About Camila
An Avid collaborator, Camila Agosto is an electroacoustic composer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator currently based in New York City. Her recent work and research has been inspired by linked concepts of memory, perception, psychoacoustics, and somatic experiences. Her music explores how we perceive and process sound and physical vibration, and how these stimuli impact us on physiological, mental, and emotional levels. In her work, Camila partners with other musicians, visual artists, choreographers, instrument builders, and creators to discover intersections of her work with additional artistic fields. Her music is both fully notated and improvisational, with an emphasis on the exploration of different timbral and textural elements. Within her works, Camila is interested in uncovering the sonic potentialities of acoustic instruments through highlighting and exposing the human element of live performance. Her projects range from acoustic and electroacoustic concert works, to interdisciplinary projects incorporating visual media and dance, to fixed media works. Storytelling and sharing histories is an integral part of her work and is used to construct worlds and soundscapes to explore difficult concepts in an effort to create more spaces for healing.
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Camila was honored to be the youngest fellow to be accepted to the American Academy in Berlin and is a recipient of the Fall 2023 Berlin Prize and Deutsche Bank Fellowship in Music Composition from the Academy. She was featured in a portrait concert in Berlin this past Fall which included the world premiere of three new works. Her music has been featured by Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, National Sawdust, Symphony Space, Roulette Intermedium, Kasser Theatre, New Latin Wave Festival, Bar Harbor Music Festival, North American Saxophone Alliance, Atlantic Music Festival, FETA FM Festival, Sala Neumann, Blanton Art Gallery, Boston Public Library, International Saxophone Symposium, Arété Gallery, Maison Française at Columbia University, Spectrum, Tenri Cultural Institute, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music (SEAMUS), Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and KINDL-Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, and has been commissioned and performed by leading artists including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Quartet121, Semiosis Quartet, Berrow Duo, Ensemble Échappé, to name a few. A finalist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic National Composer Intensive, her music was featured at the Walt Disney Concert Hall during the LA Phil's Noon to Midnight Series. Camila often works with visual artists, choreographers, and film directors on a variety of multimedia projects. Past collaborations include imprint, an electroacoustic installation piece commissioned by Berrow Duo, featuring projected visual media and artwork created by artists from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Photo: Martine Thomas
In recent projects, Camila has designed and constructed various instruments and performative installation pieces to use in her compositional work. Upcoming projects include a new work for voice, viola, cello and electronics exploring the integration of text, live composition, improvisation and custom instruments, and new works for fixed media fusing field recordings, acoustic and electronic music. Most recent projects include Paracusia IV; a continuation of a multi-movement, concert-length program scored for solo saxophone and live electronics co-commissioned with Justin Massey, with a grant awarded from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Memory of Water Vol. 1; a multi-piece project created in collaboration with violist and poet, Martine Thomas, exploring the integration of text, live composition, improvisation, electronics and custom instruments, as well as gather; a new work for small ensemble commissioned by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
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In the summer of 2020, Camila became a certified yoga instructor and created the Meristem Artist Retreat, a virtual space for artists of marginalized genders to meet a variety of artists across different disciplines while learning holistic and balanced practices to help them sustain a healthy artistic life. Since then, Camila has founded Meristem Artists, to extend this work outside of the retreat. Through her work with Meristem Artists, she has directed a series of artist retreats and community events including open discussions on topics central to creating arts today, artist talks with invited guests across the contemporary music community, yoga and meditation sessions, and additional holistic activities to stimulate healthy and positive creative practices. She has also developed and led a wellness workshop series through the Columbia University Computer Music Center, the Meristem Artist summer retreats, and was an invited guest presenter at the Ensemble Evolution summer sessions led by the International Contemporary Ensemble.
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Camila is currently an ABD doctoral candidate at Columbia University in Music Composition. She holds a Master’s degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelors in Music from Montclair State University. Her teachers include Zosha Di Castri, Seth Cluett, Brad Garton, George Lewis, Oscar Bettison, Marcos Balter and Du Yun. She has also worked with Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Sabrina Schroeder, Amy Williams, and Juraj Kojs. Camila has been a composition fellow at the Cortona Sessions for New Music, the New Music on the Point Festival, the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, and most recently at the American Academy in Berlin. A recipient of the Randolph S. Rothschild Scholarship, Camila has also received awards from the Marshall M. Williams Endowment, Isobel and Tom Rolston Fellowship in Music Endowment, Diversity Provost Fellowship, Repsol Emerging Artist Award, and the Sorel Organization.​​