Ketty Nez

Ketty Nez joined the composition and theory department at 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 album 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 Nez 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. Her albums of chamber music with Albany Records also include double images (2020), and far sight sun light (2023). During the fall term of 2021, Nez was a guest teacher at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary, as a Fulbright scholar. In 2024, Nez co-founded the BiND Ensemble with saxophonist Jennifer Bill and violist Daniel Doña. 

In 2002–2003, Nez completed 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 Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). Before computer music studies, Nez 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. Nez 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, a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Bryn Mawr College.