Her music hailed as “ravishing and engulfing” (New York Times) and of an “uncompromising beauty” (BBC Music Magazine), Gity Razaz writes music ranging from solo concert pieces to large symphonic works. Her compositions have earned her numerous awards, including a 2022 “Rising Star” from BBC Music Magazine and American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Andrew Imbrie Award that “is given to a composer of demonstrated artistic merit in mid-career.”

Recent programming highlights include a world premiere with the San Diego Symphony under the direction of Rafael Payare, a commission from MacArthur Award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein and her “Fragments” project, a commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sakari Oramo for Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, a song cycle for Israeli Chamber Project and GRAMMY Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman, an upcoming commission from Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition’s Grossman Ensemble, and an upcoming concerto for flutist Sharon Bezaly and United Strings of Europe. Other commissions have included a full-length ballet for Ballet Moscow, which still receives regular performances ever since its 2017 world premiere in Moscow, her first short opera commissioned by Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center, and new music for international soloists including violinist Jennifer Koh, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, and violinist Francesca dePasquale.

Ms. Razaz’s debut album, “The Strange Highway,” which was released on Sweden’s preeminent BIS Records, has garnered international praise. As described by BBC Music Magazine, “There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer, the opening title work, for cello octet, is a wild rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”

Ms. Razaz’s music has also been commissioned and/or performed by Seattle Symphony, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, League of the American Orchestras, Metropolis Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale. She has won other awards including Jerome Foundation award, Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, ASCAP Plus Awards, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award for the outstanding composition of the year in 2010 and 2012, as well as special recognition from the Brian Israel Composition Prize, Margaret Blackburn Memorial Competition, and the League of Composers (ISCM).

Aside from her ongoing engagements in composition, Ms. Razaz is also active as a teacher and an educator. She has appeared as a guest artist presenting master classes across the nation while teaching composition privately in New York. Ms. Razaz joined the faculty of Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she taught music theory and ear training in 2012-2013, and served on the advisory committee for the American Federation of Teachers Graduate Scholarship. From 2017-2021, Ms. Razaz offered composition teaching and mentorship for the Luna Composition Lab, a program founded in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center, while holding a teaching artist position at the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program. She is a composition faculty at Mannes School of Music prep division and has served as composer and jurist for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition.

Iranian-American composer Gity Razaz started her musical studies in piano at a young age and began composing music at age nine. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition from The Juilliard School. She has studied with Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and John Corigliano.