at Peabody, he taught music fundamentals at the University of Maryland, College Park. He holds degrees in composition (Peabody DMA 2024, MM 2018), music theory pedagogy (Peabody MM 2018), and in music and mathematics (University of North Carolina, BM 2013). He includes among his mentors Michael Hersch, Jenine Brown, Felipe Lara, Severine Neff, Ildar Khannanov, Kip Wile, Evan Feldman, and Stephen R. Anderson.