Gity Razaz
Composer / Keyboard

Gity Razaz (b. 1986) started her musical studies in piano at age seven in Tehran, Iran and began composing intuitively at age nine. Her formal training in composition began when she moved to United States in 2002. Gity attended the University of Houston, double-majoring in Pre-Medicine and Music Composition with a minor in Piano Performance. After completing two years of Pre-Med, she transferred to the Juilliard School to focus on composition.

Last November Gity's new work for cello octet, "The Strange Highway", was premiered at the 3rd International Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The work was commissioned by the American cellist Richard Aaron for the Amsterdam Cello Biennale, and was performed by the All-American cello band. In 2009 Gity's first composition for orchestra, "In the Midst of Flux..." was the winner of the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Alliance for Women in Music Search for New Music Competition, the ASCAP Morton Gould Award (2009), the annual Juilliard Composers' Orchestra Competition as well as an honorable mention from the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.

Numerous works of hers have earned honors and recognition, notably from the Brian Israel Composition Prize (2007 and 2008), the Margaret Blackburn memorial composition competition (2007), and the Serafim Contest (2006). Gity's Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra (2009), commissioned by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, was given its world premiere in December 2009 by the Albany Symphony in three consecutive performances in New York and Massachusetts. The Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra was the winner of the Palmer Dixon Prize- awarded by the Juilliard School composition faculty to the most outstanding composition of the year- as well as recognition from ASCAP Morton Gould Award (2010). Gity's first string quartet was performed in a series of concerts given by the American Composers Orchestra in celebration of the Immigrant Heritage Week, presented in conjunction with the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Gity received her Bachelor's in composition from The Juilliard School last May. She is currently in her first year of graduate studies in composition at Juilliard, studying with Robert Beaser. She has studied composition with Samuel Adler and John Corigliano at Juilliard, and Robert Nelson at Moores School of Music (UH).

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