Composers Festival spotlight: Carolina Heredia

Born in Córdoba, Argentina, Carolina Heredia is the first resident composer originally from South America to take part in the Mizzou International Composers Festival.

Heredia (pictured) has just completed her doctorate in musical arts at the University of Michigan, studying with Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, and Erik Santos.

(Interestingly, while being the first from South America, she’s also the latest in a series of Michigan grads to serve as MICF resident composers, including Patrick Harlin (2012), Elizabeth Kelly (2013), Greg Simon (2013), Michael Schachter (2014), Ian Dicke (2014), Takuma Itoh (2016), and Matthew Browne (2016).)

Once the 2017 MICF is over, Heredia will be sticking around Columbia for a while, as last month she was awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship by the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Starting with the Fall 2017 semester, Heredia will teach private composition lessons to Mizzou students; assist with various MNMI programs; and work on interdisciplinary collaborative projects, initiating and supervising student efforts and also completing a major research project herself.

While at Michigan, she taught electronic music as a graduate student instructor and founded the Khemia Ensemble, a contemporary music group dedicated to creating innovative concert experiences involving interactive technology.

Previously, Heredia earned her bachelor’s degree in music composition from the Universidad Nacional de Villa María, and a bachelor’s degree in violin from the Conservatorio Superior Félix Garzón, both in Argentina; and a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Michigan.

Her compositions have been commissioned and performed in the United States and South America by musicians and ensembles including JACK Quartet, Derek Bermel, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Duo Cortona, and the Argentinean Cordoba State String Orchestra, and featured at events such as the SONIC Festival NYC, Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowling Green New Music Festival, TIES Toronto International Electroacoustic Festival, SEAMUS, the Cordoba Composition Biennial, and more.

Heredia’s honors and fellowships include a 2015 commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University; the 2015 fellowship from the Susan and Ford Schumman Center for Composition Studies at the Aspen Music Festival; the Brehm Prize in Choral Composition (2015); the 2015 International Research Grant from the University of Michigan; the Margaret Dow Towsley Scholarship (2012); the Merit Scholarship from the University of Michigan (2011); and the Dorothy Greenwald Scholarship (2011).

For more about Caroline Heredia, listen to the interview she recorded last month for KMUC’s “Mizzou Music” program. You can hear some of her music via the embedded players below and on her SoundCloud page.

“Ausencias/Ausências/Absences” (2016) For String Quartet and Electronics, made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation and performed by JACK Quartet on March 8, 2016 at the University of Michigan’s Stamps Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI.

“Virginia” (2015) for alto and SATB choir, recorded October 24, 2015 at Stamps Auditorium as performed by Rehanna Thelwell, contralto with the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, conducted by Jerry Blackstone.

“Añoranzas” (2016) for cello and electronics, performed by cellist Horacio Contreras for Khemia Ensemble’s album Voyages.