Photo by Peter Shin

Aaron Israel Levin is an American composer whose music is guided by the emotional dynamism of storytelling and drama. Drawing from an eclectic range of musical and extra-musical influences––inspired equally by American minimalism and European modernism; Jewish folklore and Italian cinema; urban metropolises and natural landscapes––he creates music that is at once somber and playful, tender and confrontational, lyrical and gestural.

The 2024-26 Vanguard Composer-in-Residence with Chicago Opera Theater, Aaron's music has been performed and commissioned by the Aizuri Quartet, the American Composers Orchestra, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Bent Frequency Duo, confluss duo, the Chelsea Symphony, Fifth House Ensemble, the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, the Iowa Composers Forum, loop38, the Music Teachers National Association, New European Ensemble, Onix Ensamble, Salastina, Sputter Box, and mezzo-sopranos Kayleigh Butcher and Lisa Neher. Passionate about collaboration, Aaron often works with artists in theater, dance, and film. Past collaborators include playwright Christopher Gabriel Nuñez, choreographer Celeste Miller, and filmmaker Harris Gurny. Along with violist Harris Bernstein and composer Soomin Kim, he is the cofounder of the chamber music project Rattlebox Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Aaron’s music has been heard at and presented by the Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), Constellation (Chicago), the DiMenna Center (NYC), the Schubert Club (Saint Paul, MN), Spectrum (NYC), New Music Gathering, ScoreFollower, and the Aspen, Bowdoin, Fresh Inc., Oregon Bach, Red Note, and Source Song festivals. He has also been a fellow with the Blackbird Creative Lab, the Next Festival for Emerging Artists, the New Amsterdam Composers Lab, and at the Young Composers Meeting with the orkest de ereprijs in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Select honors include the Cortona Prize; the Audience Choice Award from the Earshot Underwood New Music Readings with the American Composers Orchestra; the Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival & School; and, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
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Originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota, Aaron is a graduate of Grinnell College (BA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), where he is currently pursuing his DMA. With support from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, he undertook additional studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands. His mentors include Katherine Balch, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Eric McIntyre, Martijn Padding, Jan van de Putte, and Chris Theofanidis.