Sabrina Peña Young

Sabrina Peña Young is an American composer, percussionist, and author. Her work Creation won the New Genre Prize from the 2011 International Alliance for Women in Music Search for New Music.^[1]

A strong advocate for women composers, she curated the 2011 and 2012 Athena 60x60 Mix with Vox Novus director Robert Voisey. The 60x60 Athena mix contains 60 one-minute works form 60 different female composers. She has also created a video for the 2011 60x60 Athena mix to create a multimedia performance.

Her multimedia works have been performed at the Beijing Conservatory, the International Computer Music Conference, Miramax's Project Greenlight, the Athena Festival, the New York International Independent Film Festival, Art Basil Miami, Turkey's Cinema for Peace, and Pulsefield International Exhibition of Sound Art.

Works

As a composer

In 2013 Young released Libertaria: The Virtual Opera, a 55-minute machinima movie with original script, soundtrack and animated visuals all created by Young herself. The title "Virtual Opera" refers to the fact that there were no real-world rehearsals and the cast contributed their recordings from around the world via the internet. The movie can be viewed online and there is an accompanying soundtrack recording and novelisation available.

As an author

In 2016 Young self-published Composer Boot Camp 101: 50 Exercises for Educators, Students and Music Professionals, a book of composition exercises from beginner to expert level covering 5 topics: "inspiration", "melody", "rhythm", "harmony" and "orchestration".^[2] Speaking of the book Young says "I decided to “demystify” writing music by putting together a helpful music workbook that any musician or teacher could pick up to practically learn how to write music."^[3]

References