EAMA

Leadership

Board of Directors

  • Brian Shea, Chairman
  • Pamela Barrett-Lasser, Treasurer & Acting Secretary
  • Philip Lasser
  • Seth Grosshandler
  • Cynthia Lilley
  • Wassila Guiga-Lotfi

Advisory Board

Cecilia Dupire

Alumni Board

Phil Cooke, Founding President
Derek David
Francesca Hilditch
Molly Joyce
Gillian Perry
Patrick Wickham

Philip Lasser, Institute Director

eama_lasser

Philip Lasser is a visionary composer native to French and American traditions.  His music, direct and undisguised, creates a unique sound world that blends together the colorful harmonies of French Impressionist sonorities and the dynamic rhythms and characteristics of American music.

Lasser’s works have also been performed by the Atlanta, Seattle, Boulder and Shreveport Symphonies, as well as The New York Chamber Symphony, and by artists including Simone Dinnerstein, Kristjan Järvi, Susanna Phillips, Elizabeth Futral, Margo Garrett, Lucy Shelton, Cho-Liang Lin, Zuill Bailey, Brian Zeger, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger and Sasha Cooke.  Lasser’s works can be heard on the Sony Classical, Telarc, New World, Crystal, and BMG RCA/Red Seal labels.

Early in his musical training, Lasser entered Nadia Boulanger’s famed Ecole d’Arts Americaines in Fontainebleau, France, where he began to establish his connection to the French lineage. Following his studies at Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude, Lasser lived in Paris while working with Boulanger’s closest colleague and disciple, Narcis Bonet, and legendary pianist Gaby Casadesus.  Lasser received his master’s degree from Columbia University, where he undertook intensive studies in counterpoint with René Leibowitz’s disciple, Jacques-Louis Monod, and later received his doctorate from The Juilliard School, where he studied with composer David Diamond.

Lasser is the author of “The Spiraling Tapestry: An Inquiry into the Contrapuntal Fabric of Music,” which brings new insights into the world of musical analysis. Since 1996, he has been the director of the European American Music Alliance (EAMA), a gifted communicator and educator, Dr. Lasser is dedicated to training young composers, chamber musicians, and conductors in the tradition of Nadia Boulanger.  He is also the artistic director of Suite Française, a performance group based in New York City that is dedicated to performing music in the French perspective through salon-type concerts.  Lasser has been a distinguished member of the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1994. He currently lives in New York City with his family.