• 2018: Juno nomination (Canada) for Best Jazz Album: Live at U of T with Mike Murley
• 2016: Education Update Distinguished Leader in Education
• 2015: Jazz Ed Magazine Reader’s Poll Winner- Soprano Saxophone 
• 2013: Jazz Educators Network (JEN) Legends of Jazz
• 2011: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Masters of Jazz
• 2011: First place Soprano Sax category Jazz Times and Downbeat Critics’s Poll
• 2011: DL Group – Best Live Performance All About Jazz and NY Jazz
• 2010: Jazz Man of the Year – All About Jazz, New York City
• 2010: Best Record of The Year-German Jazz Critics for Turnaround – Liebman Group Plays the Music of Ornette Coleman
• 2009: Order of Arts and Letters from the French government
• 2007: Jazz Journalist’s Award for Best Soprano Sax
• 2005: Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Grant to individual artists
• 2004: Grammy nomination for performance of Jim McNeely’s arrangement of “Sing, Sing, Sing”, from Beyond The Line – Dave Liebman Big Band (Omnitone)
• 2001: Fred Waring Award from Celebration of the Arts, which organizes a yearly festival in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania where Liebman resides for outstanding contributions to the arts and community
• 2000: Inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Association of Jazz Educators for contributions to jazz pedagogy
• 1998: Grammy nomination in the category of Best Jazz Solo for the recording of “My Favorite Things” from Thank You, John (Arkadia Records)
• 1997: Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; the first ever given to a jazz artist
• 1991: National Endowment of the Arts grant for performance
• 1988: Record of the Year from the French Jazz Academy for Homage to Coltrane (Owl Records)
• 1981: National Endowment of the Arts grant for composition
• 1976: Downbeat Group Deserving of Wider Recognition – Lookout Farm