Daria Semegen

Associate Professor; Composition, Theory and Electronic Music Composition
Director of the Electronic Music Studio
Daria.Semegen@stonybrook.edu

Daria Semegen is a composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. As a recognized pioneer and authority on electronic music composition, she has been the subject of many articles and several dissertations including A. E. Hinkle-Turner's doctoral dissertation "Daria Semegen: A Study of the Composer's Life", Work and Music (University of Illinois-Urbana). Semegen's writings on creative process, esthetics and pedagogy have been published in the U.S. and abroad. She studied at the Eastman School of Music, in mixed-media workshops at the Rochester Institute of Technology, at Yale and Columbia Universities and in Warsaw, Poland as a Fulbright fellow. She taught at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from 1971-1975 and was a sound engineer at the Collection of World Music (Columbia University) working with field recordings of native musics from many continents. Her awards include six National Endowment for the Arts grants, two BMI awards, two awards from Yale University, a National Chamber Music Competition prize, an ISCM International Electronic Music Competition prize; fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood and Chautauqua; a Pennsylvania Institute for the Arts & Humanistic Studies award; and the 1994 Alumni Achievement Award from Eastman School of Music. Prof. Semegen was the first woman awarded a McKim Commission from the Library of Congress. Semegen was awarded the 2009 Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement from the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership. Recordings of her music include Rhapsody (for Yamaha MIDI grand piano), Electronic Composition No. 1; Arc (electronic/dance); Spectra, Music for Violin Solo; Jeux de Quatres.. Other works include Arabesque(electronic), Vignette (piano), Elegy-Caprice (toy piano- for J.Cage) , Epicycles (electronic/dance); Triptych (orchestra), Dans la Nuit (baritone & orchestra), Lieder (soprano & ensemble); virtuoso solo works including violin, contrabass and clarinet solos. A performance of Daria Semegen’s work “Bargello” for electronic sounds with live instrument(s) features Dylan Ebrahimian with electric violin improvisation and Monica Bello on effects pedal.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztM2uHbqZlU

Keynote presenter at Columbia Computer Music Center’s 2021 “Unsung Stories”,

International Symposium with attention to inclusion, equity and diversity. Cosponsored by the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music, The Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality; the Computer Music Center at Columbia University, the Sound Art Program at Columbia University, and the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

https://cmc.music.columbia.edu/unsung-stories

Columbia University Symposium keynote and panels videos: https://www.unsungstoriescmc.com/symposium

Daria Semegen: Arabesque, analog electronic music, released on Currents CD album of the American Composers Alliance, NYC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPEO0Ipsbw

During 1990-1999 Daria Semegen was commissions coordinator for the World Premieres Concert series presented by the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players (CCP) at Stony Brook and in New York City. She helped to establish the World Premieres Concert as an annual event in collaboration with the group's directors, distinguished performing artists Raymond DesRoches and Gilbert Kalish.