Composer/conductor DONALD CROCKETT was born in Pasadena, California in 1951. He has received commissions from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Composer-in-Residence 1991-97), the Kronos Quartet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Stanford String Quartet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Charlotte Symphony, Music from Angel Fire, the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East, and the California EAR Unit, among many others. Recent projects include commissions from the Hilliard Ensemble, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and a work for piano and orchestra commissioned by the University of Southern California for its 125th anniversary. His music has also been widely performed by ensembles including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Collage, Xtet, and the Arditti Quartet, at the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Piccolo Spoleto festivals, and by artists including violinist Ida Kavafian, mezzo-soprano Janice Felty, oboist Allan Vogel, and conductors Jorge Mester, JoAnn Falletta, Hugh Wolff, Sergiu Comissiona, Jeffrey Kahane, and Christof Perick. He has received the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a commission from the Barlow Endowment, an Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council, an Aaron Copland Award and the first Sylvia Goldstein Award from the Copland House, a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, as well as grants and awards from the American Music Center, BMI, Composers Inc., the Copland Fund, Meet the Composer, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His music is published by MMB Music, St. Louis and recorded on the Albany, CRI, ECM, Laurel, Orion, and Pro Arte/Fanfare labels.

Also active as a conductor of new music, Donald Crockett has presented many world, national, and regional premieres with the Los Angeles-based new music ensemble Xtet, the USC Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble, and as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Hilliard Ensemble, the California EAR Unit, and the USC Thornton Symphony. His recordings as a conductor can be found on the ECM, New World, and CRI labels.

Donald Crockett is currently Chair of the Composition Department and Director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and Senior Composer-in-Residence with the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East.