Gity Razaz

Contemporary Iranian-American Composer and Sound Artist

Iranian-born composer (*1986). Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” Gity Razaz’s music ranges from concert solo pieces to large symphonic works. Ms. Razaz’s music has been commissioned and performed by BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, violinist Jennifer Koh, violinist Francesca dePasquale, Metropolis Ensemble, Canada’s National Ballet School, American Composers Orchestra, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale among others. Programming highlights include a 2021 commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra for the prestigious Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall and an upcoming concerto for world-renowned flutist Sharon Bezaly and the United Strings of Europe. Other commissions have included a full-length ballet for Ballet Moscow, which has received regular performances ever since its world premiere in Moscow in June of 2017. She was the composer-in-residence for the inaugural season of Brooklyn’s ground-breaking National Sawdust and Chautauqua Opera Company in 2017. Her first short opera was commissioned by Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center. Her music for cello and electronics was included in the opening of Seattle Symphony’s Octave 9 in March 2019. Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the 2019 Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that is “is given to a composer of demonstrated artistic merit in mid-career”, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, to name a few. In 2016, Ms. Razaz was offered the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Ms. Razaz attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, studying under the tutelage of Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and John Corigliano.