Walk of Fame

Inducted: 2025

David Serkin Ludwig is a celebrated composer from a noble musical heritage – uncle Peter Serkin, grandfather Rudolf Serkin (who has his own star on Broad Street), and great-grandfather Adolf Busch. His passionate music needs no familial help, though, since his creative imagination has resulted in dozens of stunning works for orchestra, chorus, film, chamber groups, and even a work “The Anchoress” written for two of our local ensembles, the PRISM saxophone quartet and the Renaissance band Piffaro. His music has been called “evocative of memory and mystery” by the Washington Post and “charming, dramatic, and imaginative” by the New York Times. And Peter Dobrin of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote “David Serkin Ludwig has an ear for beauty… the music floats sadly, beautifully, and with a small but keenly felt building toward hope.”

Ludwig spent the first twelve years of his life in Bucks County. The youngest of four children, he is the son of college professor and clinical sociologist Elizabeth Serkin and US District Judge Edmund Ludwig. He attended Oberlin, the University of Vienna, and the Manhattan School of Music before entering Curtis, and then attended Juilliard and the University of Pennsylvania for his PhD. He served on the composition faculty at Curtis – where his grandfather had been director – for nearly twenty years, helping bring a culture of contemporary music to the school. Then, in 2021, after a long search, Ludwig was appointed to the position of Dean of Music at New York’s Juilliard School where he also serves as chair of the composition department.

Serkin’s diverse compositional palette has an emotional core, a passionate energy, and a native instinct for connecting with listeners and performers. A tiny sample of his many works are “Pictures from the Floating World,” written for the Philadelphia Orchestra; “The New Colossus,” written for President Obama’s second inaugural; and a violin concerto written for his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, that’s been performed by over twenty orchestras. He has scored film and ballet and has works featured on nearly two dozen recordings. A full list of Ludwig’s awards and honors would triple the space allotted here. Some recent ones include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Stoeger Prize, an award in music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and recognition as a Steinway Artist. He has held residencies with over scores of music festivals and major orchestras, both here in the US and overseas. While in Philadelphia he was awarded prestigious fellowships, twice by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, as well as the DuPont award for significant contributions to contemporary orchestra music.

Ludwig has been engaged by some of the most renowned soloists, orchestras, and chamber ensembles in the world, all confident that his dramatic, urgent music, will continue this remarkable creative journey. Since 2021, he has lived in New York city with his wife Bella and their four beloved cats, and he has remained and always will be a die-hard Phillies fan.