Elizabeth Younan : Associate Artist
- Browse works by Elizabeth Younan
- Browse articles by and about Elizabeth Younan
- Browse events featuring music by Elizabeth Younan
Email:
Artist website: http://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-younan
Artist website: http://elizabethyounan.com
Elizabeth Younan (1994) is quickly gaining a reputation as one of Australia's finest young composers. Her violin solo, …your heart dreams of spring is featured on Jennifer Koh's 2022 GRAMMY award-winning album, Alone Together. Elizabeth is a Sydney Symphony Orchestra "50 Fanfares Project" composer, the composer for the podcast "Lost Women of Science" (produced in partnership with PRX and Scientific American), and has her piece, The Fertile Crescent-inspired by her Lebanese heritage-commissioned, recorded, and broadcast by ABC Classic. Elizabeth was a featured Australian composer of Musica Viva Australia's International Concert Seasons (2018, 2020), the 2021-2022 Layton Emerging Fellowship Composer (UNSW), and has composed for principal players of the Philadelphia Orchestra for their "Our City, Your Orchestra" series.
Elizabeth is currently the Composer-in-Residence at Santa Sabina College (class of 2011), and the Back to Bach Project, where she is also the Regional Director of Australia's first branch in Sydney. Accolades include a Daniel W. Dietrich II Young Alumni Fund Award from the Curtis Institute of Music, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Kendall National Violin Competition's Watermark Composition Prize, two Willgoss Prize Commissions in association with USYD and UNSW, the 102.5 Fine Music and Willoughby Symphony Young Composer Award, and the Jean Bogan Youth Prize.
Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition with First Class Honours (2015) and a Master of Music (2018) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she studied with Carl Vine AO. She was awarded the Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize, a research grant from the Australia Council for her Honours thesis, and the Australian Postgraduate Award (2016-2018). Elizabeth graduated from her composition studies at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (2021), which all students attend on full scholarship. She graduated with the Charles Miller "Alfredo Casella" Award for excellence in composition and was selected by staff and faculty to be the female graduating speaker for the class of 2021. She studied with Dr. Jennifer Higdon, Dr. David Serkin Ludwig, Dr. Richard Danielpour and Dr. Amy Beth Kirsten as the first Australian composer to be admitted to Curtis in its nearly 100-year history. Elizabeth has been awarded a prestigious 2024 Australian Universities' John Monash Scholarship from the General Sir John Monash Foundation, and she looks forward to pursuing her doctorate in composition overseas in 2024.
Elizabeth Younan — current to November 2023
Studied with
Carl Vine (2014 - 2018)
Richard Danielpour (2018 - 2021)
Jennifer Higdon (2018 - 2021)
David Serkin Ludwig (2018 - 2021)
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Momentum Commissions | MOMENTUM III - Sue W COVID-19 Special Commissions | Poem |
2019 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Instrumental | Finalist | Piano Sonata |
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
Poem : violin with piano | Commissioned as part of the Momentum III Sue-W Covid-19 Special commissions | |
Fantasia No. VIII : for solo bassoon (2022) | Dommissioned by Geoff Stern, Joan and Barry Miskin, Elise Callander, Jennifer Bryce, and Tony Thomas. | |
Lone Song : for solo trombone (2021) | Composed as a 3rd year AD student to fulfil studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. | |
Interwoven : String Quartet No. 1 (2019) | Commissioned by Cathy Brown-Watt for performance by Musica Viva Society of Australia. | |
Fantasia No. I : for solo viola : viola solo (2019) | Composed for the 2019 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival | |
Piano Sonata (solo piano) (2018) | Commissioned by Julian Burnside for performance by Musica Viva Australia. |