Katherine Balch (b.1991) writes music that seeks to capture the intimate details of existence through sound. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the Tokyo, Albany, and Minnesota Symphony Orchestras, the MANCA festival, Contemporaneous, New York Youth Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain, ICE, Alea III, Antico Moderno, FLUX Quartet, New York Virtuoso Singers, Yale Philharmonia, American Modern Ensemble, wildUp and others in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and Wiener Konzerthaus. She has been recognized by fellowships from Fontainebleau, Aspen and Norfolk music festivals, a BMI student composer award, several ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, New England Conservatory’s Donald Martino Prize, Fontainebleau’s Prix du Composition, grand prize in the International Society of Bassists Composition Competition, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and letters, Yale’s Alumni Association Prize and the Woods Chandler Memorial Prize. Katherine is California Symphony’s 2017-2020 composer-in-residence. She is managed by Young Concert Artists, Inc., where she currently holds the William B. Butz composition chair. 

Katherine completed her B.M/ B.A in the Tufts/ New England Conservatory double degree program and her M.M at Yale School of Music, where she studied with Aaron Kernis, Chris Theofanidis, and David Lang. She is currently pursuing her D.M.A at Columbia University, studying with Georg Haas. When not making or listening to music, she can be found baking, collecting leaves, and playing with her cat, Zarathustra.