Amy Nam

Twin Cities-based composer and harpist Amy Nam writes and performs music out of a desire to nourish her own sense of curiosity, as well as that of her listeners. Her musical output responds to the personal discoveries she makes from allowing her mind to roam laterally in undirected exploration of the world.

Recently, the American Composers Orchestra selected Nam’s work Mimi’s Song for their June 2023 EarShot Readings in New York City. In spring of 2023, the chamber ensemble keystring commissioned Nam to create a new work, Desire Lines, for harp and two saxophones, with support from the American Harp Society Grants Program.

In 2020, the Rochester, NY-based ensemble fivebyfive commissioned Nam’s work …of breath and fire through the support of Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning program. In the 2022-23 season, Nam completed a series of residencies with fivebyfive performing this work at universities around New York State.

Nam’s music has received awards from the BMI Foundation, the Eastman School of Music, and the Lyra Society, among others, and her music has been performed, recorded, and workshopped by ensembles including the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, M5 Mexican Brass, the Hats+Heels duo, and the Tennessee Valley Music Festival Orchestra.

Nam teaches harp and composition at Luther College in Decorah, IA. As a harpist, she has appeared as a soloist with the Vanderbilt University Orchestra, the McGill Contemporary Ensemble, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival Orchestra, and the St. Croix Valley Orchestra. This fall she will appear be featured as a soloist with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra.

Nam holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated with first honors as the Blair School of Music’s Founder’s Medalist, McGill University, where she studied harp with Jennifer Swartz and composition with John Rea, and the Eastman School of Music, where she studied composition with David Liptak, Robert Morris, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. www.amynam.com