At-A-Glance
Biographical
- Born in Trento, Italy, immigrated shortly after to Nogales, Arizona
- Attended Interlochen Arts Academy in Composition
- Graduated The Juilliard School with her Masters in Composition
- Is married to cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, with whom she frequently collaborates
- Has a son Tommaso, who has his own Yo-Yo video channel on YouTube
Fun Facts
- Studied with composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on the island of Hoy.
- Spent a month going down the Colorado River for the project, The Colorado with filmmaker Murat Eyuboglu, conservationist and writer Bill de Buys, Mark Rylance, and Claire Van Kampen, a trip that remains a life highlight
- Helped create the textbook with Jon Deak for composing with kids for the NY Philharmonic, then taught it to young composers in Venezuela with El Sistema
- Loves boxing
- Has two tattoos, one designed by her sister
- Is a regular hiker and loves going for mushrooms in Northern Italy
Career Highlights
- November 2001 - Formed and incorporated her first group, VisionIntoArt
- October 2015 - Launched National Sawdust
- August 2016 - Composed, created and produced The Hubble Cantata, featuring the short Fistful of Stars, the world’s first Virtual Reality mass exploration of the cosmos alongside the Hubble Telescope that transports you inside of the Orion Nebula and reveals the cosmic connections between humans and the stars.
- 2016 - Composed and Produced The Colorado, which has toured and been in over 30 film festivals and with presenters such as the Met Museum and Houston da Camera.
- 2017 - Started the Hildegard Competition, for emerging female, trans, and non-binary composers, and the Blueprint Fellowship in partnership with the Juilliard School composition dept.
- 2018 - First Woman Commissioned in Minnesota New Works Initiative
- 2018 - First New Commission for The Atlanta Opera with Sensorium Ex
- February 2020 - Commissioned to write for The New York Philharmonics Project 19. Created Thrush Song with Maria Popova
Awards
- Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans
- Sundance Fellow
- Artist in Residency with Park Avenue Armory
- Named one of “Top 100 Composers in the World” (NPR)
- “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” (Musical America)
- “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” (The Washington Post)
- Brooklyn Magazine’s 2019 list of “influencers of Brooklyn culture…in perpetuity” alongside household names like Chuck Schumer and Spike Lee
- 2019 Clocktower Award by MASS MoCA in a gala honoring her and artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust.
Dreams
- Collaborate on films with Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino
- Bring My Brilliant Friend to the operatic stage, in honor of her lifelong friendship with her best friend, Carla Cota