Keynote Speakers

Scott Ordway (b. 1984, California) is an American composer and multimedia artist whose widely acclaimed work spans music, text, photography, and film. His compositions have been described as “exquisite” (New York Times), “hypnotic” (BBC), and “a marvel” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and have been presented at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Stanford Live, and major festivals in the US, Europe, and Asia.
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Ordway’s work explores the relationship between slowness, stillness, and emotional intensity. Rooted in the classical tradition but radically open in form and tone, his compositions fuse text, sound, image, and memory to evoke a sense of longing, loss, and connection — especially to the natural world and to one another. Influenced by artists of stillness and scale — from Gustav Mahler to Hiroshi Sugimoto, and shaped by the emotional directness of underground indie and post-hardcore music — his work privileges duration and resonance over virtuosity or display. His recent projects increasingly integrate live electronics and solo performance.

His work is supported by numerous awards, fellowships, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, NewMusicUSA, the American Composers Orchestra, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, American Music Center, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, American Composers Forum, and American Opera Projects, where he was a Fellow. A recipient of the Tuttle Creative Residency Award from Haverford College’s Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, he has also been invited for several residencies. He is currently an Associate Professor and Head of Music Composition at Rutgers University, having previously taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and Bates College.