Farangis Nurulla-Khoja

1. “Daidu” Concerto for violin, string orchestra, and three percussion instruments Won 2nd Prize at the Grazyna Bacewicz International Composer Competition in Lodz, Pologne in 2015 Running 18:46 “Daidu” is a 21st-century, polytonal work that contains clear motivic elements echoed between solo violin and orchestra. It has jarring rhythms and quick, ascending chromatic scales, which interplay with sudden dissonant tones held in one long bow stroke. It is atmospheric, especially when the percussion accompanies the solo violin passages. Listen at > https://soundcloud.com/farangisnurulla/daidu 2. “Gusto” Form unknown, written for large chamber ensemble Commissioned and premiered by Kammarensemblen during the Stockholm New Music Festival, with the support of the Swedish Art Council Composed in 2012 Running 9:32 “Gusto” is 21st century, polytonal work that contains sliding ascending and descending chromatic scales, increasing and decreasing forcefully in volume throughout the piece. It requires that instruments should be played at the farthest extensions of their ranges. Throughout the pronounced sliding scales, short melodies can be heard, especially in the violins. Listen at > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrWERfSbenM

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja currently resides in Montréal, Quebec, but was born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and is related to the well-known Tajik composer, Ziyodullo Shahidi. She not only earned a Ph.D. of Fine Arts in Composition (2004) from University of Göteborg, Sweden, but has also studied at the University of California in San Diego as well as at IRCAM in Paris. Her early education was in piano at the Ziyodullo Shahidi Special Music School (1979-1990). In addition, she was a researcher in ethnomusicology at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (1992-1993) where she studied both Tajik and Chinese music traditions.

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja (born 1972) is a Tajik-Canadian composer, who explores timbre within her contemporary compositions of symphonic, chamber, vocal, and electro-acoustic music. Among her many honors is a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Composition in 2018.

Nurulla-Khoja has studied with an international array of composers from Ole Lützow-Holm (b. 1954) to Roger Reynolds (b. 1934) and from Brian Ferneyhough (b. 1943) to Philippe Leroux (b. 1953). She was composer in residence at Fondation Royaumont (2005–06), working on the project Maqam et Créations; at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation (2010) in Italy; and at the Experimental Studio (2010–11) in Freiburg, Germany.