Tonia Ko is a Hong Kong composer. Based in and educated at the United States and United Kingdom, Ko is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow and is a Senior Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Holloway, University of London Department of Music.
Tonia Ko | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1988 (age 35–36) |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Composer |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (2018) |
Biography
editKo was born in 1988 in British Hong Kong and raised in Honolulu,[1] where she was educated at ʻIolani School (graduating in 2006).[2] She was originally a choir singer, pianist, and violist during her youth, but had decided to go into music composition by the time she was fifteen.[3] She subsequently did post-secondary studies at Eastman School of Music (where she got her BM with highest distinction), the Jacobs School of Music (where she got her MM and the 2011 Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Prize), Cornell University (where she got her DMA), Tanglewood Music Center, and Royaumont Voix Nouvelles Academy.[1][4] She also did postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago's Center for Contemporary Composition and at City, University of London.[1]
In 2013, she was awarded a Charles Ives Scholarship.[5] In 2015, she was a Young Concert Artists alumnus.[6] On March 6, 2016, her symphony Strange Sounds and Explosions Worldwide had its premiere performed by the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall; Vivien Schweitzer of The New York Times said of the work: "A listener might assume that a new symphony [with that title] would depict perilous global situations. But the title [...] alludes to fireworks and other joyful events, as well as natural ones like erupting volcanoes."[7] In 2018, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition,[8] and she was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship, where she composed the string quartet piece Plain, Air.[9] In 2024, she was awarded a second MacDowell Fellowship, where she composed Breath, Contained III to be performed on bubble wrap.[9]
As an educator, she was an Associate Instructor of Music Theory at the Jacobs School of Music in addition to being a masters student,[4] before becoming a Senior Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Holloway, University of London Department of Music.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c Ko, Tonia. "Biography". Tonia Ko. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "CLASSNOTES" (PDF). The ʻIolani Bulletin. No. Fall 2009. 2009. p. 64. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ Aloi, Daniel (15 July 2015). "Graduate student Tonia Ko composes a soaring career". Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Tonia Ko | Department of Music". music.cornell.edu. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "All Awards". American Academy of Arts and Letters. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Tonia Ko, composer, '15". Young Concert Artists. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ Schweitzer, Vivien (7 March 2016). "Review: Tonia Ko's 'Strange Sounds and Explosions Worldwide'". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Tonia Ko". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Tonia Ko - MacDowell Fellow in Music Composition". MacDowell. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Tonia Ko". Royal Holloway Research Portal. Retrieved 3 September 2024.