Sky Macklay
Sky Macklay (born 1988) is an American composer of concert music and an oboist. She was winner of the Leo Kaplan Award (the top prize in the Morton Gould Young Composer Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in 2013 and 2016.[1][2] Born in Waseca, Minnesota, she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2018.[3] She also holds degrees from The University of Memphis (MM) and Luther College (BA).[4] She is a founding member of Ghost Ensemble.[5] Previously, she served as Assistant Professor of Composition at Valparaiso University.[6] and serves as Lecturer of Composition at the Peabody Institute.[7]
Biography
Early life and musical education
Macklay started off playing oboe at the age of 10, and was an active participant in choir growing up. She also picked up the piano around the age of 12. By the time she was in her late teens, 17 or 18, she started composing. This focus on composition was later formalized during her sophomore year of undergraduate studies for her BA degree at Luther College. Alongside her interest in composition, she did continue on with her studies in oboe, even through her MM degree at The University of Memphis.[8]
Under the mentorship of George Lewis, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Fred Lerdahl, she completed her DMA degree in composition from Columbia University in the City of New York.[4]
Selected compositions
Macklay has published a complete list of her works.[4] These include:
- Dissolving Bands (2012), an abstract orchestral reflection on the American Revolutionary War, commissioned by the Lexington Symphony and The Walden School for the tercentennial of Lexington, Massachusetts. The title is a reference to the United States Declaration of Independence.[9] It won the 2013 Leo Kaplan Award, the top prize in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.[1]
- Harmonibots (2015), a sonic and kinetic installation of inflatable harmonica-playing robots commissioned by the International Alliance for Women in Music.[10][11]
- Many Many Cadences (2016), a string quartet for Spektral Quartet, Macklay's second ASCAP Award recipient and a Grammy nominee.[12]
References
- Hayes, Tim (2013-03-28). "The ASCAP Foundation Names Recipients of the 2013 Morton Gould Young Composers Awards". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Press release). Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- Nevins, Cathy (2016-04-01). "The ASCAP Foundation Names 2016 Morton Gould Young Composer Award Recipients". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Press release). Retrieved 2016-04-11.
...Sky Macklay of New York, NY (Waseca, MN);...
- "Sky Macklay Wins Morton Gould Young Composer Award". The Department of Music at Columbia University. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- Sky Macklay. "Sky Macklay: Works". skymacklay.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- Carey, Christian. 24 Jun 2017. "Ghost Ensemble: We Who Walk Again (LP Review)" http://www.sequenza21.com/2018/06/ghost-ensemble-we-who-walk-again-lp-review/ Sequenza21. 24 Jun 2017. Web. 18 Jan. 2020.
- Valparaiso University. "Sky Macklay" https://www.valpo.edu/music/about/faculty/sky-macklay/
- Peabody Institute. "Sky Macklay" https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/sky-macklay/
- Frank J. Oteri (June 2017). "Sky Macklay: Why I Love Weird Contemporary Music". New Music USA. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
Oboe came first. I always really loved music, and when I was a kid I was in choir. I started playing oboe when I was ten, and I was really into it. Then I started getting serious about piano at 12 and studied pretty seriously in my teens. I started composing when I was 17 or 18, not that early. One of my creative outlets before that was that my friends and I had sort of a movie-making collective called AnimeSpoof.com; we did spoofs of anime, but also other funny movies. I sometimes did music for that and then late in high school, I started writing songs. I became serious about composing my sophomore year of college and became a composition major. But I always kept playing oboe and was serious about that, too, and kept studying it through my master's degree.
- Sky Mackley. "Dissolving Bands". skymacklay.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
As I was searching for a title for my piece, I recalled the first sentence in the Declaration of Independence which begins, "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands...
- "Harmonibots". Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. 2015. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- "Sky Macklay". Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
- Valparaiso University. "Sky Macklay" https://www.valpo.edu/music/about/faculty/sky-macklay/ Web. 24 Jan. 2020.