The music of composer Nina C. Young (b.1984) is characterized by an acute sensitivity to tone color, manifested in aural images of vibrant, arresting immediacy. Her musical voice blurs together elements of spectralism, minimalism, electronic music, popular idioms, and her love of the orchestral tradition. Her projects, ranging from concert pieces to interactive media installations, strive to create unique sonic environments that explore aural architectures, resonance, timbre, and ephemera.
Young’s works have been presented by Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery, the Whitney Museum, LA Phil’s Next on Grand, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series. Her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the American Composers Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Aizuri Quartet, the JACK Quartet, Matt Haimovitz, and wild Up. Winner of the 2015-16 Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, Young has also received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Koussevitzky Commission, the Aaron Copland Bogliasco Fellowship in Music, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, 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, IAWM, and ASCAP/SEAMUS.
Young’s current interests are collaborative, multidisciplinary works that touch on issues of sustainability, historical narratives, experiences with contemporary technologies, and women’s rights. In 2023, the American Composers Orchestra with vocalist Sidney Outlaw premiered the Carnegie Hall commissioned work Out of whose womb came the ice: a monodrama for baritone, orchestra, electronics, and generative video, commenting on the ill-fated Ernest Shackleton Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-17. Other recent projects include Tread softly that opened the NY Philharmonic’s Project 19, Violin Concerto: Traces for Jennifer Koh from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, to hear the things we cannot see for Hub New Music featuring the poetry of Rosie Stockton, and Nothing is not borrowed, in song and shattered light - an immersive audio-visual installation experience commissioned by EMPAC (The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer) that showcases their High-Resolution Wave Field Synthesis Loudspeaker Array and recordings by the American Brass Quintet. Upcoming projects include new works for the Grossman Ensemble and Decoda.
A graduate of MIT and McGill University, Young completed her DMA at Columbia University. This year she has joined the faculty of the Juilliard School and is the Slee Visiting Associate Professor in Music Composition at the University at Buffalo. Prior to joining the faculty of the Juilliard School, Young was an Associate Professor of Music Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. She serves as Co-Artistic Director of New York’s Ensemble Échappé. Her music is published by Peermusic Classical.