UNLV associate professor of music David Loeb has been awarded the 2011 Nevada System of Higher Education Regents’ Award for Creative Activity.
The award honors significant accomplishments that bring recognition as well as national and international stature to the Nevada System of Higher Education. The honoree receives a $5,000 stipend and a medal.
Loeb, who serves as UNLV’s director of jazz studies, conducts the university’s jazz ensembles and is an instructor of jazz piano and jazz composition. As a jazz pianist, he has performed with a number of renowned jazz artists, including Freddie Hubbard, Tom Scott, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Tom Harrell, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, and Anita O’Day.
Loeb, who is the 21st UNLV recipient of the creative activity award, is a successful studio keyboardist and has played for such television shows as “Hill Street Blues,” “Quantum Leap,” and “Family Guy.” He has also performed for feature films, including “The Birdcage” and “Pocahontas.” He orchestrated for George Benson and Doc Severinsen and arranged music for the Academy Awards and the American Music Awards. He also composed music for notable PBS television documentaries and for Dolly Parton’s album, “Rainbow.”
Loeb has performed as principal keyboardist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and accompanied several musical artists, including Andrea Bocelli, Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Jewel, Herbie Hancock, Placido Domingo, David Foster, Diana Ross, and Jessye Norman. He was also a guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra for Grammy-award winning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and with the National Symphony Orchestra for the Tony-award winning entertainer Ben Vereen.
Under Loeb’s direction, UNLV’s jazz studies program has received numerous honors and has achieved national recognition, including winning the prestigious DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for large ensemble graduate college outstanding performance.
