Composer Andy Akiho Joins the Mannes School of Music Composition Faculty
New York, NY – November 22, 2024 – The Mannes School of Music is thrilled to announce the appointment of celebrated composer Andy Akiho to its distinguished composition faculty. Akiho, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and multi-GRAMMY nominee, brings a visionary approach to contemporary classical music to Mannes. His most recent release, BeLonging has just been nominated for GRAMMYs in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo and Best Classical Compendium categories.
Hailed as a “trailblazing” artist by the Los Angeles Times, Akiho has gained worldwide acclaim for his genre-defying compositions. His works have been featured by leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra, and he has been called “increasingly in demand” by The New York Times for his ability to craft music that emphasizes the natural theatricality of live performance.
Akiho’s recent premieres include Nisei, a sweeping new concerto for cellist and Mannes faculty member Jeffrey Zeigler, which debuted at the 2024 Sun Valley Music Festival, and Sculptures, a groundbreaking, triple GRAMMY®-nominated work for Omaha Symphony honoring renowned visual artist Jun Kaneko. In 2024, Akiho and Imani Winds released the Grammy-nominated BeLonging, a politically charged piece that debuted to critical acclaim.
In 2023, the College of Performing Arts ensemble-in-residence Sandbox Percussion kicked off their residency with a performance of Andy Akiho’s stunning, landmark work Seven Pillars. This groundbreaking piece had a sold-out run at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied and performed by Sandbox Percussion and LA Dance Project.
“I first met Andy in connection with his remarkable composition for Sandbox Percussion, one of our ensembles in residence. As I got to know both Andy and his music better, it was clear that he would be a great fit for the school – we are and want to be. After a few years of talking, Andy is finally here. He is a brilliant composer, percussionist, and wonderful human being who will enrich Mannes significantly, said Richard Kessler, Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and Dean of Mannes School of Music.
“Having begun my composing career in NYC, I’m excited to return to my roots, particularly as part of such a vibrant, innovative community as The New School,” says Akiho. “I can’t wait to work with the students and faculty — both equally inspiring — as we find new, exciting, and unexpected ways to make music together.”
Andy Akiho is the only composer consecutively nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Recent engagements include commissioned premieres by the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Music@Menlo, and The Industry.
Akiho has been recognized via many prestigious awards and organizations, including the Rome Prize, Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission, American Academy of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, Harvard University Fromm Commission, Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, and Chamber Music America. His compositions have been featured by organizations such as Bang on a Can, American Composers Forum, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, and the Heidelberg Festival.
Also a virtuosic steel pannist, Akiho has performed his works with Imani Winds, the LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, the International Drum Festival in Taiwan, and more. Akiho’s recordings No One To Know One, The War Below, Seven Pillars, Oculus, Sculptures, BeLonging, and Kin feature brilliantly crafted compositions inspired by his primary instrument, the steel pan.
As a pannist, Akiho has a deeply physical relationship with playing, which undoubtedly informs his compositions. His style is further shaped by what has undoubtedly been a nontraditional trajectory as a composer: having spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and New York City, Akiho only began writing music at age 28. Still, these social and musical roots remain foundational. Akiho frequently composes into the late hours at coffee shops, nightclubs, and restaurants, taking breaks to get to know those around him. Similarly, Akiho develops relationships with his collaborators, as he writes for people, not instruments.
Akiho was born in 1979 in Columbia, SC, and is currently based in Portland, Oregon and New York City.
The College of Performing Arts at The New School was formed in 2015 and draws together the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of creative excellence, the College of Performing Arts is a hub for vigorous training, cross-disciplinary collaboration, bold experimentation, innovative education, and world-class performances.
The 1,000 students at the College of Performing Arts are actors, performers, writers, improvisers, creative technologists, entrepreneurs, composers, arts managers, and multidisciplinary artists who believe in the transformative power of the arts for all people. Students and faculty collaborate with colleagues across The New School in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, public policy, advocacy, and more.
The curriculum at the College of Performing Arts is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the changing arts and culture landscape. New degrees and coursework, like the new graduate degrees for Performer-Composers and Artist Entrepreneurs are designed to challenge highly skilled artists to experiment, innovate, and engage with the past, present, and future of their artforms. New York City’s Greenwich Village provides the backdrop for the College of Performing Arts, which is housed at Arnhold Hall on West 13th Street and the historic Westbeth Artists Community on Bank Street.
Founded in 1916 by America’s first great violin recitalist and noted educator, David Mannes, and pianist and educator Clara Damrosch Mannes, the Mannes School of Music is a standard-bearer for foundational excellence and radically progressive music education, dedicated to supporting the development of creative and socially engaged artists. Through its undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies programs, Mannes offers a curriculum as imaginative as it is rigorous, taught by a world-class faculty and visiting artists. Distinguished Mannes alumni include the 20th-century songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, the great pianists Michel Camilo, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, and Bill Evans, acclaimed conductors Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, JoAnn Falletta, and Julius Rudel, beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, as well as the great opera stars of today, Yonghoon Lee, Danielle de Niese, and Nadine Sierra. As part of The New School’s College of Performing Arts, together with the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and the School of Drama, Mannes makes its home on The New School’s Greenwich Village campus in a state-of-the-art facility at the newly renovated Arnhold Hall.