Nina Shekhar
Nina Shekhar is a composer whose work explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter. Her music has been performed by Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, ETHEL, Music from Copland House, Ensemble Échappé, Jennifer Koh, Tony Arnold, Third Angle New Music, Lyris Quartet, Ray-Kallay Duo, and The New York Virtuoso Singers, and has been featured by Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall, National Gallery of Art, National Sawdust, I Care If You Listen, ScoreFollower, and WNYC/New Sounds, WFMT, and KUSC radio. Current projects include works for Albany Symphony, 45th Parallel Universe, saxophonist Timothy McAllister, HEAR NOW Music Festival, and New York Youth Symphony. Nina is a recipient of the ASCAP Morton Gould Award (2015 and 2019) and 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award.
Nina recently completed composition graduate studies at the University of Southern California, studying with Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, and Nina Young and serving as an aural skills and composition teaching assistant. She will begin her doctorate in composition at Princeton University beginning Fall 2020. She is a Debut Fellow of the Young Musicians Foundation, mentored by Vijay Gupta. Nina earned undergraduate degrees in music composition and chemical engineering at University of Michigan.