Artist Bio
Pamela Madsen is a composer, performer, theorist and curator of new music. From her massive landscape inspired projects and intimate chamber music creations, to her multi-media opera collaborations and immersive deep listening works she has created a body of work focusing on sound and the environment. With awards from National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, MacDowell Colony, Ucross and Meet the Composer, her works have been commissioned and premiered world-wide.
With a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCSD, doctoral studies in Music Theory at Yale University, Post-Doctoral Researcher at IRCAM (Institute for Research in Computers, Acoustics and Music) in Paris, and Certificate in Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros, she is currently curator of the Annual CSUF New Music Festival, Director of the New Music Ensemble and InterArts Collaborative Projects at Cal State Fullerton where she is Professor of Music Composition and Theory.
“I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord
that the wind strikes upon the tree branches.
Have you ever heard the earth breathe?”
Awards & Accolades
Honorable Mention | Katy Abbott Prize, IAWM (2026)
Residency | MacDowell Artist Fellowship Residency (2025)
Residency | Copland House Residency Award (2025)
Research Fellow | Huntington Library Mellon Foundation (2023-2024)
Grant | Opera American Discovery Award (2022)
Grant | National Endowment for the Arts-Art Work Award (2022)
Residency | Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Award (2021)
Artist-in-Residence | Laguna Beach Artist Alliance (2020-2022)
Grant | New Music USA Award (2020)
Grant | American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant (2020)
Visiting Researcher | Royal Danish Academy of Music (2019-2020)
Research Fellow | Women’s International Studies Center (WISC) (2019)
Residency | MacDowell Artist Fellowship Residency (2019)
Residency | UCross Artists Residency Award (2019)
Grant | National Endowment for the Arts-Project Award (2017)
Grant | New Music USA Project Award (2017)
Guest Composer | Russian Tour-Music Across Borders Tour (2017)
Composer-in-Residence | Mojave Desert Preserve, ZZYZX (2016-2019)
Featured Artist | Creative Capital’s “On Our Radar”, Brooklyn Academy of Music (2016)
Artist-in-Residence | Crystal Cove Alliance (2014)
Composer-in-Residence | University of Colorado, Colorado Spring (2012)
Award | Vox Novus’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame (2011)
Residency | Envisioning the Future Artist Residency Award, Los Angeles (2003)
Residency | Arcosanti Artist Residency Award (2003)
