An American composer born in 1973, Amy Scurria grew up singing in church choirs, madrigal groups and performing at the piano, including her own compositions as early as age 11. By 17 she had received several piano performance awards and was the winner of the 1991 Northern Virginia Composition Competition. Scurria earned a Bachelor in Music Composition from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, TX. Her music was performed frequently at Rice and was highlighted at a concert for a National Conference celebrating Women in the Arts in 1995. Her music was also performed at the Aspen Music Festival in 1994 where she pursued further study in composition as well as in Paris at La Schola Cantorum in 1999. She went on to earn a Masters in Music Compositioin from the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she studied under Chen Yi and Robert Sirota. She became the 1998 Haddonfield Young Composers Winner with Beyond All Walking. She is currently working towards a PhD in music composition at Duke University where she studies with Anthony Kelley and Stephen Jaffe.

Scurria has been commissioned by: the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Vermont Youth Orchestra, LongLeaf Opera Company, several choirs including Youth Pro Musica, the Shepherd College Concert Choir, SHE, and Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Choir. She has had performances with all of the above organizations including the Richmond Symphony, the Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra, the Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra, the Hewlett Packard Symphony, and other performances throughout the U.S., England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France and Japan.

Ms. Scurria believes that “Music is a powerful and unusual language that, when spoken well, can reach the deepest part of the human spirit.”