BETHANY YOUNGE



COMPOSER | SOUND ARTIST











WHO


Bethany Younge is a composer and performer whose work interrogates the physicality of music-making, merging acoustic and electronic sound with the visceral presence of the performer. Her pieces often employ instrumental deconstruction, motion-activated technologies, sounding costumes, and choreographed movement to amplify the body’s role in musical expression. Propulsive rhythms and uneven grooves collide with extended techniques, creating a tactile, kinetic sound world that teeters between control and abandon.

Currently Technical Director and Core Lecturer at Dartmouth College, Younge has been commissioned and performed by festivals worldwide, including National Sawdust (New Works Commission), Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Darmstadt International Summer Course, Resonant Bodies Festival, Long Beach Opera, and Frequency Festival. She has collaborated with ensembles such as JACK Quartet, TAK Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, ASKO|Schönberg, Fonema Consort, and Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, among others across the U.S. and Europe.

Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Award, a Fromm Commission, the Kanter/Mivos Prize, the Barcelona Mixtur Commission, a Stipend Prize from Darmstadt, and the Dublin Sound Lab Commission, along with a Gaudeamus Award nomination.

Reactivated Anatomies (2025)


for 3 voices, automated costume-instruments, and analog synthesizer electronics
30’ WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE VERSION performed at Dartmouth College
Charlotte Mundy, Anaïs Maviel, and Charles Peoples III

Reactivated Anatomies explores themes of ecological collapse, posthumanist-cyborg futures, and atavistic re-imaginings. The piece has already undergone a workshop performance, revealing its core ideas while also highlighting the need for far greater expansion into a fully immersive experience. After years of composing 10-minute commissioned ensemble pieces, Reactivated Anatomies represents an opportunity to compose an evening-length work entirely of my own fruition, refined for years to come. The workshop iteration demonstrated the potential of the vocal and electronic interplay, with the performers’ extended techniques—ranging from chest-voice singing to guttural utterances—merging with synthesized textures to create a visceral soundworld.



WATCH EXCERPTS

BEYOND SPECIES (2024)



SEATTLE MODERN ORCHESTRA


All instrumentalists approach their instruments with a percussive sensibility, engaging in a mode reminiscent of childlike exploration, reaching back to imagined ancestral encounters with sound.
In this approach, the stringed instruments are not bound to the bow, nor do wind instruments necessarily rely on breath. Performers are encouraged to perform on secondary (or beater) instruments.

In contrast, a select few members of the spatialized ensemble engage in choreographed movements that activate a thin, long metal sheet with transducers attached. Functioning as capacitive touch sensors, the metal sheets play back samples from Memory Moog synthesizer when touched by the performer. As the performer manipulates the sheets, the quasi- Medieval music is filtered and spatialized. This mode of engagement is a reaching forwards to imagined futures of engagements with sound.

WATCH



UNDERGROWTH / POLKA (2023)


LUX:NM


Polka as disruption; polka as resistance; polka as unworlding. The electronics (samples taken from the MemoryMoog synthesizer) shape the raw instrumental sounds, guiding them from the chthonic undergrowth to a vibrant and evolving matter. As the music further materializes, it mutates its character several times before gaining momentum and driving towards willful collapse. In the rubble lies the undergrowth for another, perhaps improved, potential pulsating entity.

LISTEN

ALL OTHER WORKS

//ATAVIST I (2023) for 3 performers + tape
Includes a visual score, audio score, and video instructions

//ATAVIST II (2023) for 4 performers and electronics

Stardust as Body (2023) for clarinet, viola, cello, and doublebass + feet
composed for Michael Veltman ensemble

Organs of Another (2022) for percussionist with a body
composed for Jennifer Torrence

Proto-Maker (2022) for harpsichord and home-made percussion instrument
composed for Two Envelopes

You, Penumbra, Me (2022) for Chamber Ensemble + electronics
composed for Wild Up!

Feast of Selves (2021) for guitar, double bass, harpsichord, percussion + electronics
composed for Fonema Consort

To Touch is to Feel Oneself Being Touched (2020) for clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and electric guitar + electronics
composed for Distractfold Ensemble

I’ll Bleed Your Lines (2020) for Chamber Ensemble
composed for 113 Composers Collective

Thus We Dine (2020)for soprano, springboard, and oscillator

Limbs/Uttered/Spirits/Neglected/Flesh (2020) for clarinet, cello, and piano
composed for National Sawdust Ensemble

Feet to Roots, Eyes to Ears (2020) for soprano + electronics
composed for Nina Dante for the Longbeach Opera

I’M NOT MINE (2020) 
self-produced album 

At Midnight I walked into the Middle of the Desert (2019) for soprano, flute, bass clarinet, violin, and percussion + electronics
composed for TAK Ensemble

    version for solo percussion

Where Waste Piles (2019) for soprano and violin
composed for Shepherdess Duo

I’d Like to Shed Your Skin Now (2019) for brass ensemble
composed for TILT Brass

Alamargo (2018) for soprano and electronics
composed for Nina Dante

Carving Our Wooden Bodies (2018) for string quartet
composed for Jack Quartet

Yappy Pace (2017) for two percussionists with voices and DIY machines
composed for Bonnie Whiting and Jennifer Torrence

NOBODY’S (2017) for two trombonists + foot keyboard
composed for RAGE THORMBONES

Oxygen and Reality (2017) for flute, balloons + electronics
composed for Laura Cocks

Ing ing ing ing ing ing ing ing ing ing ing into (2017) for violin and viola + electronics
composed for Andplay Duo

Crisscrossed with Corrections (2016) for accordion, saxophone, and percussion
composed for Gyre Ensemble

Bodyscape (2016) for soprano, bass flute, oboe, and percussion + no-input mixer and video
composed for Fonema Consort

Orbits (2016) for flute, bass clarinet, percussion + choreagraphed movement
composed for MOCREP

Electric Speak!Junk for me! (2016) for percussionist with a voice

Speech Factory (2015) for four human speakers

Her I Is She This (2015) for recorder, doublebass, percussion 
composed for MOCREP

Her Dissappearance (2015) for two vocalists + PVC pipe 
composed for Kayleigh Butcher and self

She Lapsed 12 Times into Feigned Lines (2015) for five movers
composed for MOCREP

Waters-water-waters (2015) for string trio
composed for Chartreuse Trio

Beyond Semiotics (2015) for flutist with a voice

Concrete (2015) for pianist with a voice

Doublespeak (2015) for soprano, clarinet, and percussion



CONTACT
BETHANY(DOT)YOUNGE(AT)GMAIL(DOT)COM

SCORES AND MATERIALS CAN BE PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM COMPOSER
OR FROM BABELSCORES





HOMEPAGE