Composers Win Charles Ives Awards

Katherine Balch (DMA Composition student) and Sky Macklay (DMA Composition) have both received Charles Ives Scholarships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. These scholarships of $7500 are given to composition students of great promise.

Balch’s music has been performed by a variety of ensembles in the United States and abroad, including the Albany Symphony Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, FLUX quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain, American Modern Ensemble, New York Youth Symphony, Yale Camerata, Yale Philharmonia, ICE, Alea III, Antico Moderno, and the New York Virtuoso Singers, among others. Upcoming projects include a new piece for the Albany Symphony Orchestra, collaborations with Contemporaneous, CIRM/ MANCA festival in Nice, France, and violinist Michio Theurer on a multi-media project based on Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Balch has also been named the California Symphony's Young American Composer-in-Residence for the three-year period from August 1, 2017 through July 31, 2020. Read that full announcement here.

Macklay is currently pursuing her DMA in composition at Columbia University where she studies with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, and Fred Lerdahl. She is also a 2015-17 Composers and the Voice Fellow with American Opera Projects.Her music explores bold contrasts, audible processes, humor, and the physicality of sound. Her works have been performed by ensembles such as ICE, Yarn/Wire, Wet Ink Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Dal Niente, The Da Capo Chamber Players, and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.Macklay was recently interviewed by Brendan Howe of VAN Magazine, and discussed "poking fun at hierarchies, authorial intent, and exploring politically charged topics as an artist." For the full interview, click here.