Katherine Balch ’16 MusM

Katherine Balch is an associate professor of composition at Yale School of Music. Her music, described as “spellbinding,” captures the magic of everyday sounds, inviting audiences into a sonic world characterized by imagination, discovery, and textural lyricism.
 
Balch’s work has been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Minnesota, Oregon, Albany, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Tokyo. She has been featured on IRCAM’s ManiFeste, Fontainebleau Music Festival, and Festival MANCA in France, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK, Suntory Summer Arts and Takefu Music Festival in Japan, and the Aspen, Norfolk, Santa Fe, and Tanglewood music festivals in the United States. Her work has been presented in major global venues including Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Winner of a 2025 Guggenheim fellowship and the 20/21 Rome Prize, Balch was nominated by violinist Hilary Hahn for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Career Advancement Award. She has also been honored by ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, the Barlow Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, the Serge Koussevitsky Music Foundation, and Wigmore Hall.
 
Balch was the 2017–2020 composer-in-residence for the California Symphony and held the 2017–2019 William B. Butz Composition Chair at Young Concert Artists, Inc. She has previously served on the faculties of Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute, Mannes School of Music, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, the Walden School and Bard College-Conservatory Prep. She holds a DMA from Columbia University and a MusM from Yale School of Music.