Biography

Baljinder Singh Sekhon, II began his musical studies in percussion when he was seven years old and started composing when he was thirteen. A versatile composer whose award winning music ranges from works for full orchestra to gamelan ensemble to concert band, Baljinder Sekhon has received significant praise wherever his works have been performed.

Winner of the 2006 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP and the 2007 Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize from the Eastman School of Music, Sekhon is also the laureate of the 2007 Barbara B. Smith Composition Commission for best new work for Gamelan, the 2008 Belle Gitelman Award, and received honorable mention for the 2006 Frederick Fennell Prize for best new work for Concert Band from ASCAP and the College Band Directors National Association.

Recent and upcoming performances of commissioned works include the premiere of Gradient for Saxophone and Piano at the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance’s Biennial Convention and the premiere of Pitch-Dark Path for Horn and String Quintet at the New World Symphony’s Musicians’ Forum chamber music series in April 2008. Sekhon was recently commissioned by Musica Nova, under the direction of Brad Lubman, to compose a new work to celebrate the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter. Winner of the 2008 Boehmler Foundation Commissioning Prize, Baljinder Sekhon will compose a new work for Wind Quintet and Concert Band for performance in 2009. Also for 2008/2009, Sekhon will compose a new work for Oboe and Four Percussionists to be premiered at Arizona State University, pianist Zuzanna A. Szewczyk will premier a new solo piano work, and the Eastman School of Music’s Composers’ Sinfonietta will perform a work for large chamber ensemble.

Baljinder Sekhon has been awarded a fellowship to attend the 2008 Composers Conference at Wellesley College, where his new work Little Bel for Sinfonietta will receive its premiere. Sekhon was also a fellow at the 2006 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Institute.

Currently a PhD candidate in composition at the Eastman School of Music, Baljinder Sekhon has recently performed at the Festival Spaziomusica in Cagliari, Italy as a member of the Eastman Broadband Ensemble. He also performs regularly with the Ossia New Music Ensemble of which he currently serves as President. At Eastman, he has taught Introduction to Computer Music, Advanced Computer Music, and he will begin teaching Composition for Non-Majors in the Fall of 2009.