Amelia S. Kaplan

Amelia Kaplan (b. 1963) is a composer of concert music that primarily explores gesture, equally drawing upon pitch and timbre. As a reflection of a multifaceted life, most works are based on multiple unrelated musical strands (rather than a single idea) which jump back and forth, find commonality, and occasionally part ways.

Kaplan’s music has been performed at numerous contemporary music festivals around the U.S. and in Europe, including the SCI national conference, SICPP, Wellesley Composers Conference, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt, June in Buffalo, and others. She has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kaplan is Associate Professor of Composition at Ball State University in Muncie IN. She has previously taught at Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Iowa, and Roosevelt University. Kaplan completed her A.B. at Princeton University, and her A.M. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago as a Century Fellow, where her primary teachers were Shulamit Ran and Ralph Shapey. She worked with Azio Corghi at the Milan Conservatory on a Whiting Fellowship, and also received a Diploma of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana while studying with Franco Donatoni, and a Diploma from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau.