Overview
Composer Niccolo Athens (b. 1988) recently completed his bachelor of music in composition at Juilliard, where he studied with Samuel Adler. In 2010, he began the DMA program in composition at Cornell University. He is the recipient of two BMI student composer awards (2006 and 2009). In 2007 he was the winner in the emerging artist category of the American Art Song Competition for Composers. Niccolo attended the Aspen Music Festival in 2008, where he studied with George Tsontakis. During the summer of 2009, he studied composition at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau and attended the Staunton Music Festival in Virginia, which commissioned him to write a song cycle. During the summer of 2010 he participated in the Highpoint music festival in Woodstock, NY. His music has been performed by the San Antonio Symphony, the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, the Juilliard Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Momenta Quartet. He also has scored the broadcast station Ids for WNET Channel 13 and WLIW Channel 21 in New York. Niccolo was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, where he began his studies in composition with Timothy Kramer. Other interests in recent years have included the study of Mandarin Chinese.