AGÓCS, Kati

Hailed as “a composer of imposing artistic gifts” (Gramophone Magazine) and “one of the brightest stars in her generation of composers” (Audiophile Audition), Kati Agócs (KAH-tee AH-goach) creates “sublime music of fluidity and austere beauty” (The Boston Globe). Reflecting a multicultural upbringing and her own experience as a vocalist, Kati’s music gives new expression to both folk melodies and sacred rituals––and distills diverse traditions into her own unique voice that “demands to be heard” (The New York Times). A recent Guggenheim Fellow, she is also a winner of the prestigious Arts and Letters Award, the lifetime achievement award in music composition from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recordings of her music have been recognized with the 2022 GRAMMY® Award (as part of Jennifer Koh’s album “Alone Together”), as well as two nominations for Classical Composition of the Year in the Canadian Juno Awards.2025-2026 Season highlights include the Banff International String Quartet Competition, a triennial event in which nine quartets from around the world premiered her newly commissioned Rapprochement; a residency and portrait concert at New York University featuring the NYC premiere of her Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (with Jonathan Haas conducting); a world premiere by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for string orchestra and amplified harpsichord (with Jeri Lynne Johnson conducting); a new horn trio (French horn, violin, and piano) for James Sommerville and the Belvedere series (Richmond, VA); and premieres with the Vancouver Bach Choir (with Les Dala conducting) and the New York Philharmonic (with Gustavo Dudamel conducting). Recent works include Hosanna of the Clouds, a work for soprano soloist, chorus, and orchestra commissioned by the Jebediah Foundation; her piano concerto Transluminescence, commissioned by the Esther Honens International Piano Competition for Nicolas Namoradze; a Horn Concerto for James Sommerville co-commissioned by a consortium of five orchestras in the U.S and Canada; and the cantata Voices of the Immaculate for Lucy Dhegrae and Third Sound Ensemble. As part of its Composer Portraits series, Miller Theatre in New York presented a Kati Agócs portrait concert featuring the world premiere of Voices of the Immaculate, co-commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. In The New York Times, Zachary Woolfe wrote: “For once, singing of complete and utter clarity…a simmering new cantata, conceived with transparency as a first principle…entirely, word for word, lucid…her text demands to be heard, and is.”