Background
PhD, Northwestern University
Alissa Voth (she/her) is a composer, visual artist, and educator based in Chicago. Her music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles such as the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Contemporaneous Ensemble, Stare at the Sun, Mycelium New Music, the Unheard-Of Ensemble, Missing Piece, and the Constellation Men’s Ensemble. Her music has been featured in programs such as the MISE-EN festival, the New Music Gathering, Ear Taxi festival, and Burning Man.
Her music ranges from patient, minimalist explorations of tonal space to visceral, noise-driven textures. She uses both traditional and graphic notation, incorporating extended techniques, elements of indeterminacy, prepared instruments, and found objects in her scores.
She received her PhD from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where she wrote for the Contemporary Music Ensemble, presented at the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC!), and taught aural skills, music theory, and class composition. Her dissertation, “Keeping Score of Things: Assemblages, New Materialism, and New Music,” focuses on object participation in contemporary music. She received her MM from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, which she returns to as composition faculty at the High School Composition Intensive.
Her visual art combines paper weaving with the recurring motif of houses. Her work has been shown in a solo exhibition – My First House Was Red – at Yes Project Space, and in group exhibitions and publications by the Chicago Collage Community. At one point in time, it went viral on TikTok.