Derek Bermel

Derek Bermel (born 1967, in New York) is an American composer, clarinetist and conductor whose music blends various facets of world music, funk and jazz with largely classical performing forces and musical vocabulary. He is the recipient of various awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the prestigious Rome Prize awarded to American artists for a year-long residency in Rome, Italy (Note: This award is given by the American Academy in Rome and has nothing to do with the Prix de Rome awarded by the Paris Conservatoire to its student composers.).