Kati Agócs (Canada)
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Composer Kati Agócs was born 1975 in Windsor, Canada, of Hungarian and
American background, and has been on the composition faculty of the New
England Conservatory in Boston since 2008. Bridging the gap between
lapidary rigor and sensuous lyricism, her music is performed all over the
world by leading musicians and ensembles. The Boston Globe recently
described it as "moving and taut" and "music of fluidity and austere
beauty," while Boston's The Hub Review described her orchestral music as
"gorgeous". The New York Times has characterized it as "striking" and
"filled with attractive ideas" and has described her vocal music as
possessing "an almost 19th-century naturalness." Fanfare magazine recently
described her violin-piano duet Supernatural Love as "serene and unworldly,
exploring space with sound in a way that seems to evoke the time before the
universe hosted life." A citation from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters for the Charles Ives Fellowship in 2008 praised the "melody, drama,
and clear design" of her music, its "soulful directness", and its
"naturalness of dissonance."
Recent commissions include Vessel at Symphony Space in New York,
Shenanigan for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (Hamilton, Ontario), a
new work with amplified solo cello and recorded sound for Ensemble de
Flûtes Alizé (Montréal), Perpetual Summer for the National Youth Orchestra
of Canada's 50th Anniversary, Elysium for the National Arts Centre's
Cultural Olympiad (Vancouver), Requiem Fragments for the CBC Radio
Orchestra (Vancouver), I and Thou for the Chamber Ensemble of the Orchestra
of St. Luke's (New York), ...like treasure hidden in a field for the
American Composers Orchestra (New York), By the Streams of Babylon for the
Albany Symphony, Immutable Dreams for the Da Capo Chamber Players (New
York), Division of Heaven and Earth for pianist Fredrik Ullén (Stockholm,
Sweden), Supernatural Love for Duo Concertante (St. John's, Newfoundand),
As Biddeth Thy Tongue for saxophonist Timothy McAllister, and new works for
the Autumn Festival in Budapest, Hungary, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the
Juilliard School (for its annual Irene Diamond Concert). Agócs has been
Composer-in Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (50th
Anniversary Season in 2010) and with the Spartanburg Philharmonic
Orchestra, through the 'Music Alive: New Partnerships' program of Meet the
Composer and the League of American Orchestras. Perpetual Summer was
awarded Special Distinction in ASCAP's Rudolph Nissim Prize for 2011, one
of only three works selected by a jury of conductors out of over 260
anonymously-submitted new orchestral scores. Last season the Grammy-winning
chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird toured nationally with her quintet
Immutable Dreams. The work has been programmed by over eight different
ensembles since its premiere in 2007.
Awards include an inaugural 2009 Brother Thomas Fellowship from the Boston
Foundation, a 2008 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters, ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Fellowship at the Tanglewood
Music Center, multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, a
Fulbright Fellowship to the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Jacob K.
Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, a New York
Foundation for the Arts Composition fellowship, a Jerome Foundation
commission, Presser Foundation Award, and honors from ASCAP in their Morton
Gould Young Composer Awards. Fellowships and residencies include the Great
Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (Yale Summer
School of Music), Aspen Music Festival, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Dartington
International Music Festival (U.K.), and Virginia Arts Festival. On two
occasions while attending Juilliard, Kati Agócs had her orchestral works
premiered by the Juilliard Symphony in Alice Tully Hall as a winner of the
annual composer's competition. In 2004, she spearheaded a groundbreaking
exchange program between Juilliard and the Liszt Academy in Budapest that
still continues today. She has written on recent American and Hungarian
music for Tempo and The Musical Times.
Kati Agócs earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Masters degrees from The
Juilliard School, where her principal teacher was Milton Babbitt. She is
also an alumna of the Aspen Music School, Tanglewood Music Festival, Lester
B. Pearson College of the Pacific (one of the United World Colleges), and
Sarah Lawrence College, all of which she attended on full scholarship. From
2006 through 2008 she taught at the School of Music, Memorial University of
Newfoundland. She is on the composition faculty of The New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, and maintains a work studio in the village
of Flatrock, near St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.