Liza White's music draws on a broad spectrum of real life experiences, including growing up in the 80's and 90's, living in major cities, enjoying a wide variety of music and cultural entertainment, and exploring issues of social justice. Liza's work has been performed by Alarm Will Sound, Fifth House Ensemble, the Charlestown Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, Danny Holt, the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, ALEA III under Gunther Schuller, and many other world class musicians. Liza has won awards including the Craig and Janet Swan Prize, the Margaret Blackburn Composition Competition, and an Emil and Ruth Beyer Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs. She has participated in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, New Music on the Point, California Summer Music, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Composers’ Conference at Wellesley College, and she has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Hambidge Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Liza has studied at Boston University, the New England Conservatory of
Music, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Royal College of Music
in London, England. Liza co-founded and co-directed Embryonic NOISE!, a
Boston area concert series featuring works by emerging composers, and has also
taught general music in the Boston Public Schools. She is currently living in Chicago, working toward a Doctor of Music degree in Composition at Northwestern
University and teaching composition, music theory, and aural skills at Northwestern, Access Contemporary Music, the Merit School of Music, and People's Music School.
