About PSK
Princeton Sound Kitchen (PSK) is a vital forum for the creation of new music. Serving the graduate student and faculty composers of the renowned composition program at The Department of Music at Princeton University, PSK presents a wide variety of concerts and events.
Join us to create, join us to play, join us to listen.
Creation
Photo: Larry Levanti
Graduate student composers, as part of formal study, bring works-in-progress to lessons with the renowned and award-winning composers on faculty in the Department of Music at Princeton University, and are mentored through the writing, development, and presentation of new works.
Connecting & Workshopping
Photo: Larry Levanti
Princeton Sound Kitchen is the organization that brings the new student and faculty works to life
by connecting composers to professional performers for collaborations
by arranging workshops to develop new material
by presenting the completed works in concerts and events.
Live Performance
Photo: Larry Levanti
Some PSK concerts are eclectic, and feature numerous soloists or groups and a mix of instrumentation, while others focus on a particular outstanding chamber ensemble. All demonstrate the extraordinary range of interests and abilities of the Princeton composers, many of whom take the stage themselves as performers of their own and others' music. At a PSK concert, one might encounter improvisation, electronics, video, vernacular music, theatrical elements, or any number of other approaches.
Communal Concerts
Photo by David Kelly Crow
Concerts are free and open to the public and PSK strives to share the music of the next generation of composers with the local community of Princeton, Mercer County, and surrounding Central New Jersey.
Documentation
Photo: Larry Levanti
All PSK events are professionally documented with audio- and video-recordings, which are then made available to the composers and ensembles, who can disseminate the work freely.
Collaborating Ensembles
PSK collaborations can live on beyond the concert presentation of the new works. Composers and performers frequently develop ongoing relationships; the performers may add the new PSK work to their repertoire, seek out other work by the same composer, or even commission new works.
To the early-career composer, these relationships and opportunities are invaluable, and can provide the first steady steps on the winding journey through a life in music.
The Sound Chefs
Nathalie Joachim
Interim Director
Donnacha Dennehy
Director
(on sabbatical)
Wally Gunn
Program Coordinator and Production Manager
Michael Pratt
Resident Conductor