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          Emily Koh is an award-winning young composer of contemporary classical music based in Boston MA, and a native of Singapore. Described as 'the future of composing' (The Straits Times, Singapore) and 'a talent with great potential' (An Tuireann Arts Center, Scotland), Emily's works have received wide press acclaim, and have been described as “beautifully eerie” (New York Times), and “subtley spicy” (Baltimore Sun), and "piquant to the senses" (The Straits Times, Singapore).

          Most Most recently, Emily is the winner of Prix d'Ete 2011, Otto Ortman Award, National Piano and Violin Competition Composition Competition, finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, Christoph and Stephan Kaske fellow at the Wellesley Composers Conference, 2nd prize winner of the Virginia Carty deLillo competition 2010, and recipient of the Peabody Career Development Award. She has also been honored with academic honors, awards and grants by Brandeis University, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of the National University of Singapore, Composers Society of Singapore, Tonyeong International Music Festival Academy and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.

          Emily has been commissioned by the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, LUNAR Ensemble, Singapore Lyric Opera, Philharmonic Orchestra Society, ArtsSphere Chamber Ensemble, Esplanade Co. Ltd and NUS Arts Festival amongst others. Her works have been performed by Signal Ensemble, Sentieri Selvaggi, the Next Mushroom Project, ThingNY, CHROMA ensemble, The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore, Asian Festival Orchestra, Peabody Opera Theater, Conservatory New Music Ensemble, Conservatory Chamber Singers and NUS Symphony Orchestra at festivals such as June in Buffalo, Asia-Pacific Contemporary Music Festival, Asian Composers League Festival and Conference, Takefu International Music Festival, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, National University of Singapore Arts Festival and various venues in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

          Besides composing, Emily is an avid music educator, acoustic/electric bassist and presenter. She was also one of four judges in the Music Composition category at the 2011 National Parent-Teacher Association's annual Reflections competition. As an educator, Emily is currently an ear-training Teaching Assistant at Peabody, and also teaches 6th, 7th and 8th graders from the Saint Loyola Ignatius Academy (Baltimore, MD) under the Junior Bach Program. She had previously taught music theory and history at Temasek Junior College (Singapore), and double bass in various school bands and orchestras. As a double bassist/electric bassist, Emily is a founding member of d'bassists, the only double bass ensemble based in Singapore, an an avid performer of contemporary solo music for double bass. She had also gives pre-concert talks and seminars at various concert venues, schools, libraries and museums.

          Emily is currently a doctoral fellow at Brandeis University, where she is completing her Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory. Emily holds Master of Music degrees in composition and music theory pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor of Music (with honors) degree in composition (minor in double bass performance) from the National University of Singapore, and diplomas from the Trinity College of Music, London (music theory, criticism and literature) and the Royal Schools of Music (double bass performance). Her composition teachers include Kevin Puts and Chee Kong Ho, and have worked with Christopher Rouse, Chinary Ung, Ivan Fedele, Unsuk Chin, Gerhard Müller-Hornbach , Toshio Hosokawa, Hiroyuki Itoh and Hitomi Kaneko in masterclasses and festivals. Her double bass teachers include Paul Johnson, Guennadi Mouzyka and Eric Lee.

- January 2012 | Please destroy all previous materials

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