Katherine Young
composer | improviser | sonic artist
About
Katherine Young’s electroacoustic music and sonic art has been recognized by awards, fellowships, and commissions from organizations including the Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Foundation, and the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. As a bassoonist and improviser, Katherine amplifies her instrument and employs a flexible electronics setup. Katherine lives in Atlanta, where she teaches composition, improvisation, and electronic music at Emory University.
Longer Bio
Katherine Young makes electroacoustic music and sonic art using expressive noises, curious timbres, and kinetic structures. Her work has been recognized by awards and fellowships including a Fromm Foundation at Harvard University Commission and the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition.
Relationship building, collaboration, and ecological thinking are central to her practice. She has worked closely with Yarn/Wire, Wet Ink, Ensemble Nikel, Linda Jankowska, Olivia De Prato, Jessical Pavone, Weston Olencki, Jeremy Bolen + Alexandria Smith, Anthony Braxton, and others. Ensembles and festivals including the LAPhil, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik have commissioned her music. The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, the Goat Farm, and others have commissioned her installation work.
As a bassoonist and improviser, Young amplifies her instrument and employs a flexible electronics setup. Her debut solo album garnered praise in The Wire (“Bassoon colossus”) and Downbeat (“seriously bold leaps for the bassoon”). She also regularly performs in ad hoc improvised groups and with projects such as Beautifulish (duo with Sam Scranton) and Architeuthis Walks on Land (duo with Amy Cimini). She has documented her work on numerous recordings, including her quartet Pretty Monsters self-titled debut and a duo recording with Anthony Braxton.
Young earned her DMA in Composition from Northwestern and MA in Composition from Wesleyan University with undergraduate studies at Oberlin College and Conservatory. An active teacher and mentor, Young has taught at summer festivals including the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Yarn/Wire’s Institute, and in 2026 she will be on faculty at New Music on the Point. She taught composition, electronic music, and improvisation at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Berklee College of Music, before joining the faculty of Emory University. She is now based in Atlanta, where she lives and works on the homelands of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“[I]n Young’s world all noise is emotional.”
“Bassoon colossus.”
“[Spores] is by turns as dense as molasses, as light as air (with the musicians encouraged to vocalize their breath), and as freewheeling as a trip down the open highway.”
““[I] you want music that will set your imagination reeling, Young and Scranton [as Beautifulish] are at your service.””
“[A] sonically audacious record documenting the development of a bold young artist whose arresting improvisations are as remarkable as her engaging compositions.”