Kati Agócs
Encyclopedia
Kati Ilona Agócs is a composer
of contemporary classical music and faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music
in Boston, Massachusetts.
based on a visual art portfolio. In her junior year at Sarah Lawrence she changed her studies program to music. She attended the Juilliard School
from 1998 through 2005, earning masters and doctoral degrees. After attending the Aspen Music Festival and School
, in 2007 Agócs attended the Tanglewood Music Center
as the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellow. Her major composition teachers have been Milton Babbitt
(studying with Babbitt from 1999–2005), Robert Beaser
(1998–1999), and George Tsontakis
(1996–1998). She has received many composition awards: the most recent are a residency from Meet the Composer
’s 2009 New Partnerships program, a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation
, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a composition fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts
.
’s School of Music (2006–2008), and has been a member of the composition faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston since 2008. She maintains a work studio in Flatrock, Newfoundland.
, the American Composers Orchestra
, Eighth Blackbird
, the CBC Radio Orchestra
, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra
, the National Arts Centre Orchestra
, and the Albany Symphony. She was one of ten Canadian composers selected by CBC Radio to write a Prelude and Fugue for solo piano in honor of the 75th anniversary of Glenn Gould
. She has written on American music for Tempo and also created a critical edition of the Symphony in A Major by Leopold Damrosch
, father of Walter Damrosch, the founder of the Juilliard School
, for A-R Editions’s Recent Researches in American Music Series. In 2005-2006 she lived in Budapest
on a Fulbright Fellowship and wrote a candid inside glimpse of the new-music scene in Hungary
for The Musical Times. She had previously organized an exchange program between Juilliard and the Liszt Academy. As a result of these activities, the progressive Vienna-based Hungarian publication Bécsi Napló credited her with raising the visibility of Hungarian composers abroad.
as the second movement of her quintet Immutable Dreams, and tends toward harmonic richness and a wide expressive range. She sometimes performs her own works as a soprano soloist. The psalm setting By the Streams of Babylon, for orchestra with two sopranos, is the lament of a people in a foreign land who can no longer bring themselves to sing the hymns of their homeland. Elysium, a work for chamber orchestra and recorded audio tape, reflects the distinct cultural and physical environment of Newfoundland by interweaving original music with field recordings of elderly natives of the island describing shipwrecks along the coast. Agócs collaborates with instrumentalists to develop distinct techniques and musical colors. One of many such collaborations is her work with Bridget Kibbey to create a bluegrass piece for harp as part of the suite "Every Lover is a Warrior".
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of contemporary classical music and faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
in Boston, Massachusetts.
Early life
Kati Agócs was born in Windsor, Canada, and raised on a farm in Southwestern Ontario by Hungarian and American parents. Her father left Hungary after the 1956 uprising against the Stalinist government and traveled to Italy and the United States before finally settling in Canada.Education and Fellowships
Agócs left home at the age of sixteen to attend Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific (a United World College). She then accepted a full scholarship to Sarah Lawrence CollegeSarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
based on a visual art portfolio. In her junior year at Sarah Lawrence she changed her studies program to music. She attended the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
from 1998 through 2005, earning masters and doctoral degrees. After attending the Aspen Music Festival and School
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, in 2007 Agócs attended the Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
as the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellow. Her major composition teachers have been Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
(studying with Babbitt from 1999–2005), Robert Beaser
Robert Beaser
Robert Beaser is an American composer.-Biography:Beaser was brought up in a non-musical family. His father was a physician and mother was a chemist. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts where he distinguished himself at a young age as a percussionist, composer and conductor...
(1998–1999), and George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis is an American composer and conductor.Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome...
(1996–1998). She has received many composition awards: the most recent are a residency from Meet the Composer
Meet the Composer
Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...
’s 2009 New Partnerships program, a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation
The Boston Foundation
The Boston Foundation, founded in 1915, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation. Serving the Greater Boston area, it is made up of some 900 separate charitable funds established by thousands of donors over more than 90 years...
, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a composition fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
.
Teaching career
Agócs began her teaching career at Memorial University of NewfoundlandMemorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a comprehensive university located primarily in St...
’s School of Music (2006–2008), and has been a member of the composition faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston since 2008. She maintains a work studio in Flatrock, Newfoundland.
Performances and Scholarship
Orchestras and ensembles that have performed Agócs’s compositions include the Boston Modern Orchestra ProjectBoston Modern Orchestra Project
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...
, the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, Eighth Blackbird
Eighth blackbird
eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...
, the CBC Radio Orchestra
CBC Radio Orchestra
The CBC Radio Orchestra was a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia that was operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Until the early 1980s CBC had a number of orchestras located in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax but due to federal government budget cuts they...
, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra
Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra
The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra in Hamilton, Ontario.It was founded in 1949.Starting in 1969, under the leadership of Boris Brott, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra changed from an amateur ensemble to a professional orchestra. Brott raised the profile of the orchestra with...
, the National Arts Centre Orchestra
National Arts Centre Orchestra
The National Arts Centre Orchestra is an orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. It is a classically-sized ensemble currently conducted by Pinchas Zukerman.-Description:Since 1998, Pinchas Zukerman has been the Music Director. Mario Bernardi C.C...
, and the Albany Symphony. She was one of ten Canadian composers selected by CBC Radio to write a Prelude and Fugue for solo piano in honor of the 75th anniversary of Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
. She has written on American music for Tempo and also created a critical edition of the Symphony in A Major by Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch was a German American orchestral conductor.- Biography :Damrosch was born in Posen , Kingdom of Prussia, and began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor...
, father of Walter Damrosch, the founder of the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, for A-R Editions’s Recent Researches in American Music Series. In 2005-2006 she lived in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on a Fulbright Fellowship and wrote a candid inside glimpse of the new-music scene in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
for The Musical Times. She had previously organized an exchange program between Juilliard and the Liszt Academy. As a result of these activities, the progressive Vienna-based Hungarian publication Bécsi Napló credited her with raising the visibility of Hungarian composers abroad.
Music and Critical Reception
In Agócs’s music one hears an affinity with vocal impulses, and frequent cross-pollination with literature. She dialogues with earlier composers, including a homage to György LigetiGyörgy Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
as the second movement of her quintet Immutable Dreams, and tends toward harmonic richness and a wide expressive range. She sometimes performs her own works as a soprano soloist. The psalm setting By the Streams of Babylon, for orchestra with two sopranos, is the lament of a people in a foreign land who can no longer bring themselves to sing the hymns of their homeland. Elysium, a work for chamber orchestra and recorded audio tape, reflects the distinct cultural and physical environment of Newfoundland by interweaving original music with field recordings of elderly natives of the island describing shipwrecks along the coast. Agócs collaborates with instrumentalists to develop distinct techniques and musical colors. One of many such collaborations is her work with Bridget Kibbey to create a bluegrass piece for harp as part of the suite "Every Lover is a Warrior".
Media
External links
- Kati Agócs Personal Web Site
- New England Conservatory Faculty Web Site
- 2009 Boston Globe review of Boston Modern Orchestra Project with Kati Agócs and Lisa Bielawa as soprano soloists (performing By the Streams of Babylon)
- 2007 Boston Globe article ‘Composing in the Computer Age’, interviewing the Tanglewood composition fellows
- 2009 Profile article in Barcelona-based music publication Sonograma
- 2008 CBC News article on Charles Ives Fellowship