Aaron Fruchtman

Musicology

Office: UMC-C304
e-mail: aaron.fruchtman@csulb.edu

Aaron Fruchtman is a musicologist and composer. Fruchtman earned his doctorate in musicology from the University of California, Riverside. He also holds degrees in music composition from UC Riverside (M.M.) and the Berklee College of Music (B.M.), as well as an Advanced Studies Certificate in Music for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California. His dissertation examines film scores of Jewish-themed films and their composers’ social and cultural world in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Fruchtman has presented his scholarship in papers at numerous conferences including the national meetings of the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music, as well as at NYU’s Music and the Moving Image, Youngstown State University’s Jewish Music and Identity, and UCLA’s Thinking Beyond the Canon. His essay titled, "Sounding the Shofar in Hollywood Film Scores" is included in the book Qol Tamid: The Shofar in Ritual, History, and Culture published by Claremont School of Theology Press (2017).

As a composer, Fruchtman has had his music performed throughout the country including a premiere of his The Journey for narrator, chorus, and orchestra at Lincoln Center.