Nina C. Young

New York-based composer Nina C. Young (b.1984) writes music characterized by an acute sensitivity to tone color, manifested in aural images of vibrant, arresting immediacy. Her experience in the electronic music studio informs her acoustic work, which takes as its given not melody and harmony, but sound itself, continuously metamorphosing from one state to another. Young’s interests are now headed in the direction of collaborative, multidisciplinary works. While in Rome, Young worked with choreographer Miro Magloire and the New Chamber Ballet to develop a site-specific piece, Temenos, around the intersection of movement, architecture, and sound at the Tempietto Del Bramante. This fall Young worked with the Aldeburgh Music Center to participate in the Britten-Pears New Music New Media Program where she worked with Irvine Arditti and IRCAM to develop a piece around unique spatialization and sound diffusion techniques.

Young’s music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the Inscape Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orkest de ereprijs, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Either/Or, Ensemble de Musique Interactive, the JACK Quartet, mise-en, Scharoun, Sixtrum, and Yarn/Wire. Winner of the 2015-16 Rome Prize in Musical Composition, Young has received a Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Award, Aspen Music Festival’s Jacob Druckman Prize, and honors from BMI, The International Alliance for Women in Music, and ASCAP/SEAMUS. Her orchestral work Remnants received the Audience Choice Award at the ACO’s 2013 Underwood New Music Readings. Young has held fellowship residencies at the Aspen Music Festival, The Atlantic Music Festival, the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, the Nouvel Ensemble Modern’s 2014 FORUM, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Young is completing her DMA at Columbia University with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Brad Garton. She is an active participant at the Columbia Computer Music Center where she teaches electronic music. In 2011 she earned a Master’s degree in music composition from McGill University, studying with Sean Ferguson.