Benjamin Krause Honored as MTNA Distinguished Composer of the Year

Former LSM faculty member Benjamin Krause has been named the Thomas Ediger Distinguished Composer of the Year for his composition, Spaces Real or Imagined by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). Krause was recognized at the 2026 MTNA National Conference in Chicago, Illinois, held March 21–25, where he performed his piece in concert on piano along with clarinetist Gary June. Congratulations, Ben!

Commissioned by the Michigan Music Teachers Association, Spaces Real or Imagined is a collection of five pieces inspired by a special exhibit of the paintings of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908—1992) at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Each movement responds to and is titled after a particular painting, and, through a sort of musical ekphrasis, aims to translate its visual language into the musical.

“Vieira da Silva’s work grapples with the tensions between realism and abstraction; between the world as it is and the world as it may be imagined,” says Krause. “It is within these tensions, sonically conceived, that the pieces of Spaces Real or Imagined live.”

Composer and pianist Benjamin Krause’s music has been performed by the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Chamber Players, and Philadelphia’s Network for New Music, among other leading ensembles and organizations. He has received a Copland House Residency Award, the Houston Symphony Emerging Composer Award, a Presser Foundation Award, and was named the Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association in 2019. His work has been supported through residencies at the Brush Creek Arts Foundation and at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, where he was awarded a Distinguished Artist Fellowship.

Learn more about Krause at https://www.benkrause.com