Ketty Nez

Composer/pianist Catherine (Ketty) Nez joined the Boston University School of Music in 2005, after teaching for two years at the University of Iowa. “Listen to a Wonder Never Heard Before!,” her portrait CD as composer/pianist, was released in 2010 by Albany Records. Her folk opera, “The Fiddler and the Old Woman of Rumelia,” was premiered in a staged version in May 2012, by Juventas New Music Ensemble. Her piano concerto “thresholds,” performed by Ketty and the Boston University Wind Ensemble, was released in July 2013 by Ravello Records. BUWE also recorded “four scenes for Juliet,” released February 2019 by Summit Records. “double images” was released by Albany Records in May 2020. During the fall of 2021, Ketty was a guest teacher at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary, as a Fulbright scholar.

Ketty completed, in 2002-3, a residence of several months at the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Montbeliard, France, prior to the premiere of her chamber opera “An Opera in Devolution: Drama in 540 Seconds,” at the 2003 Seventh Festival A*Devantgarde in Munich. In 2001, she spent several months as visiting composer/scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), and in 1998 participated in the year-long computer music course at the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). Before computer music studies, Ketty worked for two years with Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam, and co-founded the international contemporary music collective Concerten Tot and Met. She spent a year studying with composer Michio Mamiya in Tokyo before her graduate work, and her music has been performed in festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia.

Ketty holds a Ph.D in composition from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music, and bachelor’s degrees in piano performance from the Curtis Institute of Music, and in psychology from Bryn Mawr College.

Learn more at people.bu.edu/knez.

Creative Works

• “double images” (CD, Albany Records 2020) collaborative duos based on Balkan and Central European folk sources
• “four scenes for Juliet” (CD, Summit Records 2019) with the BU Wind Ensemble
• “thesholds” (CD Ravello Records, 2013) piano concerto with the BU Wind Ensemble
• “Listen to a Wonder Never Heard Before!” (CD Albany Records 2010) chamber works
• “The Fiddler and the Old Woman of Rumelia” (folk opera, premiered 2010)
• “Lina and the Wolf” (opera about the life of Lina Prokofiev, first wife of the composer)

Awards

Fulbright Grant to Hungary, 2021