Katherine Young
sonic artist
About
The curious timbres, expressive noises, and kinetic structures of my electroacoustic music explore the dramatic physicality of sound, shifting interpersonal dynamics, and associations with the familiar and the strange. Collaboration - and suprise! - are central to my practice. The LAPhil, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, Spektral Quartet, Weston Olencki, Fonema Consort, and others have commissioned my music. I have also worked closely with Wet Ink, Ensemble Nikel, WasteLAnd and RAGE Thormbones, Distractfold Ensemble’s Linda Jankowska, Callithumpian Ensemble, Lucy Dehgrae, Yarn/Wire, and Till by Turning. My 8-channel outdoor sound installation, Resonance and the Inhibition of, was exhibited as part of the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art’s Chicago Sound Show in fall 2019. I am thrilled to be a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition.
As a bassoonist and improviser, I amplify my instrument and employ a flexible electronics setup. I perform often as a soloist, and my debut solo album garnered praise in The Wire (“Bassoon colossus”) and Downbeat (“seriously bold leaps for the bassoon”). I also regularly perform in ad hoc improvised groups and with projects such as Beautifulish (duo with Sam Scranton) and Architeuthis Walks on Land (duo with Amy Cimini). I have documented her work on numerous recordings, including my quartet Pretty Monsters self-titled debut, a duo recording with Anthony Braxton, and the multi-movement work Diligence Is to Magic as Progress Is to Flight (Parlour Tapes+), created with violinist Austin Wulliman of the JACK Quartet. As a scholar, I research the incorporation of idiosyncratic electronics and improvisation in contemporary notated music. I have written about Anthony Braxton’s operatic work, in particular.
Before joining the faculty of Emory University in 2020, I taught composition, electronic music, and improvisation at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Berklee College of Music. I have deep ties to Chicago’s creative music communities, having lived and made music there for many significant years. I am now based in Atlanta.
“[I]n Young’s world all noise is emotional.”
“Bassoon colossus.”
“[A] sonically audacious record documenting the development of a bold young artist whose arresting improvisations are as remarkable as her engaging compositions.”
“Young’s compositional hallmarks—her visceral approach to sound; her organic use of repetition, structure, and pacing; her attentiveness to the smallest details of timbre; her adventurousness in using instruments in unexpected ways—made the work feel like a living thing, breathing and unfolding as the evening progressed.”
“Seriously bold leaps for the bassoon.”
“[R]aw, wailing, coloristic...[with an] organic sweep...”
“graveled crumbled strewn is a convincing realization of forceful earth moving processes experienced in close proximity.”
“[U]ndulating notes on the verge of exhaustion explore impressive multiphonics and stomach-gripping glissandos....”
photos by Deidre Huckabay