Kate Soper (composer)
{{short description|American classical composer}}
Kate Soper (born 1981) is a composer and vocalist. She was a recent American Academy in Rome fellow and Guggenheim Fellow as well as a 2012–13 fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.{{cite web|title=Kate Soper's Official Website|url=http://www.katesoper.com/home.htm}} She was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her chamber opera, Ipsa Dixit..Pulitzer.org (2017). [http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/kate-soper "Finalist: Ipsa Dixit, by Kate Soper"]. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
Style
In addition to composing, Soper performs frequently as a new music soprano in her own works and the works of others, and many of her vocal works were developed with herself in mind as performer. Her compositional style has been deemed "exquisitely quirky" {{cite news|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|authorlink=Allan Kozinn|title=Where Composers Lend Their Voices|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/arts/music/18alliance.html|accessdate=November 21, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 17, 2010}} with "seamless commingling of not only lines but of actual instrumentation and fingering with another player."{{cite news|last=Grella|first=George|title=The Product of One's Own Hands|url=http://www.classicaltv.com/blog/george-grella-the-drift/2012/06/the-product-of-ones-own-hands|accessdate=November 22, 2012|newspaper=Classical TV Blog|date=June 12, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119231506/http://www.classicaltv.com/blog/george-grella-the-drift/2012/06/the-product-of-ones-own-hands|archive-date=January 19, 2013|url-status=dead}}
Commissions
Recent commissions for work as a performer/composer include a 2012 Guggenheim fellowship for a one-act opera with original libretto, Here Be Sirens; a Koussevitsky Commission for a music theatre work performed with Alarm Will Sound; and now is forever for soprano and orchestra from the American Composers Orchestra.Yeh, Molly (20 January 2014). [http://www.wqxr.org/story/kate-soper-probes-female-captivity-voices-killing-jar/ "Q2 Music Album of the Week : Kate Soper Probes Female Captivity in 'Voices from the Killing Jar'"]. WXQR. Retrieved 26 May 2017.NewMusicBox (5 April 2013). [http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/koussevitzky-commission-winners-announced/ "Koussevitzky Commission Winners Announced"]. Retrieved 26 May 2017.Stearns, David Patrick (22 January 2013). [http://www.artsjournal.com/condemned/2013/01/composer-kate-soper-she-is-her-own-eurydice-and-orpheus/ "Composer Kate Soper: She is her own Eurydice (and Orpheus)"]. The Arts Journal.
Wet Ink
Since 2006, Soper has served as a co-director and vocalist for Wet Ink, a New York-based new music ensemble founded in 1998 and dedicated to the presentation of programs of new music, with a focus on creating, promoting, and organizing American music. In addition to a New York concert season featuring many of the city's freelancers, Wet Ink performs as a septet consisting of a core group of composer-performers that collaborate in a band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. Alongside fellow composer/directors Alex Mincek (saxophone/founding member), Sam Pluta (electronics), Eric Wubbels (piano), and performers Ian Antonio (percussion), Erin Lesser (founding member, flute), and Josh Modney (violin), Soper frequently tours, performs with, and writes for the Wet Ink Ensemble. Her large-scale monodrama for the group, Voices from the Killing Jar, was released on Carrier Records in 2014.Meyer, Bill (January 2017). [https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/wet-ink-ensemble/Event?oid=25154170 "Wet Ink Ensemble"]. Chicago Reader. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
Awards and fellowships
- Kravis Emerging Composers 2024
- Rome Prize Fellow, 2023–2024Rome Prize. [https://aarome.org/people/rome-prize-fellows/kate-soper Fellows: Kate Soper]. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, 2012–2013Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. [http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/kate-soper Fellows: Kate Soper]. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- Serge Koussevitzky Foundation Grant, 2012
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, 2012John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. [https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/kate-soper/ Fellows: Kate Soper]. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Annual Prize Winner, 2012The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund at the University of Massachusetts 2010. [http://www.umb.edu/lili_boulanger/current_winner/ Current Winner: Kate Soper. Retrieved 3 December 2012.]
- Fromm Music Foundation Fromm Commission, 2008Fromm Music Foundation. [http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/fromm.html Past winners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827120923/http://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/fromm.html |date=2014-08-27 }}. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, 2006.
List of works
= Vocal =
- Now is forever (soprano and orchestra), 2012–2013
- The Crito (soprano and percussion), 2012
- Only the words themselves mean what they say (soprano and flute), 2010–2011
- cipher (soprano and violin), 2011–12Kozinn, Allan (29 January 2012). [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/arts/music/wet-ink-in-gaudeamus-muziekweek-at-new-issue-project-room.html "New Music Opens a New Hall in a Venerable Building"]. The New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- Nadja (soprano and string quartet), upcoming 2013
- Voices from the Killing Jar (voice, flute, sax/clarinet, piano, violin/trumpet, piano, electronics), 2010–12
- Helen Enfettered (soprano, mezzo-soprano, clarinet, trumpet, piano, violin, viola, cello, contrabass), 2009, a setting of the "e" chapter of Christian Bök's Eunoia.Kozinn, Allan (12 May 2009). [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/arts/music/12dawn.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354550768-yqE%20tF9Npo2rQZ8bTJREIA&pagewanted=print "Composers and Performers, Together as Creators"]. The New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2012.{{Cite news |last=Woolfe |first=Zachary |date=July 22, 2014 |title=At 50, Festival Is Reunion Of Sorts |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/arts/music/tanglewood-holds-its-50th-celebration-of-contemporary-music.html}}
- Door (voice, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, accordion), 2007
- Songs for Nobody (two sopranos and alto), 2006
- What you think of in the city (baritone, viola, cello), 2002
- Ipsa Dixit (voice, violin, flute, percussion), 2016Ross, Alex (27 February 2017). [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/kate-sopers-philosophy-opera "Kate Soper’s Philosophy-Opera"]. The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 May 2017
= Instrumental =
- Entre les Calanques (orchestra; original chamber version with flute, cello, bassoon, two horns, three violins, three violas, two cellos, two contrabasses), 2010
- Nine Rakes (wind orchestra), 2007
- The door in the wall (flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, horn, trumpet, tn, piano, two percussionist, two violins, viola, cello, contrabass), 2011, revised 2012
- What makes it go (flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, horn, trumpet, tn, piano, percussion, two violins, viola, cello, contrabass; original version with three violins, three violas, three cellos, three contrabasses) 2010, original version 2008
- As the Crow Flies (flute, clarinet, two saxophones, horn, trumpet, trombone, electric guitar, accordion, piccolo, violin, viola, cello, contrabass), 2007
- Didcas (brass septet), 2006
- Crosshatch (flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, piccolo, violin, viola, cello, contrabass), 2005
- In the Reign of Harad IV (amplified percussion trio), upcoming, 2013
- Wolf (piano four hands and two percussionists), 2010
- The Sleep Side (clarinet, trumpet, piano, and percussion), 2010
- I had a Slow Thought on a Hard Day (alto saxophone and accordion), 2008
- Into that World Inverted (horn and piano), 2006, revised 2010
- Purl (flute and percussion), 2006
- Knock (solo percussion), 2006
= Theatrical =
- The Hunt (three voices, ukulele, violin), 2023
- The Romance of the Rose (seven voices, electronics, ensemble), 2021
- IPSA DIXIT (soprano, flute, violin and percussion), 2016
- I Was Here I Was I (voices and chamber ensemble), 2014
- Here be Sirens (three voices, piano), 2014
= Electronic =
- Five One-liners (tape), 2003
= Discography =
- The Romance of the Rose (as composer/performer/librettist) (Wet Ink, New Focus Recordings, 2024)
- The Hunt (as composer/librettist)(New Focus Recordings, 2024)
- Missing Scenes (as composer/vocalist)(Wet Ink, Carrier Records, 2023)
- The Understanding of All Things (as composer/vocalist/pianist)(Sam Pluta, New Focus Recordings, 2022)
- Ipsa Dixit (as composer/vocalist) (Wet Ink, New World Records, 2018)
- Wet Ink: 20 (as composer/vocalist) (Wet Ink, Carrier Records, 2018)
- Josh Modney: Engage (as composer/vocalist) (New Focus, 2018)
- SaxoVoce (as composer) (Ogni Suono, New Focus, 2018)
- Hushers (as composer) (Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, New Focus, 2017)
- The Garden of Diverging Paths (as composer/soprano) (Mivos Quartet, New Focus, 2016)
- Voices from the Killing Jar (as composer/soprano)(Wet Ink, Carrier Records 2014)
- Texturen (as soprano/vocalist) (Katherina Rosenberger, Hat Art, 2011)
- Tone Builders (as composer) (Yarn/Wire, Carrier Records, 2010)
- Wet Ink (as composer/soprano) (Wet Ink, Carrier Records, 2009)
- the language of (as composer) (quiet design, 2008){{cite web|title=Kate Soper's Official Website|url=http://www.katesoper.com/home.htm}}Zahr, Oussama (4 March 2022). [https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/classical-music/kate-soper-the-understanding-of-all-things "Kate Soper: The Understanding of All Things"] The New Yorker
References
{{Reflist}}
{{PulitzerPrize Music Finalists 2011–2020}}
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Category:American women classical composers
Category:American classical composers
Category:Avant-garde composers
Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
Category:Rice University alumni
Category:University of Michigan people
Category:21st-century American composers