Composer and singer Annika Socolofsky is coming to Mizzou later this month for a residency and concert.
During her visit, she will coach the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, make a presentation on her music to composition students, and give private lessons to selected composition majors. Socolofsky will conclude her residency by performing with the Ensemble when they present her work “Don’t say a word” at their concert on Sunday, February 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall.
Currently a doctoral candidate and fellow in composition at Princeton University. Socolofsky previously earned an MFA in composition from Princeton, an MA in composition the University of Michigan, and a BFA in composition from Carnegie Mellon University.
Drawing on both classical and folk traditions, her works are based in “the inflections, gesture, and resonance of the human voice” and range from orchestral compositions to unaccompanied folk ballads. As a researcher, she is focused on physiology in contemporary vocal music, using the music of Dolly Parton to create a pedagogical approach to composition that is inclusive of many vocal styles and techniques.
Her works, projects, and related research have been presented at Carnegie Hall, The Italian Society of Contemporary Music, American Music Festival, Northwestern New Music Institute, Strange Beautiful Music Detroit, and more.
Socolovsky’s current composition projects include new works for the Albany Symphony, So Percussion, Contemporaneous, Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, Girlnoise, and Shepherdess. She also is a 2019 Stone Composer Fellow for the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, for which she will be writing a new work for the Callisto Quartet. Her previous collaborations include the Rochester Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, eighth blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Latitude 49, and numerous others.
As a vocalist, she has performed as soloist with the Albany Symphony, Dogs of Desire, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa Camerata, eighth blackbird, and composer-vocalist Anna Pidgorna.
Socolofsky’s honors as a composer include a Fromm Foundation Commission, Cortona Prize, and BMI Student Composer Award, as well as fellowships to the Blackbird Creative Lab, Banff Centre for the Arts, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Cultivate at Copland House, and the Brevard Music Center. You can hear some of her music on her SoundCloud page.