Assoc. Professor; Assoc. Chair

Music

 

Iddo Aharony is a composer of contemporary electronic and acoustic music, as well as environmental and multimedia compositions. Continuously exploring the myriad intersections of sound, environment, culture, and technology, his body of work spans a wide variety of instrumentations, media, and interdisciplinary collaborations, from a fully-staged opera to various experimental projects utilizing live electronics, created together with visual artists, theater directors, scientists, and other musicians.

Aharony’s music explores unconventional dialogues between different and often conflicting voices. His electroacoustic work focuses on creating new ways for performers to engage in a fluid real-time interplay with their computer-spawned counterparts. In addition, it examines unpredictable relationships between the visual and the sonic, and the liminal spaces between organic and synthetic sounds.

He has collaborated closely with ensembles and musicians including Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, Pacifica Quartet and soprano Tony Arnold. His electronic and acoustic music has been performed in the United States, France, Italy, Argentina, Britain, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Israel, and Australia, and programmed at international festivals such as International Computer Music Conference, Ear Taxi Contemporary Music Festival, SEAMUS, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, Currents New Media, Espacios Sonoros, June in Buffalo, and Valencia International Performance Festival. Among his awards are the 2019 Playground Ensemble annual composition prize and commission, the 2014 soundSCAPE festival first composition prize and commission, and fellowships from MacDowell, Ucross Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. His work “...and later, without a sound" was selected for the exhibition “AUDIOSPHERE” at Spain's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (2020), while his first opera (“Oedipus”) was commissioned by the Israel Festival of Culture (2011).

Aharony serves as Artistic Director for social activist multimedia group Fused Muse Ensemble and served as Co-Director for Project Incubator. His primary teachers include Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, Marta Ptaszyńska, Howard Sandroff, Jeffrey Hass, Sven-David Sandström, Don Freund and Joseph Dorfman. A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, he received an MM in Computer Music Composition from Indiana University (Bloomington) and a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Chicago (2016). 
 
At Colorado College, Aharony serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology, and as the Christine S. Johnson Professor of Music. He teaches courses on Digital Music Production, Experimental Music, Songwriting, Environment and Sound, and other music-centered and multidisciplinary topics.