Reena Esmail is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pianist and composer

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...

.

Biography

Esmail was born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School, studying composition with Susan Botti, Christopher Rouse

Christopher Rouse

Christopher Rouse is an American composer.-Biography:Rouse studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1971, and later completed graduate degrees under Karel Husa at Cornell University in 1977. In between, Rouse studied privately with George Crumb...

 and Samuel Adler

Samuel Adler (composer)

Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...

. Esmail continued her education in composition at the Yale School of Music

Yale School of Music

The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....

 with Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...

 and Christopher Theofanidis, and also studied violin under Ella Rutkovsky-Heifets. In 2006 Esmail took a teaching position at Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

 Precollege where she taught music theory, ear training and composition.

Esmail’s has performed as a pianist in chamber ensembles and also as a singer. Her compositions have been performed in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. She has also collaborated with East Indian

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 classical musicians, including Carnatic

Carnatic music

Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...

 singer Shobana Raghavan, and Hindustani

Hindustani classical music

Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...

 singers Priya Kanungo and Mosami Shah.

Honors and awards

• Two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards
• Inaugural recipient of the Milton and Sylvia Babbitt Scholarship for Women Composers at Juilliard
• Winner in the MTAC-WLA Chamber Music Competition for piano performance

Works

Esmail composes for orchestra, solo instrument, chamber ensemble, and voice. Selected works include:

• The Blue Room (2007) Concerto for violin and orchestra
• Ritual (2006) for SATB Chorus, clarinet and piano
• Ave Maria (2006) for SSAA Chorus
• White Key (2009) for SSAATTBB Chorus
• Unfortunate Coincidence (2005) eight songs for soprano and chamber ensemble (string quartet, 2 flutes (picc) 2 clarinets in b-flat (bass clarinet) and harp
• Three Haikus for a Bench(2005) for soprano and piano
• two tones (2007) for soprano, violin and piano
• Enigma, I (2001) for three violins, bass, piano, trombone, drum set, narrator and dancer
• Feritas (2010) for trumpet sextet
• Piano Quintet (2010)
• Fantasia (2000) for flute, viola and harp
• Spirals on Light (2001) for flute, viola and harp
• A Canticle for Dawn (2006) for flute, viola and harp
• Two Rasas (2002) for unaccompanied viola
• Elegism (2001) for unaccompanied cello
• Perhaps (2005) for unaccompanied cello
• Sunrise Toccata (1999) for solo piano
• il giuoco del "giuoco delle coppie" (2004) variations on a theme of Bela Bartok for solo piano
• Chardonnay (2001) for unaccompanied flute
• The Whole Story (2005) sonata for oboe and piano
• Desire (2000) for clarinet and piano
• The Primordial Basement (2002) for solo bass trombone
• Social Interaction (2010) video installation
• Answering (2010) for two dancers, nine contact mics and live electronic processing
• Barso Re (2010) for Yale Sur et Veritaal, Yale's premier Hindi a cappella organization