Discipline: Music Composition

Emily Koh

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Atlanta, GA
MacDowell Fellowships: 2018

Emily Koh is a Singaporean composer. Her music is characterized by inventive explorations of the smallest details of sound. In addition to writing acoustic and electronic concert music, she enjoys collaborating on projects where sound plays an important role in the creative process. Described as ‘the future of composing’ (The Straits Times, Singapore), she is the recipient of awards such as the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, commissions from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition and grants from New Music USA, Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy and Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence, among others. Emily Koh’s works have been described as “beautifully eerie” (The New York Times), and “subtley spicy” (Baltimore Sun), and have been performed at various venues around the world in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Switzerland, Finland, Greece, Israel, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.

At MacDowell, Kohh composed a solo organ piece for Phoon Yu's "Clavierubung III" project, to be performed in Singapore in August, and a new work for solo saxophone with live electronics and video, commissioned by Noa Even, and in collaboration with Michiko Saiki. The work will feature in Even's 2018/19 season.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Emily Koh worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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