Erin Elizabeth Gee (born 1974) (born

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and vocalist. Among the fellowships she has held are the Guggenheim and the

Radcliffe Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

Fellowships, and among the awards she has won for her compositions are the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

and the first prize of the

International Rostrum of Composers The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music. It is funded by c ...

. She was on the faculty of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

in Urbana as Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory and is currently Associate Professor of

Composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

Education

In 1997 Gee received her B.M. with honors and highest distinction in Piano Performance from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

; there she also earned an M.A. in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

in 2002."Erin Gee: Composer and UI Grad Erin Gee Wins the Rome Prize"
, ''The Iowa Source'', James Moore, June 2007 In 2007, she earned her Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Graz, Austria where she studied

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

with

Beat Furrer Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018 ...

Career

With her brother Colin Gee, she performed at the

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

and was a resident at the

Montalvo Arts Center The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterran ...

. She won the 2008

and was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 2009. From 2010-2011, she was a fellow in composition at the

Akademie Schloss Solitude The Akademie Schloss Solitude is a foundation under public law. The main aspect of the Akademie is to promote mainly younger, particularly gifted artists and scientists by means of residency fellowships and also by organizing events and exhibitio ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. In 2015, she received the Charles Ives Fellowship of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. The puzzle video game app

Blek ''Blek'' is a 2013 puzzle video game for iOS and Android by Kunabi Brother, a team of brothers Denis and Davor Mikan. The player draws a snakelike black line that recurs in pattern and velocity across the screen to remove colored dots and avo ...

contains excerpts of Erin Gee's work. Gee is one of the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

50 for the Future composers. A reviewer from the ''

Harvard Gazette Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

'' described a performance of Gee's work as "a young woman with a microphone in each hand performing a curious and captivating symphony of sound and song".

Selected works

Discography

Selected awards and grants

*2022 Award in Music from the

*2019 Koussevitsky Award *2017 Fromm Foundation Commission *2015

, Charles Ives Fellowship Recipient (

Charles Ives Prize The Charles Ives Awards are scholarships for young composers, awarded annually by the American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excel ...

) *2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, New York City. *2007

, The

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

, Italy. *2007

“Selected Piece” (First Prize), Paris, France. *2007 Teatro Minimo Prize (first round), Zurich Opera House

References

External links

Artist's website
* Erin Gee a
IMDB
*Erin Gee a
AllMusic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gee, Erin American women composers Living people University of Iowa alumni Radcliffe fellows International Rostrum of Composers prize-winners 1974 births University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Graz alumni Musicians from Iowa 21st-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century women composers