Recently recognized by The New York Times as “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York”, by Time Out New York as “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart”, and by The New Yorker as “one of the brightest lights to emerge from the Yale School of Music,” Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed across the globe by artists including the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, New York City Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra and many others.
Mazzoli is Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre-Group, and served as composer-in-residence with the Albany Symphony. In 2012 Beth Morrison Projects presented Song from the Uproar, Mazzoli’s first multimedia chamber opera, which garnered a sold-out run at New York’s venerable venue, The Kitchen.
Her most recent premieres have included performances by pianist Emanuel Ax, Kronos Quartet, ETHEL, the LA Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony. Mazzoli is an active pianist and keyboardist, and often performs with Victoire, a band she founded in 2008 dedicated to her own compositions. Their debut full-length CD, Cathedral City, was named one of 2010′s best classical albums by Time Out New York, NPR, The New Yorker and The New York Times. In 2013 Carnegie Hall commissioned and premiered Vespers for a New Dark Age, a work for Victoire, with percussionist Glenn Kotche (of Wilco) and electronic producer Lorna Dune; and a recording of the piece was released on New Amsterdam Records. Mazzoli is currently working with librettist Royce Vavrek on an operatic adaptation of Breaking the Waves, a 1996 film by Lars von Trier; it will premiere at Opera Philadelphia in 2016.
Mazzoli is the recipient of four ASCAP Young Composer Awards as well as a Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands. She is currently on the composition faculty at Mannes College of Music, has taught at New York University and Yale University, and from 2007-2010 served as Executive Director of the MATA Festival in New York City.
Mazzoli participated in the 2007 Cabrillo Festival Composers Workshop, and returns this season as composer-in-residence with the West Coast premiere of River Rouge Transfiguration on Saturday, August 15th.