James Dashow and Anna Silvia Bombi Dashow Establish Endowment at NYU Steinhardt to Support Mid- and Late-Career Composers

James Dashow, composer and pioneer in electroacoustic music, and his wife, Anna Silvia Bombi, have established the James Dashow and Anna Silvia Bombi Dashow Endowment Fund at NYU Steinhardt.

Their generous gift includes an archive of compositions and related material from Dashow’s celebrated 60-year career and will launch a biennial commissioning program for new musical works by composers of any nationality, with a preference for those who are in the middle and later phases of their careers. Full details on the commissioning program will be announced in November 2026, with the first commissions to be awarded in December 2027. 

As the Dashow-Bombi Endowment grows over time, the fund will support a biennial fellowship program for graduate students enrolled in NYU Steinhardt’s composition program, offering the advantages of living and studying abroad. The endowment may also fund bringing commissioned composers, as well as acclaimed composers and interpreters of contemporary music, to NYU Steinhardt for performances, presentations, masterclasses and workshops. 

“The goal of the Dashow-Bombi Endowment is to support the continuing development of contemporary art music with these commissions while also offering significant international experiences for music composition students,” says Dashow. “The Endowment is thus creating a legacy at Steinhardt that will yield important new musical works from composers who have found their voice while providing life-changing opportunities for student composers.”

For Steinhardt, the Dashow-Bombi Endowment provides continuing resources that will significantly enhance the profile of the School’s dynamic Music Composition and Music Technology programs, which are part of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions (MPAP).

“The establishment of the James Dashow and Anna Silvia Bombi Dashow Endowment Fund represents an extraordinary investment in the future of musical creativity,” says Jack H. Knott, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of NYU Steinhardt. “By creating a commissioning program of this kind and caliber, they are addressing a critical need in the artistic community: providing accomplished composers with the resources, recognition, and freedom to continue producing significant new work. Their generosity will not only enrich our community but will also leave a lasting impact on the broader musical landscape for generations to come.”

“We are so thankful to James Dashow and Anna Silvia Bombi Dashow for their extraordinary gift. For today's composers and their most dedicated interpreters, their generosity makes possible the most profound opportunities for creativity and collaboration,” says Marilyn Nonken, chair of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. “I am so proud that James has chosen NYU to protect his legacy, and it is absolutely an honor to uphold his commitment to the audiences of tomorrow."

A celebrated composer of electroacoustic music, instrumental music, and opera, James Dashow is a pioneer in the field of digitally synthesized electronic music. He was one of the founders of the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale at the University of Padova, where he composed the first works of computer music in Italy; he is also the inventor of the Dyad System, a compositional method and technique for developing pitch structures and integrating them functionally in electronic sounds.

Anna Silvia Bombi is a retired professor from the Sapienza University of Rome, where she taught Developmental and Educational Psychology. She is the author of numerous publications: Her books include The Child’s Construction of Economics, Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships, I Colori dell’Amicizia, and her articles have appeared in academic journals such as Child Development, Assessment, and Journal of Child and Family Studies.