Erin Huelskamp

Energetic, hardworking and enigmatic, Erin Huelskamp, composer/director, creates dramatic and comical music that often reflects a philosophical twist on her daily experiences. Co-founder and executive director of the Juventas New Music Ensemble, Ms. Huelskamp voraciously promotes new music – especially by amazing unknown composers – and she strives to draw ever new audiences to the sounds of the 21st century. Marked by Chamber Music Today as “the only realistic response” to the “the state of affairs in this country”, Ms. Huelskamp combines entrepreneurship, theatre and music to motivate change.

Ms. Huelskamp’s compositions elicit numerous awards and performances. Noted as “startling revelatory” and “electrifying”, recent accolades include the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize, special recognition from the New York Youth Symphony First Music 23, and third place at the Music Teachers National Association Student Composition Competition. Ms. Huelskamp has had the privilege of performances both nationally and internationally, including such venues as L’Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, France, Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College in Maine, the Interlochen Acadamy of the Arts in Michigan, Bard University in New York, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Harvard University, and many more.

Shortly after the completion of her first opera, Ms. Huelskamp delved into directing theatrical works. Her production of Little Women with the Wakefield Reportory Theatre won a DASH award for Best Actress, and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change with the TCAN Players was nominated for a DASH award for Best Ensemble. Her staging of the world premiere opera Light and Power won second place in the Professional Division of the National Opera Association’s video competition, and her setting of Der Zwerg with OperaHub took special notice in The Boston Globe. Additional, favorite directing credits include Candide with Harvard University’s Lowell House Opera, Aida with the Performing Arts Connection, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown with Beyond the Fourth Wall.

Trained as a classical dancer for 16 years, Ms. Huelskamp began composing at the age of ten with no musical training. In 2000 she pursued studies in music at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she earned a Bachelor of Music in both composition and flute performance; she studied composition with Thomas McKenney and Stefan Freund and flute with Steven Geibel. In 2007, Ms. Huelskamp completed a Master of Music in Composition from the Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Andy Vores, Dana Brayton, and later Ken Ueno. She currently studies acting with Bobbie Steinbach.

Ms. Huelskamp maintains a private teaching studio in addition to serving as a certified teacher at the Performing Arts Connection in Sudbury and professor of music theory at Boston College. Currently, she resides in Brighton, Massachusetts. ()