Hannah Lash, Composer

Hannah Lash has had her music performed widely in such venues as the Times Center, Chicago Art Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, Harvard University, and on the American Opera Project's stage in New York City. She has received commissions from The Howard Hanson Foundation's Commissioning Fund and Case Western Reserve's University Circle Wind Ensemble, among others; she has written pieces for such artists and ensembles as Yolanda Kondonassis, Abigail Fischer, the Arditti Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and Ensemble NEM. Lash has received numerous honors and prizes, including the Barnard Rogers Prize in Composition, the Bernard and Rose Sernoffsky Prize in Composition, and Honorable Mention in BMI's International Women's Music Commission. Her recent orchestral work, Leave, was selected to be performed by Harvard University's Composer's Orchestra.

A performance of Lash's song cycle "From Five Tzu-Yeh Songs" was acclaimed by the Chicago Sun Times: "Lash's songs were...worldly, sending Bentley [the soprano] into huge, perilous leaps against austere accompaniment from Barbara Butler's trumpet and Michael Burritt's percussion. At times, Butler's muted trumpet took on a film noirish quality floating behind Bentley's often-whispered words like a distant breeze rustling across rain-soaked streets." Esteemed music critic Bruce Hodges praised Lash's piece "Stalk" for solo harp as being "appealing...florid, and introspective."

In addition to performances of her music in the USA, Lash's music is known internationally. In April of 2008, her string quartet "Four Still" was performed in Kyev in the Ukraine's largest international new music festival: "Musical Premieres of the Season," curated by Carson Cooman.

Lash's composition teachers have included Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Morris, Steven Stucky, Bernard Rands, and Martin Bresnick. She completed her undergraduate degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music. Currently she is a candidate for the Ph.D in composition at Harvard University.

Also a concert harpist, Hannah Lash received a Performance Certificate in harp at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2008 where she was a student of Yolanda Kondonassis. She has additional studies at the Salzedo Harp Colony with Alice Chalifoux.