BIOGRAPHY

Identity has always been at the center of the music of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972), who was included in The Washington Post’s 2017 list of the 35 most significant women composers in history. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Moreover, she writes, “There’s usually a story line behind my music; a scenario or character.”

Winner of a Latin Grammy and nominated for Grammys as both composer and pianist, Gabriela also holds a Guggenheim Fellowship and a USA Artist Fellowship given each year to fifty of the country’s finest artists. In 2017, Frank founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in Boonville, California, which provides mentorship, readings-to-premieres residencies, and commissions for emerging composers from diverse backgrounds in addition to fostering public school programs in low-arts rural public schools. She is a graduate of Rice University in Houston, BA and MA, and the University of Michigan, DMA in Composition.