KATHERINE BALCH
Katherine Balch (b. 1991) writes music that aims to capture the intimacy of existence through sound. Often influenced by the extra-musical arts, philosophy, and literature, she seeks a heterogenous yet formally cohesive aesthetic that blends lyricism with textural landscapes. Katherine's music has been commissioned and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony (First Music Commission), American Composer's Orchestra (Underwood Readings), Ensemble Intercontemporain (IRCAM ManiFeste), Collage New Music, the Yale Camerata and Philharmonia, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Antico Moderno, and the FLUX Quartet . Upcoming projects for the 2016-17 season include new works for the Tokyo Symphony and Albany Symphony Orchestra, a residency with the MANCA festival in Nice, France, and a collaboration with NYC-based Bearthoven trio. Katherine received her B.A/ B.M in the Tufts/ New England Conservatory double degree program, where she double majored in history and political science at Tufts (summa cum laude) and studied composition at NEC (academic honors). Alongside teacher's assistantships at both schools, Katherine directed Tuesday Night New Music, NEC's student composer's series, for three years. Her principal teachers were Kati Agócs, John McDonald, and Stratis Minakakis.. She recently completed her M.M at Yale School of Music as a Charles H. Ditson fellow, where she studied with Aaron Jay Kernis, Chris Theofanidis, and David Lang, and will begin her D.M.A in composition at Columbia University in the fall as a Dean's Fellow, studying with Georg Haas. Passionate about education at all levels, she is a faculty member of the Walden School in Dublin, New Hampshire.
Responding to The Waves, for solo violin (2016)
Michiko Theurer, violin