Awards

Marshall Scholar - 2011

Beinecke Scholar - 2009

About Elizabeth A. Ogonek

Raised by a single mother who spent long hours in church as an organist, Elizabeth Ogonek enrolled in Manhattan School of Music's Preparatory Division at age 5. Later, she began studying piano at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Mass., where she discovered her love for composition. That inspired her wish to become a classical composer, focusing on music that creates a distinct sense of drama, imagery and color. She's shared that gift with underprivileged children and prisoners, projects she said helped her understand music's capacity to move the human spirit and gave her a renewed sense of duty as an artist-citizen. Ogonek anticipates using her Marshall Scholarship to study composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Ogonek graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Jacobs School of Music in December 2009 and is studying for a master's in composition at the University of California's Thornton School of Music on a Beinecke Scholarship. She is the recipient of several awards from ASCAP, the 2010 Dean's Prize from Indiana University, the 2010 PACO Youth-for-Youth Commission and a fellowship from the Wellesley Composers Conference. She has received commissions from the Brillaner Duo, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, horn player Alma Maria Liebrecht and the Deviant Septet. Her music has been performed by the Indiana University Concert Orchestra, the Wellesley Sinfonietta, Dinosaur Annex, the Brillaner Duo, members of eighth blackbird and the Britten-Pears Ensemble. Her chamber orchestra piece Ringing the Quiet will receive its official premiere in the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival.