biography.
Sarah Rimkus (b. 1990) is an award-winning American composer of choral, vocal and chamber works. She brings a wide range of influences to her music, from ars antiqua and ars nova polyphony to Balkan and Scandinavian folk traditions and many other sources. Her work often explores issues such as communication, belonging, and relationship to the environment through use of contemporary themes and musical layering. Her music has been described as “powerful and well-judged” with a language that “ranges from uncluttered lyrical poignancy to denser textures that suggest a holy clamor.”
Her choral and vocal works have been commissioned and performed extensively across the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere by ensembles such as The Esoterics, SACRA/PROFANA, and The Gesualdo Six. Much of her inspiration in her choral music stems from her inventive text choices, which come from sources ranging from historic and scientific primary source documents to works by living poets. She has also written instrumental works for performers and organizations including The Ligeti Quartet, Cheltenham Music Festival and Red Note Ensemble. Her works have been professionally recorded by ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic, featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and published by GIA Publications and Walton Music, among others. She has been internationally recognized through awards including the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein award. Dr. Rimkus is currently a composition instructor at Michigan Technological University. She received her MM and PhD in music composition PhD from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and her BM in composition from the University of Southern California. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she is currently based in the Twin Cities. |