Photo by Peter Shin

Aaron Israel Levin writes music that is guided by the emotional dynamism of storytelling and drama. He draws from a variety of musical and non-musical influences – including film, theater, and performance art – to create compositions that are both personal and wide-ranging. Aaron’s music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Bent Frequency Duo, the Chelsea Symphony, Fifth House Ensemble, loadbang, the Yale Philharmonia, mezzo-sopranos Kayleigh Butcher and Lisa Neher, and percussionists Dmitrii Nilov and Sam Um.

Passionate about collaboration, Aaron frequently works with artists in theater, dance, and film, including playwright Christopher Gabriel Nùñez, choreographer Celeste Miller, and filmmaker Harris Gurney. In 2019, Aaron was selected to take part in the Underwood New Music Readings with the American Composers Orchestra under conductor Ludovic Morlot, and was subsequently awarded their Audience Choice Commission. His music has been heard across the country at Spectrum (NYC), Constellation (Chicago), New Music Gathering 2020, and the Bowdoin, Fresh Inc., Oregon Bach, and Source Song festivals. In 2021, Aaron will attend the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival under Stephen Hartke and Chris Theofanidis. Additionally, he was recently selected to partake in the Red Note New Music Festival, the New Amsterdam Records Composers Lab, and the Young Composers Meeting with the orkest de ereprijs in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Aaron is also the recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Aaron is a graduate of Grinnell College (B.A.) where he studied with Eric McIntyre and John Rommereim, and the Yale School of Music (M.M.) where his teachers included Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Hannah Lash, and Chris Theofanidis.