We are pleased to share that numerous graduate composers have won recent awards, residencies, commissions, and more. Read more about their accomplishments below -- congratulations to all!
Hunter Brown:
Conferences, Residencies, Talks
ATLANTICX Residency for Experimentation and Co-Creation in Buenos Aires to create a new work with Argentinian Choreographer Edgardo Mercado and Video Artist Jorge Castro (December 2023)
Performance at Sound and Music Computing, Stockholm SWE (June 2023)
University of California San Diego Music Department: Lecture: Digital Materiality in Practice
Performance at Sound and Music Computing, Stockholm SWE (June 2023)
Job Appointments
Assistant Visiting Professor of Computer Music & Digital Art at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Spring 2023)
Performances
Solo at Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Darmstadt DEU
Solo at Petersburg Art Space, Berlin DEU
Solo at NOT.GLI.TC/H, Tritriangle, Chicago IL
Recordings
Hunter Brown and Jakob Heinemann, Party Perfect Records (2023)
Hunter Brown, Stoppages Vol. 1 [∞], Party Perfect Records (2023)
Technical Reserve, Personal Watercraft, Party Perfect Records (2023)
2023 Technical + Production Work
High Desert Soundings Festival, Joshua Tree CA - Live sound engineer
Michelle Lou with Tak Ensemble: The Clemente, New York City NY - Interactive Software Design, Live Electronics Performance, and Multichannel Sound Diffusion for Michelle Lou’s Forests
Ensemble Dal Niente: Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Chicago IL - Live Electronics and Multichannel Sound Diffusion for Nicole Mitchell’s Southside Love Letter
Ensemble Dal Niente: Works by Stanford University Composers, Chicago IL - Multichannel Sound Diffusion
Ensemble Dal Niente: Bowling Green New Music Festival, Bowling Green OH - Interactive Software Design, Live Electronics Performance, and Multichannel Sound. Diffusion for Marcos Balter’s Meltdown Upshot and Michelle Lou’s Untitled.
Ensemble Dal Niente: Black Box Music at Epiphany Center for the Arts, Chicago IL - Interactive Software Design, Live Electronics Performance, and Multichannel Sound Diffusion for Michelle Lou’s Untitled along with Video Projections for Simon Steen-Andersen’s Black Box Music
Ensemble Dal Niente: Carleton College Residency, Carleton MN - Live Electronics Performance and Analog Synthesizer programming for Sarah Nemstov’s Zimmer IV for alto flute and 3 analog synthesizers
Ensemble Dal Niente: Studio Recordings of Joël-François Durand’s MUNDUS IMAGINALIS - Assistant Recording Engineer
Paul Novak:
Awards
Orchestral composition longing is an aviary received two top awards: The Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award from the BMI Composer Awards, and the Leo Kaplan Award from the ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Awards
Barlow Endowment Commission
U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” Composition Competition, Winner
International Clarinet Association Composition Competition, Winner
Quatuor Molinari International Composition Competition, Winner
New York Youth Symphony “First Music” Commission, Honorable Mention
Commissions
Orchestra of St. Luke’s (DeGaetano Institute) (2024 - upcoming)
Balourdet Quartet (2024 - upcoming)
Quatuor Lontano
Dmitri Atapine/University of Nevada School of Music
InfraSound Ensemble
Performances
Reno Philharmonic, Orchestra of the League of Composers, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Decoda, Musiqa, LYNX, Ekmeles, Sandbox Percussion, Tempo Ensemble, Blackbox Ensemble, Dmitri Atapine, US Army Band, InfraSound Ensemble, confluss, Blueshift Ensemble, ACHROME, Matchstick Percussion, a straight line ensemble, Quatuor Lontano, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Winston Choi, Quatuor Molinari, and Cortona Collective. Upcoming performances in 24/25 include shows at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Festivals/Residencies
Orchestra of St. Luke’s DeGaetano Composition Institute (2025 — upcoming)
Aspen Music Festival, Composition Fellow (2024 — upcoming)
Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Fellow - Residency with Balourdet Quartet
Millay Arts Residency, Fellow
Recordings
Kinetic Ensemble — Kinetic (Bright Shiny Things) featuring a string quartet is like a flock of birds for string quartet; debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Classical Chart
Kari Watson:
Awards & Prizes
2023 Kranichstein Music Prize for Composition from the Darmstädter Ferienkurse
2023 Nerenberg, Gerts and Hammond Prize from the Musicians Club of Women
Profiled as one of “23 Composers and Performers to watch in 2023” by the Washington Post (2023)
Recipient of 2024 Heifetz Memorial Award
Artist Talks and Presentations
Royal Academy of Music in London, Composition Seminar Presentation (May 2024)
University of Leeds - pre concert talk (May 2024)
Berklee School of Music - Graduate Composition Seminar Presentation (April 2024)
Columbia College of Chicago, Music Department Composition Seminar Presentation (February 2024)
Work Experience
Audio Technician and Engineering Intern, Aphorism Productions, 2023-
Recent Workshops, Programs and Residencies
Darmstädter Ferienkurse, 2023
Ravinia Festival, Breaking Barriers Festival with Marin Alsop, 2023
Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, 2023
Frequency Festival, Chicago, IL, 2022, 2023
Notable Performances
on modular synth:
TETHER for three modular synthesizers, dancer, and live projections premiered on a headlining show at Constellation on the 2023 Frequency Festival in Chicago, IL.
Duo set with Katinka Kleijn at Elastic Arts on the Pleiades Series.
Darmstadt Festival solo performance
by external ensembles:
Leeds (UK) LS2 Ensemble gives UK premier of “The Wild Iris”
Dal Niente premiers “a door has no inside” on the 2024 Frequency Festival
MIVOS Quartet selects Three Places for String Quartet from their call for scores for European premier at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2023.
Marin Alsop and the Chicago Philharmonic select About the Wreck (2023) from the New Music USA call for scores for workshopping and premiering at the 2023 Ravinia Festival.
Forthcoming Releases
Portrait Album of works for chamber ensemble with electronics - Sawyer Editions, forthcoming Jan 2025
Tape of Modular Synth Music - Play & Ceremony, forthcoming October 2024
Commissions
Untitled, a commission for violinists Sarah Saviet and Maya Bennardo to premier at the Darmstadt festival in July of 2025.
Cyborg Manifesto, a commission for percussionist Jen Torrance made with video artist Lua Borges solo percussion, video, and electronics. Premier upcoming Darmstadt, DE in July of 2025.
untitled, a commission for Yarn/Wire’s 2025 Currents Series for premier in May, 2025 in NYC, NY.
Untitled, a commission from Line Upon Line for their 2025 Winter Composer’s Festival in Austin, TX.
Untitled, a new work for Grossman Ensemble to premier in March of 2025.
Justin Weiss:
Awards
American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Scholarship recipient
Foundation Prince Pierre de Monaco Musical Contest, Nominee (for Multitudes), 2023
Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, Prix Language Musical, Prix Spectacle, 2023
SCI Composition Mixtape, Honorable Mention, 2023
Tribeca New Music Young Composer Competition, Merit Award, 2023
Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, Full Scholarship, 2023
The American Prize, Finalist in Orchestral Composition
ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition, Finalist, 2024
Job Appointments
Appointed Adjunct Professor of Music Theory and Ear Training at William Paterson University
Presentations
Music Theory Southeast and South Central Society for Music Theory, Presentation of “Listening to Listening: Silence in the Music of Rebecca Saunders,” March 2024.
MGMC Conference, Presentation of “Listening to Listening: Silence in the Music of Rebecca Saunders,” March-April, 2023.
Manhattan International Composers Conference, Presentation of “Abstraction and Translation of Visual Art into Sound: Explorations in My Recent Compositional Work,” May 2024.
Performances
Premieres with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, Grossman Ensemble, Calliope Brass (including forthcoming recording), TAK Ensemble, CHIMEFest (Sophie McMillan Myers), Members of the Albany Symphony, Ekmeles, and Sandbox Percussion.
Recordings
Calliope Brass — Upcoming Album, Second Nature, with Parma Recordings featuring Intersections for Brass Quintet (Fall 2024)
Do you have award, residency, or commission updates we missed? Contact Sophia Janevic (sjanevic@uchicago.edu) with information.