Biography

Short (42 words, 327 characters)

Emily Koh (b.1986) is a Singaporean composer+ based in Atlanta, Georgia whose music reimagines everyday experiences by sonically expounding tiny oft-forgotten details, and explores binary states such as extremities/boundaries and activity/stagnation. She especially enjoys collaborating with creatives of other specializations.

Medium (193 words 1417 characters)

Emily Koh (b.1986) is a Singaporean composer+ based in Atlanta, Georgia whose music reimagines everyday experiences by sonically expounding tiny oft-forgotten details, and explores binary states such as extremities/boundaries and activity/stagnation. She especially enjoys collaborating with creatives of other specializations.

Described as “the future of composing” (The Straits Times, Singapore), Emily is the recipient of awards such as the Copland House Residency Award, Young Artist Award (National Arts Council, Singapore), Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize (Asian Composers League), ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Prix D’Ete (Peabody), and the Macagnoni Prize for Innovative Research (University of Georgia). Her work is supported with commissions, grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, National Arts Council (Singapore), Opera America, New Music USA, MacDowell, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, American Composers’ Orchestra, Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, the Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence (National University of Singapore) and others. Described as “beautifully eerie” (New York Times), and “subtley spicy” (Baltimore Sun), Emily’s music has been performed around the world, and is published by Babel Scores (Europe) and Poco Piu Publishing (worldwide).

Emily is currently Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of Georgia, USA.

Long (757 words 5393 characters)

Emily Koh (b.1986) is a Singaporean composer+ based in Atlanta, Georgia whose music reimagines everyday experiences by sonically expounding tiny oft-forgotten details, and explores binary states such as extremities/boundaries and activity/stagnation. She especially enjoys collaborating with creatives of other specializations.

Described as “the future of composing” (The Straits Times, Singapore), Emily is the recipient of awards such as the Copland House Residency Award, Young Artist Award (National Arts Council, Singapore), Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize (Asian Composers League), ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Prix D’Ete (Peabody), and the Macagnoni Prize for Innovative Research (University of Georgia). Her work is supported with commissions, grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, National Arts Council (Singapore), Opera America, New Music USA, MacDowell, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, American Composers’ Orchestra, Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, the Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence (National University of Singapore) and others. 

Described as “beautifully eerie” (New York Times), and “subtley spicy” (Baltimore Sun), Emily’s music has been performed around the world in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Israel, Croatia, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, by acclaimed ensembles such as Guerilla Opera, Alarm Will Sound, PRISM Quartet, New Thread Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble, Transient Canvas, New York New Music Ensemble, New York Virtuoso Singers, Departure Duo (US/DE), Strings and Hammers (US/FI), Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes (Mexico), Trio Accanto (DE), Avanti! (FI), orkest de ereprijs (NL), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Next Mushroom Project (JP), TACETi (Thailand), National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Chai Found Music Workshop (TW), Ding Yi Music Company (Singapore), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Noa Even (saxophone), Clare Longendyke (piano), Lilit Hartunian (violin) and others. Her music is published by Babel Scores (Europe) and Poco Piu Publishing (worldwide), and can be heard on the Innova, XAS, New Focus and Ravello labels.

Emily is currently Associate Professor of Music Composition at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia (UGA), USA. She also taught at the Alba Music Festival Composition Program (Italy), International Composition Institute of Thailand, Asia-Pacific Saxophone Academy (Thailand) and the Etchings Festival (USA). Prior to UGA, she taught at Brandeis and Harvard Universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Longy School of Music (Bard College) and Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore (BM Music Composition), the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University (MM Music Composition and Music Theory Pedagogy), and Brandeis University (Ph.D. graduate in Music Composition and Theory), where she studied with Ho Chee Kong, Kevin Puts, David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow and Yu-Hui Chang. She has attended academies such as Composers Conference, June in Buffalo, Mizzou International Composers Festival, Red Note New Music Festival, Young Composers Meeting (NL), Savellyspaja (FI), Delian Academy (GR), Takefu International Music Festival (JP), among others, and has represented Singapore in several Asian Composers League Festivals (South Korea 2008, Israel 2012, Singapore 2013, Vietnam 2016, Taiwan 2018).

Emily is a core member and Composition Mentor of ensemble vim, a new music collective in Atlanta. She is also the National Treasurer of the Society of Composers Inc., and serves on the advisory boards of Composers Conference, Indictus Project and on the artistic advisory board of Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, where she had previously held positions as co-artistic director and general manager. She had previously held artistic and administrative positions at the Boston New Music Initiative (Director of Concert Series, 2012-2016), Lunar Ensemble (composer-in-residence, 2012-2014) and Composers Society of Singapore (CSS) (honorary ex-co member, 2014-2020), and is a member of ASCAP, SCI, and the CSS. 

Emily is also an active double bassist and most interested in performing music and collaborating with living composers and artists, especially on works that is written for the five-string double bass (lowest string tuned to B0). She plays double bass/electric bass in Subaerial Collective, a trio formed with her UGA colleagues Adrian Childs (piano/keyboards) and Peter Lane (bassoon/contrabassoon/technology). She plays gigs of all kinds–multidisciplinary presentations, Western and Chinese orchestral repertoire, operatic and music theater pit work, and has performed with Bent Frequency, Neophonia, Sound Icon, the Boston New Music Initiative, New England Philharmonic, The Philharmonic Orchestra (Singapore), Singapore Lyric Opera, City Chinese Orchestra, among others. 

Besides composing, performing, teaching, administrating and wearing many hats, Emily is an unabashed foodie, an amateur artist, and a gardener with no green thumb. She enjoys a good cup of tea, psychological horror movies and strategy board games.  

中文版

許佩珊 (出生于1986年)是一位新加坡作曲家，也是一位低音提琴手。 她目前居住于美国亚特兰大。她的音乐作品通过用声音表现那些生活中经常被人们遗忘的微小细节，诠释着日常的生活体验。除了创作原音乐和电子音乐会音乐外，她也喜欢与其他创作者合作。

許佩珊曾被评价为“作曲的未来” (新加坡海峡时报)，曾获得科普兰屋居住计划奖，新加坡青年艺术家奖，入野义朗作曲纪念奖，ASCAP 莫頓·古尔德年轻作曲家奖，埃特奖以及PARMA 比赛等奖项；受到来自巴洛音乐创作基金会，卫斯理学院作曲家大会，新加坡交响乐团，左岸室内乐团，恐龙附属乐团的委约；并且获得来自美国新音乐，女子爱乐倡导者以及 Paul Abisheganaden 艺术成就奖的资助。她也曾在 MacDowell 和 Avaloch Farm 当为居住计划作曲家。

許佩珊的作品被在新加坡，马来西亚，泰国，越南，中国，日本，韩国，荷兰，意大利，法国，瑞士，芬兰，以色列，英国，加拿大和美国，由多个深受赞誉的乐团和演奏家表演，包括了塔利亚乐团，达尔尼恩特乐团，纽约新音乐乐团，信号乐团，游击剧团，波士顿新音乐倡议会，新线四重奏，AVANTI室内乐团 (芬兰)，以色列现代室内乐团（以色列)，Sentieri Selvaggi (意大利)，The Next Mushroom Promotion（日本)，Chroma 乐团 (英国)，新加坡交响乐团，新加坡华乐团，新加坡爱乐乐团，和鼎艺团 (新加坡)。

許佩珊毕业于新加坡国立大学杨秀桃音乐学院 (作曲学士学位)，约翰·霍普金斯大学皮博迪学院 (音乐创作和音乐理论教育学硕士学位) 和布兰戴斯大学（音乐创作及理论博士学位)。她目前是美国乔治亚大学(UGA) 休·霍奇森音乐学院的作曲系副教授。在 UGA 任教之前，她曾在布兰戴斯大学和哈佛大学，麻省理工学院，隆基音乐学院 (巴德学院) 和胡桃山艺术学校任教。

許佩珊是美国作曲家、作家和发行商协会 (ASCAP), 作曲家协会 (SCI) 以及新加坡作曲家协会的成员。她的音乐作品由 Babel Scores 和 Poco Piu 发行。

許佩珊是一位低音提琴手。她在 Subaerial Collective 三重奏组中演奏低音提琴/电贝司。

Style Notes:

• Emily’s pronouns are she/her/hers.
• Emily should be referred to as Emily Koh in all publicity and press, except in Chinese press, where she may be referred to as 許佩珊, using the traditional Chinese characters for her family name. 
• Where titles are used, Emily may be referred to as Dr. Koh, Professor/Prof. Koh, or Emily Koh, Ph.D. Otherwise, Emily may be referred to as Emily, or Ms Koh. She does not use the Mrs, Madam or Miss salutations.
• UGA is “University of Georgia”, not “University of Georgia at Athens”. GA is the abbreviation of Georgia.

*Updated August 2022. Please do not alter or change these bios without permission from the composer.