Nina C. Young featured in New York Times review

USC Thornton Composition faculty member Nina C. Young premiered a new composition as a part of the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19 concert series on Feb. 5. Young’s piece, “Tread Softly,” premiered on the opening night of the series, and was featured by The New York Times.

Young, a composer and sound artist who joined the Thornton faculty in 2019, is known for her experimental sounds. For “Tread Softly,” she sought to reflect the cycles of progress and backlash in women’s fight for suffrage with patterns of melodies that continue to build and dissipate. The New York Times wrote: “Steady rhythmic pulses creep in almost unnoticed at first, but take hold as waves of sounds grow in density and darkness. Fragments of phrases attempt to coalesce into melodic lines but dissipate. Eventually, this initial whirl of music does give way — less, to my ears, because it is “shut down” than because it segues into another wondrous sound world.”