Gity Razaz
Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing” and named a 2022 “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine, Gity Razaz composes music that ranges from concert solo pieces to large symphonic works. Ms. Razaz’s music has been commissioned and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, violinist Jennifer Koh, League of the American Orchestras, violinist Francesca dePasquale, Metropolis Ensemble, Canada’s National Ballet School, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, New York Choreographic Institute, American Composers Orchestra, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale among many others.
Recent works include a piece for Alisa Weilerstein and her ground-breaking project Fragments, and a commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo for the prestigious Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Upcoming commissions include a collaboration with Israeli Chamber Project and the Grammy-winning tenor, Karim Sulayman, as well as a concerto for world-renowned flautist Sharon Bezaly and the United Strings of Europe.
Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the 2019 Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that is “is given to a composer of demonstrated artistic merit in mid-career”, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, ASCAP Plus Awards, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award for the outstanding composition of the year in 2010 and 2012, as well as special recognition from the Brian Israel Composition Prize, Margaret Blackburn Memorial Competition, the League of Composers (ISCM), to name a few.
Gity’s debut album, “The Strange Highway,” which was recently released on Sweden’s historic BIS Records, has garnered national and International praise. As described by BBC Music Magazine “There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer, the Opening title work, for cello octet, is a wild rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”
Aside from her ongoing engagements in composition, Ms. Razaz is also active as a teacher and an educator. She has appeared as a guest artist presenting master classes across the nation while teaching composition privately in New York. Ms. Razaz joined the faculty of Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she taught music theory and ear training in 2012-2013, and served on the advisory committee for the American Federation of Teachers Graduate Scholarship. From 2017-2021, Ms. Razaz offered composition teaching and mentorship for the Luna Composition Lab, a program founded in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center, while holding a teaching artist position at the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program. She is a composition faculty at Mannes School of Music prep division.
Iranian-American composer Gity Razaz started her musical studies in piano at a young age and began composing music at age nine. Ms. Razaz received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition from The Juilliard School. She has studied with Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and John Corigliano.