Sarah Rimkus

  • Composer

Sarah Rimkusis an award-winning American composer of choral, vocal and chamber works. She brings a wide range of influences to her music, from ars antiqua and ars nova polyphony to Balkan and Scandinavian folk traditions and many other sources. Her work often explores issues such as communication, belonging, and conflict through use of contemporary themes and musical layering and contradiction. Her music has been described as “powerful and well-judged” with a language that “ranges from uncluttered lyrical poignancy to denser textures that suggest a holy clamor.” Her choral and vocal works have been commissioned and performed extensively across the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere by ensembles such as The Esoterics and The Gesualdo Six. Much of her inspiration in her choral works come from her inventive text choices. She has also written instrumental works for performers and organizations including The Ligeti Quartet, Cheltenham Music Festival and Red Note Ensemble. Her works have been professionally recorded by ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic and featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Her works received approximately one hundred performances worldwide in 2019, and she has been internationally recognized through awards such as the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein award, and a number of others. Dr. Rimkus is currently an instructor at Michigan Technological University teaching composition and music fundamentals. She received her music composition PhD from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2019. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she is currently based in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan.