Society of Composers - Berklee College of Music

Yesterday's "Upbringings" concert was fantastic! So many great pieces by brilliant composers performed by brilliant musicians.

Photos by Yuval Gur

Come to our spring concert "Upbringings" this Tuesday! Featuring new music inspired by individual backgrounds and upbringing. All are welcome for free admission!
April 26th 7pm at Old South Church, 645 Boylston st. Boston

This Saturday! SoC will be hosting our first Compose-a-thon at the Berklee Library Lab 1 from 2pm-10pm. Come to hang out, compose, collaborate, and have fun! Scan the QR code to RSVP. Come when you can and stay as long as you want.

The Winter Concert is starting in 10 minutes! You can watch the livestream here: https://youtu.be/x11RUjtuecs

Composer Profile: Yongqi Wu

Yongqi studies at Berklee college of music and is a dual major in Film Scoring and Composition, with minors in Conducting and Musical Theater Writing. Yongqi has a love for opera and before she came to Berklee she learned classical singing for 7 years. Her opera study experience made her fall in love with creating music for drama. That's why she finally choose Film Scoring and Composition for her majors. She loves to use music to share stories and she loves to collaborate and create something exciting with others.

Listen to her piece "Zodiac" for solo piano at our Winter Concert. TOMORROW! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Stella G. Gitelman Willoughby

Stella is an eight-time ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award winner and finalist, a House of Blues Music Forward Foundation Award recipient, and a national and international award-winning composer from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She writes for solo instruments, voice, chamber ensembles, and symphony orchestra. Stella values the unique qualities of each instrument and performer and strives to create works that highlight their unique sound, bringing it to the forefront. Commissions include modern music festivals and documentary films, soloists and ensembles, performance installations, audition repertoire, and to accompany historical liturgical text. Her compositions are licensed throughout the U.S. and around the world. Stella studies with composer and professor Alla E. Cohen.

Stella is also the current Content Manager for Society of Composers - Berklee College of Music

Listen to her piece "Passacaglia for Cello and Piano: Rapt in the Winter Flower" at our Winter Concert. TOMORROW! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Sabrina Gamboa

Sabrina Gamboa is a Mexican-American composer and writer. Born in Mexico City and raised between Mexico, U.S.A., and Costa Rica, Sabrina began her creative journey as a competitive pianist at Instituto Superior de Artes in San José, Costa Rica in 2008. Since then, she’s won international awards for her poetry, essays, and short stories. Currently, she studies at Berklee College of Music, majoring in both Composition and Contemporary Writing & Production, as well as minoring in Musical Theater Writing. She hopes to develop herself as a professional musician and composer, as well as a poet and a playwright, since she’s passionate about both music and creative writing.

Listen to her piece "Cordolium Waltz" for violin and piano at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Lilya Adad

Lilya is a composer and pianist from Rabat, Morocco. At the age of 4, she started playing piano. A couple of years later, she enrolled in the conservatory to study Solfege and music theory. She got her diplomas from the National Conservatory in Morocco for both piano and music theory at the age of 16. She came to Berklee in Boston after high school to pursue a Bachelor’s in Film Scoring and is now only a few weeks away from graduating. As a classical pianist, she naturally enjoys to write classical piano music trying to take the best of the romantic and contemporary era. Composers that inspire her include: Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Schubert and Chopin. She also sings and loves to perform.

Listen to her piece "Suite for Piano and Clarinet" at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Isaac Oksman

Isaac Oksman is a composer from New Jersey. He has roots in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has experience in both Jazz and Classical music and his inspirations range from Chopin to Prokofiev. Isaac mainly plays the piano however he also has experience in bass and guitar. To Isaac, composing music is a way to reflect on his own perception of the world and he has been composing music since he was 12. A fun fact about Isaac is he is a Judoka in Judo (a form of martial art).

Listen to his piece "Fiesta" for flute, violin, and piano at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Ding Sng

Ding Sng is a violinist, composer and producer in his second semester at Berklee. His piece "Inside the Mist" is a three-movement work that explores the idea of intervallic motion and the sonorities that arise from it.

Listen to his piece "Inside the Mist" for solo piano at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: David Wang

David Wang is in his 1st semester at Berklee and his principle instrument is Marimba. He is planning to double major in Composition and EPD. He also plays piano, alto sax and double bass. David's hobby is 3D printing which he utilized to build his own custom string instrument. He composes in many different genres and It's his dream to see his compositions played live by musicians.

Listen to his piece "Into the Interdimensional Space" for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston

Composer Profile: Bahar Badieitabar

Bahar Badieitabar is an Iranian performance and composition major student at Berklee, on the presidential scholarship. Her principal instrument is the Oud. Bahar begun her musical training at Tehran Music School where she received her Music Diploma. Her experiences
throughout the years performing alongside different musicians have helped her develops her unique approach to music making which is based on Iranian Classical music with elements of contemporary music. Bahar has won the first price at Iranian Youth National Music Festival twice and she has performed at various music festivals and many venues in Iran and the US.

You can follow her here: Bahar Badieitabar

Listen to her piece "The Beginning" for solo cello at our Winter Concert! December 9th at 7pm at the Old South Church 645 Boylston St. Boston