IU alum to receive prestigious honor

Edgar Meyer, a 1984 graduate of the IU School of Music, will be one of 24 new recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship. Meyer, a well-known bassist and composer, has been reviewed by The New Yorker as "the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument," according to a press release.\nThe fellowship is awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and includes $500,000 in support over the next five years.\nMeyer has received several awards in the past as well, from Grammy awards for best classical crossover album in 2000 to the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1994, the first time this was presented to a bassist.\nMeyer has collaborated with such musical luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Bela Fleck, Mark O'Connor, James Taylor, Garth Brooks, Sam Bush, Mike Marshall and fellow IU School of Music alumnus Joshua Bell. He is currently visiting professor of double bass at the Royal Academy of Music in London and adjunct associate professor of double bass at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.\nThe MacArthur Fellowship is a five-year grant to individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. Since 1981, the program has honored 635 people ranging in age from 18-82 and with a broad variety of expertise. In addition to Meyer, for example, this year's honorees include a seismologist, a trombonist, a journalist, a molecular ecobiologist, a roboticist and an intellectual historian.