Kati Agócs

Kati Ilona Agócs
Agócs in December 2015
Agócs in December 2015
Background information
Born (1975-01-20) January 20, 1975
OriginWindsor, Ontario, Canada
GenresContemporary classical
OccupationComposer
Websitewww.katiagocs.com

Kati Ilona Agócs (born January 20, 1975) is a Canadian-American composer and a member of the composition faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Education

Agócs attended the Juilliard School in New York where she earned a Master's and Doctoral degrees under the guidance of Milton Babbitt.[1] She was a composition fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Tanglewood Music Center, where she held the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellowship in 2007.[2] She was a voice student of Adele Addison.[3]

Career

From 2005 to 2006, she lived in Budapest and wrote on the new-music scene in Hungary for the journal The Musical Times.[4] She had previously organized an exchange program between the Juilliard School and the Liszt Academy.[5] The Hungarian-language weekly, Bécsi Napló (Vienna Journal) acknowledged her contribution to the visibility of Hungarian composers abroad.[6] She served as Composer in Residence for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2010.[7]

Agócs was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013.[8] In 2014 the American Academy of Arts and Letters named her as recipient of the Arts and Letters Award in Music.[9] She maintains a work studio in Flatrock, Newfoundland, Canada.[10]

Personal life

Agócs has one daughter, Olivia.[11]

Music

Boston Modern Orchestra Project recorded and released the 2016 album The Debrecen Passion,[12] named one of the top 10 Classical albums of 2016 by the Boston Globe.[13] The title track of this album was nominated in 2017 by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for a Juno Award, Classical Composition of the Year.[14][15]

In 2022, her Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra was also nominated for Classical Composition of the Year.[16]

Agócs has written on American music for the journal Tempo[17] and also created a critical edition of the Symphony in A Major by Leopold Damrosch.[18]

Select principal works

Solo and chamber works up to seven instruments

  • Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (Solo violin and six percussionists) 2018.[19] Recorded performance by violinist Nicholas Kitchen and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble led by director Frank Epstein.[20]
  • Crystallography (Soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion) 2012 (Text: Christian Bök)[21]
  • Every Lover is a Warrior (Solo harp) 2005[22][23]
  • Hyacinth Curl (Two high voices and handbells) 2016[24]
  • Hymn (Saxophone quartet) 2005[25]
  • Immutable Dreams (Flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano) 2006.[26]
  • Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) 2018[27]
  • In Spiritu (French horn, violin, piano) 2026[28]
  • Queen of Hearts (Piano Trio No. 1) 2017[29]
  • Rapprochement (String Quartet No. 3) 2025[30]
  • Voices of the Immaculate (Lyric mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano/celeste) 2021 (Text: assembled by the composer: fragments from Revelations and testimony from survivors of abuse by clergy)[31]

Orchestra / large ensemble works

  • By the Streams of Babylon (Two amplified soprano voices and chamber orchestra) 2009 (Text: Psalm 137 in Latin)[32]
  • The Debrecen Passion (Twelve female voices and chamber orchestra) 2015 (Text: poems by Szilárd Borbély in Hungarian; Lamentations of Mary in modern Hungarian translation by Ferenc Molnár [fragments]; Ana B’Choach [in Hebrew]; Stabat Mater Specioso [fragments, in Latin]; Thou Art a Vineyard [hymn text in Georgian])[33][34]
  • Devotion (French horn, harp, and string orchestra) 2014, arranged from string quintet version[35]
  • Elysium (Chamber Orchestra and Recorded Sound)[36]
  • Horn Concerto (Solo Horn and Chamber Orchestra) 2021[37][38]
  • Hosanna of the Clouds (Solo Soprano, SATB Chorus, and Chamber Orchestra) 2025 (Text: Excerpts from Psalms 27 & 39 and Books of Luke, Isaiah, and Revelations in Latin; Prayer in Aramaic; Free verse in Latin and English)[39]
  • ..like treasure hidden in a field (Chamber Orchestra) 2010[40]
  • Perpetual Summer (Large Orchestra with Amplified and Processed Solo String Sextet) 2010; rev. 2012[41]
  • Requiem Fragments (Chamber Orchestra) 2008[42]
  • Shenanigan (Orchestra) 2011[43]
  • Transluminescence — Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Solo Piano and Orchestra) 2022[44]

References

  1. ↑ Robin, William (2016-01-13). "Making Milton Babbitt's Legacy Less Fearsome". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "The ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellowship at Tanglewood". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Wassenberg, Anya (2024-07-09). "Banff International String Quartet Competition Updates: Jury, Competition, Canadian Commission". Ludwig van Toronto. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  4. ↑ Agócs, Kati (2006). "The mechanics of culture: new music in Hungary since 1990". The Musical Times. 1896 (246): 5–18. doi:10.2307/25434400. JSTOR 25434400.
  5. ↑ Juilliard Journal, October 2005, Raymond J. Lustig, "Twin Concerts Foster a New York-Budapest Exchange of New Music"
  6. ↑ "Hungarian Music Week in New York". Bécsi Napló. 1 (1). Zentralverband. March–April 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  7. ↑ Sierra, Gabrielle (2010-06-04). "Nat'l Youth Orch. of Canada Announces 50th Anniversary Tour Dates". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  8. ↑ Kjellberg, Samuel (2015-01-21). "A Tribute to Borbély, a Poet of Our Time". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  9. ↑ "Music awards press release". American Academy of Arts and Letters. March 5, 2014. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Composer Kati Agócs reveals sacred music as source of resistance in Hosanna of the Clouds". Stir. 2026-02-17. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  11. ↑ Balch, Katherine (2017-07-10). "Mentor, Me—Sustained Musical Mentorship - New Music USA". newmusicusa.org. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  12. ↑ Rosenberg, Donald (5 October 2017). "AGÓCS The Debrecen Passion". www.gramophone.co.uk.
  13. ↑ "Top 10 classical albums". Boston Globe. 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  14. ↑ "Boston Modern Orchestra Project". Boston Modern Orchestra Project. 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "2017 Juno Nominees". Juno Award. 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Here's the full list of 2022 Juno nominees". CBC. March 4, 2022.
  17. ↑ Agócs, Kati (2008-10-02). "Two recent concertos by George Tsontakis". Tempo. 62 (246): 11–21. doi:10.1017/S0040298208000247. S2CID 145205416. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
  18. ↑ Agócs, Kati (2005). Recent Researches in American Music. A-R Editions. ISBN 9780895795823. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Steiman, Harvey (10 August 2019). "Review: Lugansky, Hadelich in majestic recitals at Aspen Music Festival and School". Aspen Times. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "Kati Agócs: Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra". YouTube. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  21. ↑ "The new music festival 2014". vanclassicalmusic.com. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  22. ↑ "agócs-olympics". NEC Music. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  23. ↑ "Kati Agócs: "John Riley" from "Every Lover is a Warrior"". Canadian Music Centre. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  24. ↑ Madonna, Zoë (2016-01-27). "Hub New Music transports with all-Kati Agócs program". The Boston Globe. ISSN 0743-1791. Retrieved 2026-08-21.
  25. ↑ "Hymn Kati Agócs". Canadian Music Centre. 18 December 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  26. ↑ "Eighth Blackbird Soars in Modern Mode". Cleveland.com. March 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  27. ↑ Travers, Andrew (27 June 2018). "Jupiter String Quartet to open Aspen Music Festival season". The Aspen Times. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  28. ↑ Malone, Andrew Lindemann (2026-06-02). "A Revelation in Brass: The Belvedere Series at Louis F. Ryan Recital Hall, 5/31/2026". DMV Classical. Retrieved 2026-08-21.
  29. ↑ "Queen of Hearts (Piano Trio #1)". Kati Agócs. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  30. ↑ "Competitors announced for 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition". The Strad. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  31. ↑ Woolfe, Zachary (10 December 2021). "Review: For Once, Singing of Complete and Utter Clarity". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  32. ↑ "Kati Agócs performance of By the Streams of Babylon". Canadian Music Centre. 1 February 2009. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  33. ↑ "Agócs Draws Hungarian Poetry for BMOP Premiere". Boston Globe. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  34. ↑ "A Tribute to Borbély, a Poet of Our Time". The Boston Music Intelligencer. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  35. ↑ BFC (2014-02-12). "Review: Boston Symphony Chamber Players turns 50 with four world premieres". Symphony. Retrieved 2026-08-21.
  36. ↑ "Ensemble Contemporain : Véronique et ses 26 flûtes". La Presse (in Canadian French). 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  37. ↑ Horlyk, Earl (11 November 2021). "Sioux City Symphony Orchestra to premiere new Concerto by award‑winning composer". Sioux City Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  38. ↑ "Review: Sioux City Symphony world premiere of Kati Agócs horn concerto". The Hub. League of American Orchestras. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  39. ↑ "Superior Palmistry". The Classical Scene. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  40. ↑ Powers, Keith (2016-01-21). "Composer-Performer Kati Agócs Intermingles Sacred And Secular In First Recording". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2026-08-21.
  41. ↑ Tillotson, Kristin (16 January 2015). "Emerging composers take center stage at Minnesota Orchestra". Star Tribune. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  42. ↑ Guerrieri, Matthew (31 May 2010). "BMOP's feast of new music". Boston.com. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  43. ↑ Terauds, John (27 September 2012). "Bright colours, dull pianist in Toronto Symphony evening". Toronto Star. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  44. ↑ Nahabedian, Clover (2023-01-24). "5 Questions to Kati Agócs (composer)". I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. Retrieved 2026-08-21.
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