Kathryn Salfelder (b. 1987) is fast gaining national recognition as a rising young composer. Recent awards include the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, Ithaca College Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize, US Air Force Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel Award, Japanese Society of Boston Toru Takemitsu Award, and an Encore Grant from the American Composers Forum. Her most recent work for winds, Cathedrals, is published by Boosey & Hawkes, and was featured in over thirty concerts during the 2008-2009 season.
Current commissions include new works for the United States Air Force Band, Washington DC and the American Bandmasters Association. In Fall 2009, her orchestral work, Dessin No. 1, was premiered in Boston by the New England Philharmonic, as winner of their 2009-2010 Call for Scores. The following month, it was performed by the Minnesota Orchestra on the Future Classics! Concert, in conjunction with their Ninth Annual Composer Institute.
An accomplished performer, Ms. Salfelder has served as resident associate conductor and rehearsal pianist for the Fiddlehead Theatre Company (Norwood, Massachusetts) and pianist for the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and Jordan Winds. She has also appeared on New England Conservatory’s Composer’s Series, Tuesday Night New Music and Chamber Music concerts, was twice featured as soloist with the North Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and won the 2003 and 2001 Andrew George De Grado Solo Piano Competitions.
Ms. Salfelder earned a BM in Composition with Academic Honors from New England Conservatory, where she studied with Michael Gandolfi. At NEC Commencement, she was awarded the 2009 Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition and the 2009 George Chadwick Medal, NEC’s highest undergraduate honor. She is currently studying with Aaron Jay Kernis, pursuing a MM in Composition at the Yale School of Music.
