Composer and bassoonist Katherine Young writes acoustic and electro-acoustic music, often using open forms and expressive, non-traditional notations.
As a performer she works as an interpreter of contemporary chamber music, improvises, and plays with pop/rock bands. Katherine performs regularly in Architeuthis Walks on Land, her duo with violist Amy Cimini. With the trio Civil War, she has released two recordings on the Longbox label, When Fact Threatens Belief (2005) and The Brutality of Fact (2006). Her playing on the latter has been described as full of "undulating notes on the verge of exhaustion [that] explore impressive multiphonics and stomach-gripping glissandos." She actively collaborates with improvisers such as Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jessica Pavone,Carol Genetti, Guillermo Gregorio, and Jason Ajemian. She recently recorded in a quartet with Anthony Braxton. She also works with James Falzone's Allos Consort and played for several years with the piratical crew The William Young. Katherine is a founding member of the contemporary chamber music collective Till by Turning.
As a composer, Katherine's pieces have been performed throughout the US -- including at Music05 in Cincinnati, where she worked with Allen Otte, and in New York and Chicago. Katherine also looks to work collaboratively: With Adam Sonderberg, she creates droning computer-based sound assemblages, two of which will be published soon by the L’innombale label. And she and Jonathan Zorn are working to develop pieces for bass, bassoon, and interactive electronics.
Katherine is currently living in Connecticut, working with Anthony Braxton, Ron Kuivila, and Alvin Lucier for her Master’s in composition at Wesleyan University. She graduated with bassoon performance and comparative literature degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2003. There she worked with Lewis Nielson, and in 2005 she received a city of Chicago CAAP grant to study composition with Stacy Garrop.