Natalie Dietterich is a composer whose unconventional work with choir and large ensembles has earned her accolades such as the Leo Kaplan Prize from the ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the [‘tactus] Prize and the First Music Commission, along with fellowships at the Cabrillo Festival and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Cone Institute.
Dietterich has worked with nationally and internationally recognized ensembles such as the Luxembourg and Brussels philharmonics; the Seattle, Albany and Shanghai symphonies; Wild Up; and Ensemble Modern. Her collaborations have resulted in projects such as a short film released on PBS’s independent film series POV Shorts, an electro-acoustic guitar concerto featuring JIJI with a premiere at Carnegie Hall and an open-form live installation shown in museums throughout Europe, including Kunst im Tunnel (KIT) in Düsseldorf and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Ghent, as well as a permanent audio installation at Kunsthal Ghent since 2021.
Dietterich holds an M.M. and M.M.A. from the Yale School of Music and has recently been appointed to a full-time lecturer position at the Yale Department of Music. She publishes select works with Donemus Music Publishing.
While at MacDowell, she worked on the inception of her third symphony, inspired by the discovery and development of quantum dots, which was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Yekimov. The privacy of this place allowed for creativity to flow easily, the abundance of nature served as deep inspiration and rejuvenation, and the discourse among colleagues provided valuable insight into both this particular work and broader ideas about art and culture.
Portrait by Ben Viaperalta
