Judith Shatin
Judith Shatin Biography
Judith Shatin

"This was highly inventive music on every level; hugely enjoyable and deeply involving with a constant sense of surprise... "The Washington Post

Judith Shatin is a composer, sound artist, community arts partner and educator. Her inspirations range from myth, poetry and her Jewish heritage to the calls of the animals around us and the sounding universe beyond. Current projects include a McKim commission from the Library of Congress for a new piece for violin and piano for the 2008 season. Her music has been featured at festivals including the Aspen, BAM Next Wave, Grand Teton, Havana in Spring, Moscow Autumn, Seal Bay, Ukraine, Soundways (St. Petersburg) and West Cork. Orchestras that have presented her music include the Denver, Houston, Illinois, Knoxville, Minnesota, National and Richmond Symphonies.

Shatin is as likely to call upon the sounds made by a weaver at her loom, or by a sculptor carving, as she is to find imaginative uses for traditional instruments. Sounds of the environment play an increasing role in her music, as in her path-breaking Singing the Blue Ridge (2002), scored for mezzo, baritone, orchestra and wild animal sounds; and in For the Birds, for amplified cello and electronics from birdsong. In COAL--an evening-length folk oratorio for which she wrote both the music and the libretto, commissioned as part of a two-year retrospective of her music at Shepherd College, WV (1992-94), she also brought together divergent sounds with great power. Supported by the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Arts Partners Program, COAL is scored for chorus, Appalachian ensemble, synthesizer and electronic playback. It's grand scale and sweeping scope captures an entire way of life. And in both Singing the Blue Ridge and Coal, Shatin played an active role as a community partner.

Examples of Shatin's electroacoustic approach can be heard in Elijah's Chariot, for string quartet and electronics, commissioned and toured world-wide by the Kronos Quartet; in Penelope's Song, for amplified viola, violin, or cello with electronics made from weaving sounds; or in Three Summers Heat for soprano and electronics, recorded by the magnificent soprano Susan Narucki. Shatin also develops interactive technologies, as in her Tree Music (2003), for interactive computer installation; Sea of Reeds for amplified clarinet with PVC tubing and live electronics, toured extensively by the outstanding clarinetist F. Gerard Errante; and Kairos for flute and live electronics. Her multimedia piece Grito del Corazón (Cry of the Heart), inspired by Goya's "Black Paintings," and scored for chamber ensemble, electronics and video (by Katherine Aoki), was commissioned by Ensemble Barcelona Nova Musica and has had numerous performances in Europe, South America, and the US. She also composed music for Kevin J. Everson's film, Cinnamon, shown at the Sundance and Munich Film Festivals, among others.

Shatin continues to create a wide variety of acoustic pieces as in the following commissions: Why the Caged Bird Sings (Young People's Chorus of New York City), Clave (the newEar Ensemble), Jabberwocky (the Virginia Glee Club, TTBB), and Teruah, for shofar, brass ensemble and tympani (the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival), and Ockeghem Variations (the Hexagon Ensemble, wind quintet plus piano).

Educated at Douglass College (AB, Phi Beta Kappa), The Juilliard School (MM) and Princeton University (PhD), Judith Shatin is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music, which she founded at the University of Virginia in 1987. Additional studies included two summers as a Crofts Composition Fellow at Tanglewood, as well as studies at the Aspen Music Festival. Her major teachers were Milton Babbitt, Otto Luening and J.K. Randall. Now an advocate for her fellow composers, Shatin has served on the boards of the American Composers Alliance, the League/ISCM, and the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM). She also served as President of American Women Composers, Inc. (1989-93). Her own teaching focuses on composition, computer music, and topics in contemporary music.

Shatin has been honored with four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, as well as awards from the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, the New Jersey State Arts Council and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She has held residencies at Bellagio (Italy), Brahmshaus (Germany), La Cité des Arts (France), Mishkan Amanim (Israel) and in the US at MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Commissions have come from groups including the Ash Lawn Opera, Barlow Foundation, Garth Newel Chamber Players, newEar Ensemble, Monticello Trio, The National Symphony, Virginia Chamber Orchestra, and Wintergreen Performing Arts. Recorded on Capstone, Centaur, CRI, Innova Neuma, New World and Sonora Records, her music is published by Wendigo Music, distributed by MMB Music Inc.; and by Arsis Press, C.F. Peters, E.C. Schirmer, Colla Voce and Hal Leonard.