Biography
Melody Eötvös (1984) was born in the Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia. From the age of
five she studied piano and music theory under her parent’s tutelage and at eight began
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learning the cello which coincided with her first experimentations in composition.
Eötvös attended the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, studying
composition with Stephen Leek and Dr. Gerardo Dirié during which time she won the
Collusion Composition Prize (2005), and had various successes with competitions such as
the National Keys Competition (2003) and the Gold Coast Composition Competition (2001).
She was a participant in the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra Composers Workshop
(2009), the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Composers School (2008 & 2009), and the
Modart09 Professional Development Project with the Sydney Song Company, directed by
Roland Peelman (2009). In 2010 Melody was selected for the National Composers Forum in
Adelaide Australia which included the premiere of her first String Quartet ‘Olber’s Dance in
the Dark’ by the Australian String Quartet, and the revision of which has gone on to win the
Kuttner String Quartet Prize (US), as well as a follow up commission from ASQ in 2011.
In addition to these Melody has also been awarded the APRA Professional Development
Classical Award in Sydney, the 3MBS National Composers Award, Soundstream National
Composer Award (2012), a winner of the Gallipoli Songs composition competition (2014),
the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commission administered by the League of
American Orchestras & the EarShot Foundation (world premiere: Carnegie Hall October
23rd 2015), and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra International
Composition Competition (2016). She has participated in numerous festivals and workshops
internationally, the most recent being a collaboration with Musica Viva Australia, the Red
Room and Claire Edwardes in Sydney Australia (2013-15), the ACO Underwood New
Music Readings (NYC), and the Aspen Music Festival and School (CO, 2015). Past teachers
include Simon Bainbridge, David Dzubay, and Claude Baker.
Current commissions include a percussion and choral work for Synergy Percussion + Vox
(November 2016, Sydney), the Chou's composition award commission (October 2016,
China), and personal commissions for Guy Yehuda (MA) & Michi Theurer (CO), as well as
being a composer resident at the Aaron Copland House in May 2016. At present she is also
a Lecturer of Music at the Jacobs School of Music Indiana University.
Melody holds a Doctor of Music (2014) from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
USA, and a Master of Music (2008) from the Royal Academy of Music, London UK.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.