Composer, oboist, and installation artist Sky Macklay will join the composition faculty of the Peabody Conservatory beginning in the 2021-22 academic year.
Known for music that is conceptual yet expressive, exploring extreme contrasts, surreal tonality, audible processes, humor, and the physicality of sound, Macklay has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chamber Music America (with Splinter Reeds and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble), the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (with Ensemble Dal Niente), the Barlow Endowment (with andPlay), the Jerome Fund for New Music (with ICE saxophonist Ryan Muncy), and Kronos Quartet’s 50 for the Future project. Upcoming commissions include new works for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Klangforum Wien. As a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, she is also collaborating with French ensemble 2e2m. As a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, her next project is a chamber music album that will synthesize her work as a composer and her raucous, multiphonic-rich oboe performance practice.
Macklay’s music has been recognized with awards and fellowships from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Civitella Ranieri, and ASCAP, and has been featured at international festivals such as Gaudeamus Muziekweek, The BBC Scottish Symphony’s Tectonics Festival, and the ISCM World New Music Days. Since being recorded on Spektral Quartet’s GRAMMY-nominated album in 2017, her iconic string quartet Many Many Cadences has been performed around the world and is studied in university composition and theory classes.
Macklay completed her DMA in composition at Columbia University where she studied with George Lewis, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Fred Lerdahl. She also holds degrees from The University of Memphis (MM) and Luther College (BA). Before joining the Peabody faculty, she was Assistant Professor of Music at Valparaiso University. Her music is published by Edition Peters.
