Mary Kouyoumdjian

Position
Assistant Professor of Composition
Affiliated Departments

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Mary Kouyoumdjian joined the Conservatory in 2021 and is an assistant professor of composition.

Kouyoumdjian is a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations. As a first-generation Armenian-American with family ​directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. A strong believer in freedom of speech and the arts as an amplifier of expression, her compositional work often integrates recorded testimonies with resilient individuals, field recordings of place, and aims to invite empathy by humanizing complex experiences around social and political conflict.

She has received commissions for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Beth Morrison Projects, Bang on a Can, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, American Composers Forum, Roomful of Teeth, Experiments in Opera, and Helen Simoneau Danse, among others. Her work has been performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, MoMA, MASS MoCA, Barbican Centre, BAM, Millennium Park, Prototype Festival, New York Philharmonic Biennial, Cabrillo Festival, and Big Ears Festival. Her music has been described as “eloquently scripted" and "emotionally wracking” by the New York Times and as "politically fearless" and "the most harrowing moments on stage at any New York performance" by New York Music Daily.

Kouyoumdjian holds a D.M.A and M.A. in Composition from Columbia University, an M.A. in Scoring for Film and Multimedia from New York University, and a B.A. in Music Composition from University of California San Diego. Previous teaching positions include Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and The New School. She is a co-founder of New Music Gathering and is published by Schott's PSNY.